Welcome to the Oil Rig’s Pacific Division preview series. Today let’s take a closer look at the San Jose Sharks.
The Sharks are a young team with lots of opportunity
For years the Sharks have been accumulating talent. Winning the draft lottery has given the Sharks what they hope will be their last top ten draft pick in a long while. The forward group seems poised to explode, as a wave of high end prospects follow Macklin Celebrini into key roles. It was enough to make the Sharks one of the more interesting teams to watch last season, and almost resulted in a playoff appearance.
Perhaps it was enough to trigger a new approach to the offseason, as the Sharks invested a lot of salary cap space into veteran help for the blueline. In past years GM Mike Grier has traded away older players. The current state of the blueline was less of a focus, and the Sharks hope to have added some vital structure to the back end.
In the honeymoon phase of their playoff relevance, hope is riding high for the Sharks. Their true window might only open when some of their young defence prospects mature into NHL stalwarts, but for now the focus has shifted onto performing in the standings.
Forwards
Chernyshov—Celebrini—Smith
Marchment—Misa—Graf
Stenberg—Wennberg—Sherwood
Toffoli—Ostapchuk—Dellandrea
Extras: Goodrow, Leason, Bystedt
Macklin Celebrini might only have pressure from Matthew Schaefer as the best hope for a young player to define the league over the next decade. His presence takes a ton of pressure off of a young and highly touted forward group.
There are some veterans to support. Kiefer Sherwood has been a great story, becoming a rare breed of pure role player with offensive upside. Mason Marchment took an odd career path as well, and like Sherwood has become a legitimate middle-six option. Alex Wennberg and provides a lot of stability and structure as a checking centre. Tyler Toffoli was not blessed with speed, but remains a capable middle-six sniper.
The rest is up to the youth. Michael Misa and Ivar Stenberg were back-to-back second overall picks, and clearly possess pedigree and talent. There is no shame in taking longer to arrive than Celebrini, but it might be another year or two before the duo are ready to truly assert themselves as star players.
Will Smith and Igor Chernyshov have both shown a lot of offensive promise to this point. Both should become reasonable top-six scorers. The Sharks will hope their offence continues to grow, but strides in other areas of their games will go a long way to helping the team.
Defence
Dickinson—Trouba
Nurse—Orlov
Cagnoni—Kesselring
Extras: Allan
The Sharks did a ton of work building their blueline of the money this offseason. They also did a lot of work building their blueline future of their blueline as well. The team has accumulated prospects, and shown it is worth building on. While one might argue whether or not the transformation is sufficient or necessary, it was undoubtedly needed.
The cap hits of Darnell Nurse and Jacob Trouba have often been the main issue, both are undoubtedly assets to an NHL blueline by their play. Their defensive soundness has come into question at points, but their impressive physicality and experience are undeniable. They join Dmitri Orlov as legitimate NHL calibre defencemen, a luxury the Sharks have lacked of late. Michael Kesselring is better than he showed with the Buffalo Sabres, and topping out as a third pairing option with upside would be a solid career.
While the season at hand is in focus with this group of veterans, so too is providing a stable platform for the future. Sam Dickinson has been progressing, and will need to be relied upon for the Sharks to have success this coming season. Along with the recently drafted Keaton Verhoeff and Ryan Lin, Dickinson is one of the most vital pieces of the Sharks future on the back end. Ultimately they need their best defenceman to emerge.
Both Luca Cagnoni and Nolan Allan are deserving of a look in an NHL role. Cagnoni provides an offensive flair this team might otherwise lack. In all the Sharks are looking for their blueline to give them a fighting chance this coming season. The blueline is undoubtedly improved.
Goalies
Askarov
Nedeljkovic
Comrie
Yaroslav Askarov is young and talented. Last season he proved he could handle a heavy NHL workload. This season will be about providing better results. Fortunately, he will have a stronger team in front of him. Ultimately, his success across multiple seasons in the AHL and KHL are reasons to believe that he can provide better NHL results. Alex Nedeljkovic and Eric Comrie form a strong enough support system behind him.
Prediction for this year
Progress is not always linear, but expectations for the Sharks are justifiably rising. Last season saw the Sharks have their cake and eat it too, pushing up the standings while securing multiple high draft picks. Of course, not all of their prospects will reach their highest potential. From a long term perspective, steps forward and positive momentum for their young players is the main objective.
This season, the Sharks will have their sights set on a playoff spot. In some ways they are already playing with house money. Achieving the consistency as a group required to make the playoffs would be a huge victory for the young core players. Ideally, much of their talent will be in the lineup, so creating a strong team environment will be enormous. Getting rewarded for competitive spirit and attention to detail will help for years to come.
If the team does fall just short of the playoffs this season it will be frustrating, but becoming a powerhouse a season or two after that will be the goal. Some soft buying at the deadline might make sense, but the Sharks should still plan on drafting players. To an extent GM Mike Grier has already started using some prospects in trades.
There should be a lot to like up front, but true contender status likely relies upon Dickinson or Verhoeff becoming the team’s best defenceman.
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