San Jose Sharks
NHL Scouts Talk Day 2 of Sharks’ 2025 Draft
LOS ANGELES — How did the rest of the league view Day 2 of the San Jose Sharks’ 2025 Draft?
San Jose Hockey How solicited three NHL scouts, none with the Sharks, for their opinions about San Jose’s second-day selections, Haoxi (Simon) Wang, Cole McKinney, Teddy Mutryn, Ilyas Magomedsultanov, Zack Sharp, Max Heise, and Richard Gallant.
Haoxi (Simon) Wang
The No. 33 pick of the 2025 Draft, Wang is the highest Chinese-born selection in NHL history.
The 6-foot-6 left-hander, who started playing hockey seriously at 14, is a project, but he’s got a ton of potential.
“Huge, good skater, physical, tries to play intimidating and in-your-face. Solid defense,” Scout #1 said.
It sounds like his calling card might be more of a high-end shutdown defenseman.
“[Not much] offense. Skills and sense are questionable,” Scout #1 said.
He does believe that Wang will learn to make a strong first pass at the NHL level.
Wang is ticketed to suit up for the OHL’s Oshawa Generals this coming season, then Boston University in 2026-27.
Wang might take a while to get to the NHL but considering how much he’s improved since he was 14, he might be well worth the wait for the Sharks.
Read the Full Article at NBC Sports Bay Area
Simon Wang’s projected development timeline reminds me of Pohlkamp’s. It has been about 3 years, if I remember correctly? When do we think he will be ready to turn pro? I remember being excited about him after seeing him play during Dev / Training camp. Very happy about how this draft played out though! Aw man, Misa on the power play with everyone else sounds fantastic.
Pohlkamp is going to be the #1 Dman at Denver this year and if things go well, could possibly make a debut with either the Sharks or the Cuda after NCAA’s
Wang himself mentioned in interviews that he plans to play another year in Oshawa and then two at BU.
After that I guess it’s just see how he’s come along and what team he makes, Cuda or Sharks, in 2028.
After seeing a bunch of clips and interviews with this kid, really like him even more. He is very self aware that he is behind, but that fuels him. He knows what needs todo and a good path. And he seems genuinely excited to be in Teal, calling it the best color in league. Sure it is fueled by fact he and probably most did not expect him to be drafted, at this time last year. And going in 2nd round (regardless if people think a reach he was going in 2nd for sure, and probably before 53) speaks a… Read more »
Wang was as big a surprise to me as every Sharks fan, but GMMG mentioned multiple times he will go his BPA. Wang was it at 33. I watched a few of his games and think this prospect could be special as a smooth skating physical transitional defensive defenseman. Keeping in mind how raw he presently is and how far he has come in such a short time should excite all of us as fans. I believe he has a number three or four potential, but it will take the time he plans to take to realize it. His character… Read more »
Still in absolute disbelief that draft weekend came and went without a single deal from Grier.
Kind of surprising. I believe he has his fingers in some pies, waiting for free agency to start. No tampering here. Smile.
I truly hope he’s tampering his ass off.
Yeah, all these picks are fine but I am disappointed. This was the team’s best opportunity to meaningfully improve next year.
Only if another team had value with the picks in a widely believed to be weak draft other than the number two pick.
I imagine he got offers but nothing he couldn’t acquire or sign after the draft. To state the obvious.
Plus all those picks provided much needed back fill and depth for the prospect pool along with added assets for moves in upcoming seasons.
Not really. UFA and trades are. Lots of trades happen July 1st and shortly after.
I think it’s going to be difficult for Grier to repeat what he did last summer. The rising cap means very few teams have backed themselves into a situation where they can’t afford to keep quality players (and guys like Tavares and Duchene have done their teams big favors). I think Wennberg’s “overpay” will be fairly standard for this year’s UFA class.
I think you’re absolutely right about that, but then there’s this added wrinkle that they have to spend a minimum of $20M on roughly 4-5 players to hit the floor. Those two realities seem destined for conflict, and I am anxious to see what Grier has up his sleeve. I’m honestly not at all upset that nothing out of the ordinary transpired this weekend, I am just truly surprised. To not even swing a mini deal to move up a few picks is so rare, especially for a team that has money/assets to burn and big holes to fill.
It was so deliberate looking, the only explanation is that they have a plan and they are confident they can execute on it. We won’t know for a few weeks at least, but we could know a lot more in just a couple days
Agreed
Unless he’s already planning on using it somewhere else or the moves made no sense.
Definitely agree! GMMG’s resourcefulness will be tested. But he’s known this was coming long before we did so I imagine he’s got a plan in place.
It seems like with Islanders with Dobson, and potentially Buffalo with Byram, those teams want ready-to-go players as part of the returns rather than just picks and prospects. That’s one area the Sharks have less to offer. I actually think trades are the least predictable transactions in the league. They are so many factors that go into making a trade work. There are at least two parties, maybe three if the player has trade protection. Maybe four if you need to get a third team involved. Everybody has to like the final deal. I think Mike Grier himself probably didn’t… Read more »
Like your thoughts and agree with them. My hope is he already has a plan he’s putting into motion. I would temper our expectations for the amount of improvements that will be made to the roster for a multitude of reasons brought up in the past. As evidenced by his presser right before the draft on the state of the Sharks. He was asked about the need to improve the backend and he noted the challenges unique to this offseason with the cap increase and the thin free agent market. He definitely made it sound as if he plans to… Read more »
Agreed. A very disciplined approach. Still surprising.
No doubt. Can’t wait for the 1st.
One thing I was thinking about is besides the Peterka, Dobson, and Spence moves where RHDs changed hands, none of the other RHD options in the draft would have meant anything for 25-26 obviously, and even Dobson wouldn’t have gotten the team even half way to the mark. They really do have a lot of money they need to move and it would be negligent not to have a serious plan in the works. Grier has never been known to be negligent. We gotta trust this and by definition it almost has to be exciting because the team is about… Read more »
Wang’s game video from February
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls4VJN1b_bs
See some things I like, but there’s a whole lot of raw.
Seems like the development really has to go right for him to be a NHL-level D despite the great physical tools.
Three year project, minimum. Might show up in the AHL in 3 years and play 2 with the Cuda after that, we shall see. There is a lot to dream on and if you thought the RHDs were meh, which is all we can assume, swing for the fences because the forwards are stacked with high end guys already too.
I’ll say this. If one believes this draft class is ‘meh’, that’ll it’ll be filled with guys who just aren’t going to be more than bottom pairing sorts or 4th liners, then either swing for upside or find a niche need and get that. If that’s what GMMG and staff believed, then taking on projects with upside like Wang and Ravensbergen makes sense. Under that same theory, it’d also make sense to go after Russian players, where there’s less scouting and possibly a gem that wasn’t as noticed. I’ve seen/read a lot of folks who were down on this draft… Read more »
To an extent they were, but the draft had a lot the Sharks could use in their pool and I think GMMG took full advantage of it. He had a good class for a lot of his needs, stayed disciplined and stuck to his board. Many times the best move made is no move at all. Now that Askarov is expected to be in the NHL he needed to add a blue chip to the goalie pool. All he did was get the top rated goalie in the draft. The forward pool was top heavy (a great thing mainly) but… Read more »
I think Grier and company are believing in their development staffs ability to turn prospects into professionals and reclamation projects into valuable assets. Taking on a couple high upside projects makes sense to fill out positions of need and to stagger the reinforcements the roster will get in the coming years.
the draft analysts think the Sharks got an “A” for this draft and may get 4 NHLers out of it. That would be spectacular.
Guys get rushed to the show now but we used to let guys develop way longer and I’d say that’s GMMG’s most old school trait. ELCs be damned he’s willing to let guys marinate in juniors, Euro, college, the Cuda. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Dylan Demelo and Joakim Ryan, drafted late by the Sharks a year apart. The org tried to make Ryan a Wookie Whisperer and he’s been back ib Sweden since just a few years after that. Ryan we cut bait on too soon after pairing him with Brendan Dillon and today he’s a 32-year-old… Read more »
Yeah, play the guy when he’s ready and not before
i would be shocked if Dickinson doesn’t play all next season in the NHL.
LD – Ferraro, Shakir, Dickinson, Thrun
RD – Lily, Desharnais, Thompson
already better than last season. We’ll see what happens in the next couple weeks.
High uncertainty here. Need Thrun to be healthy and back in early form, Ferraro to somehow hold onto late season form, Mukh to be healthy and perhaps able to play both sides, and that’s before the unknown of Dickinson’s readiness. I would argue our rightside is not yet better than it was at the start of last year, Ceci and Rutta weren’t worldbeaters but as vets they were more consistent than Lilj or Desharnais. If Mike doesn’t make any changes, this looks like the kind of lineup Mike iced two seasons ago: respectable if everything breaks right, poor if it… Read more »
Translated rom an article in Chinese Sports Daily News: Historically high draft: 17 year old youth drafted by NHL. Wang Haoxi was drafted San Jose Sharks Beijing born Wang Haoxi drafted 2nd round by San Jose Sharks in 2025 NHL draft show 17 year old Wang Haoxi is part of Canadian Ontario Hockey League Oshawa Generals. He played 32 games which helped the team gain its 2nd place. According to his own plan, he will play another season in OHL and then go to NCAA to Boston University to further his study Last February he was representing the Beijing youth… Read more »
Thanks!
Stoked on Wang