Sharks’ World Juniors History Deep-Dive + Grades for Smith & Other WJC Prospects So Far

2024 World Juniors round-robin play is over! How are the San Jose Sharks prospects at the WJCs doing?

Also, the Sharks have six prospects at World Juniors, third in the NHL. Is that the most in franchise history?

But before we get to that, Sheng talks about his (unimpressed) impressions of Sharks games this week (2:40). Is 10 Goals Against Watch back (7:00)?

What’s the next major coaching challenge for David Quinn this season? And how is that related to San Jose Sharks forwards who are offense-first (9:30), that they want to play defense-first?

Logan Couture is getting close (20:00).

Also, we talk about keeping an open mind about Mario Ferraro on the power play (23:45).

UPDATE: We talked Ferraro BEFORE his injury against the Avs tonight.

Then, Keegan gives his grades on how San Jose Sharks prospects have fared so far in WJC round-robin play: What does he think of Will Smith (37:00), Eric Pohlkamp (42:30), Kasper Halttunen (43:07), Filip Bystedt and Mattias Havelid (48:36), and Jake Furlong (51:30)?

Finally, we take a historical look at the San Jose Sharks at the World Junior Championships (54:30).

The Sharks have six prospects at the 2024 WJCs, but that’s not their most-ever. What positives can we gather from San Jose’s stacked 1995 and 1996 WJC classes? What are the cautionary tales from the 2015 WJC class?

There was also a three-year stretch where the San Jose Sharks had zero World Junior prospects.

Also, history suggests that Sharks fans should take notice of late-rounders Furlong and Pohlkamp being selected by deep national teams for the World Juniors.

Happy New Year!

Subscribe to the San Jose Hockey Now Podcast YouTube channel, we’re trying to get over 1K subscribers!

Listen to the San Jose Hockey Now Podcast — it’s a new link — on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and Google Podcasts.