Mega Mailbag 2: What Should Sharks Do With No. 2 Pick?

Mega Mailbag 2: What Should Sharks Do With No. 2 Pick?

Welcome to the San Jose Hockey Now podcast. I’m Shang Pang, editor and chief of San Jose Hockey Now. You can also find my work at MEC Sharks, on Twitter, Shang_pang, and on Blue Sky, Shangpang. I’m joined by my co-host Keegan McN. You can find him on Twitter at halfwall_hockey. Once again, that’s Ke McNal at halfwall_hockey. And we’re about to do part two of our mega mega mega mega mega mega mega mega mail bag. We did part one a couple of days ago. Part one focused on the how to improve the Sharks defense this summer. Part two today, we’ll talk about number two, the number two pick that the Sharks got in the 2025 draft. And what should the Sharks do with that pick? Should they trade up? Should they trade down? Should they keep it? Should they draft Michael Misa? Should they drop Porter Marone, etc., etc., etc. Also too, we’re going to see, we started this with part one of the mailbag. We’re going to see if our mailbag is longer than the Return of the King extended edition. But before we get to part two of the mailbag, let’s talk about our sponsor, bringhockeyback.net. Bring hockey back. Bringhockeyback.net. You can find the coolest t-shirts, coolest hockey t-shirts, and you can get custom hockey jerseys, custom hockey jerseys of any size order for any occasion. Go to bringhockeyback.net right now. You can see some really, really neat Sharks t-shirts. Director of Vibes, you probably know that and love that one, right? That’s there. You can order that right now. They also have a new Mlin Celebrating T-shirt that is about to come out. Actually, I think I have an order of that coming. I’m not sure. So, I was teased a package coming from bringhockey back. So, anyway, go to bringhockeyback.net. Coupon code. We have a coupon code here. San Jose hockey now. Get 15% off any of your t-shirt orders. Bring hockeyback.net. Coupon code San Jose now. Also, get custom hockey jerseys. And now, mailbag part two. Cave. Anyway, while we’re doing that, we have an introduction of a new topic, which is called um what the are we doing with number two? That’s the uh that’s the new topic. Oh, with one side quest question that you guys will find hilarious. I’m actually very excited to hear Keegan’s answer for this. But anyway, let’s go with the topic. What do What do we do with the number two pick? What do we do with number two? So, naturally, we’re going to start with what would it take to get rid of the number two and go to number one. They don’t call it getting rid of the pick. They they say trading up. trading up. Yeah. What would it take? This is from Jeremy. He’s basically saying, you know, the Islanders, they picked first first overall and they got John Tvarz. Didn’t work out. He left. Um so maybe they want to trade down to number two. Hagens, right? Yeah. Um A, it’s not going to happen, but B, it’s fun to speculate about. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t I don’t see it happening. I see it more likely. People have suggested maybe the Islanders trading getting into the the the like the top five again somehow. Maybe too. Yeah, like five. Maybe five. Yeah. So anyway though, um Huh. Good question though. Um just a guess though for what it would take the value of it. It would take probably the Dallas pick, the Edmonton first round next year and then you think that much to to move one spot. It’s like just it doesn’t happen. Oh, I know. I know. I know. But like factor. Yeah, but you can do an overpayment without trading um two first round picks for to be three first round picks for one. Yeah. Yeah. So that seems that seems a bit excessive. I wouldn’t do it, but I think that’s what it would take. Mhm. Maybe not. Maybe it would take less than that. I I I it’s really tough to say, but all right. It’s going to be an overpayment just because it doesn’t happen very frequently. Yeah. Yeah. No, I I I agree on that that part of it. I’m actually going to uh have fun and look at the Perry Pic value calculator on on Pipedia really quick. I’m curious. Uhhuh. That don’t actually they have just one through five average. I’ll pick one. I can be specific. Okay. Pick two. Pick one. Okay. So, right now in the Perry pickic value calculator, pick two is worth 72 points. 73 points and pick one is worth 100 points. So, you need to add about 27 points of value to even be let’s say even talk about it. All right. And so, let’s say that’s the Dallas pick, right? And we don’t know exactly where they’ll be, but let’s say that’s 28 or 29, I guess, right? Let’s say they they win this. They they they beat Winnipeg. And that’s not that’s not there yet because the 29th pick adds 12 points of value. So maybe you’re right. Maybe we got to add the Edmonton pick too. Give them that points. Well, the em pick is we don’t know because it’s 2026. So this calculator doesn’t account for that. But with the Edmonton pick though, you you’re suddenly giving the Islanders the possibility that hey, what if the Edmond pick falls into you don’t protect it? Yes. Yeah. and it’s not likely to fall into the top five, but you never know. And so maybe you’re right. Maybe you’re right. Um, just from a pure value standpoint. Yeah. Yeah. Pure value calculator standpoint at least. So anyway, check out Puckedia Perry. Uh, that’s Matt Perry, a former director of hockey for the Coyotes. Per RI. So he has a fun value calculator there. But anyway, what would it take though? Okay. So in some m Yeah. So that Yeah, I think maybe you’re right then. Maybe I maybe I was wrong in terms of maybe it would take the three picks to do it. Yeah. And I think that would be dumb. But it would be something like I mean if you knew they were taking Schaefer, but you don’t. So you have to weigh that out too. Like you don’t have a consensus that they are going to take it. So you could also play the odds that they’re not. And yeah, it’s Huh. I mean, the pick has I mean, that number one pick has moved before. I think uh 2003 it I believe it moved. So, that’s a long time ago though. I don’t I don’t believe it’s moved recently, but I actually haven’t looked it up, but it was Oh, not 2003. Sorry, the Rick Nash year. So, that wasn’t 2003. Um 2002, I think, actually. Yeah, that was that was the Rick Nash J. Mr. Street here and okay so Columbus acquired that pick from Florida and so basically uh Florida okay so Florida had the number one pick and it went to Columbus sent the number three pick and actually just the option to swap I think in 2003 first round picks the next year. Mhm. So that’s doesn’t sound like that much but okay I just that that’s just an example of it though. So so it has moved before but uh on draft day. I think that was on draft day. So that was on draft day but it’s not likely though. So I mean if we’re talking prospects again you know let’s go go up the line like uh would you trade the the number two pick and Koni for the the pick? Okay. Uh, how about Yeah, that’s for me, too. How about the number one the number two pick at Musty? Yes. Okay, I will just go keep going logically. Number two pick at Chernot. Uh, I think I would, but that’s me. I’m trying to think. I I Yes, I would. Okay. I would I would be upset about it, but I would do it. Okay. And then, you know, let’s not go higher than that in prospects because you’re not Yeah, I wouldn’t do Dickinson in number two or Will Smith the number two. Yeah, maybe Dickinson that’ll be the next one you consider. But yeah, that’s I think we actually we did talk about this situation on our live our our live stream of the draft lottery where yeah, you trade Dickinson, you’re just taking taking from you’re robbing one hand to to pay the other, right? So, that doesn’t make sense. And then Will Smith, Ascaroth, those are a little too high up there maybe. So, okay. I think I think last week you said you wouldn’t trade Chernot. I know, but I’ i’ve Okay. We’ve been talking a lot about the the structure of the Sharks and like Shaver would add a lot to this team in a way that you may not have to look back after you do it right. And now that we lost it, I feel even sadder. So, he is exactly what the Sharks need, right? So, yeah. All right, Nick Furama has two questions. The first of one is who are we going to replace Shang with on the podcast uh because he asked in the past, who would you replace Keegan with from the Sharks pool? So, good good call, Nick. Yeah, good. Uh replacing Shang. Um government hearing this. No, I I have to think about this for a little bit. I I have a few. I I think um you have a few. I not that I like have a few that WTF. I think Joe Thornton would be my guy. Like I love I love Joe Thornton. I love him as a player. I think he is such a fun interview and I think he would have so many insights about the game of hockey that I it’s a kind of a lame answer. It’s like, “Oh, you’re picking the best shark of all time.” Um, yeah, I think I would pick Joe Thornton. He just has just he has the hockey wherewithal, the jokiness, the funness to make a really good good podcast, I think. Um, not that that he would ever want to do that with his time, but that’s what I I think I would pick. Or Scott Hannon because, you know, we would it would be a fun time that way. He’s family. He That’s what you should have left. He’s family. Scott Anon’s family, so it’s not like Scotty uh would just have lots of uh drill down things about Defenders all day, which would be fun. You guys can do a live podcast from the family reunion barbecues. Not that you have them with them, but we you can start having them with them. Yeah, I think Mark Smith would be a lot of fun, too. Jason Dear. No, there’s too many people. I I I’m fighting this. All right. No offense to Mark Smith. All right. But that dude, he’s got his hair, but I’m I’m not I’m not He’s got the hair. All right. I think I’m just picking guys from my childhood that I remember like being a lot of fun. Um John Scott, JD’s pretty funny, but I I would be upset by that. Dear I not that I would like it’s not the replacing you thing Shang at all. It’s like who would who would be a cool person is Mark Smith though that’s not what I expected like I expected Joe Thornton. I expected Scott Hannon. I expected Jason Dearis too but yeah I think I answered Jason Dearis last time this happened. Um but John I think I think at the end of the day it would be Joe Thornton if you know we could pay Joe Thornton’s salary which I don’t know what he needs. What does Joe Thornton need? Beard oil. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, that’s that’s the answer. Nick Felder and Shang is never being replaced. It’s it’s it’s podcast. So, it is it is 50% the Shang podcast. Space space for his rooster is a chicken chicken coupe. Yeah, he’s chicken coop and needs some lawn care. Uh Nick Verma has a second more serious question which So, we’re back to the number two pick. So, that was a side. Yeah, he kickstarts our actual uh trading down from the O or trading away the number two overall pick. What basically what is your favorite hypothetical package for trading the number two pick that is still realistic? I think mine is centered around getting Axel Sandine Pelica the 13th overall and other picks from Detroit for that doesn’t seem like enough though, right? We discussed this, right? So yeah, I think in other drafts that maybe that makes sense. um when the 13th overall is a little stronger, but I think 13th overall, you’re not getting a guy likely that is going to be as impactful as somebody like Michael Misa. Mhm. And ASP is going to help the Sharks prospect pool, but not in the totality that you need it to. like ASP is a small offensive leaning defender who has a lot of great qualities and um is going to help a team’s power play, but I don’t think that he’s going to be a first pairing guy that’s going to be in all situations. And that’s what Yeah. Yeah. I I always again I always trying to like trying to get a all situations guy even if he’s not going to be a true blue number one but if he’s a solid top four all situations guy that’s that’s worth it more than a specialicious type. But anyway uh quick uh sort of digression here. I did get a return answer about Matias Samuels because I was curious about him. So just interrupt this a little bit or let’s save this for the Buffalo portion. So actually we going to talk Buffalo in a little bit. But anyway, so Nick Volarama, a package that’s a hypothetical realistic package for number two pick. Um, let’s look at the uh teams that are in that top 10 range here. I think you need something Rio back. I mean Rio as in like right now. So So even though I don’t love any any of the guys like a Dobson, a Byum or something like that, right? had to come back. And yeah, what where what does Buffalo pick? Nine. Nine. Nine’s not bad. Okay, so nine can still land you, I think. Um, at least somebody who has some upside to being a top six or a top four. How about this? Uh, you get Byum, the number nine pick. You take have to take on Matias Samson’s garbage contract. Just to be very clear about what he’s making, just so everybody knows. Uh, he is signed till 2030, I believe. And he is signed at the figure isn’t that bad. It’s just that he’s been bad the last couple of years. So, he’s making 4.285. And yeah, he’s a UFA at 2030. He’s not He’s only 25, too. So, so he’s got that on his side, too. So, it’s hard to figure out what’s gone wrong with him because I don’t watch him every night. So, yeah. Me either. Although, I remember them being like, he can play he can play hockey and he can play defense. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they they loved him, right? They they gave him the seven year sevenyear freaking contract. So, so anyway, would you do that for the number two pick nine? and and the the the the the kick or the one that the the the value for Buffalo is getting rid of Samuelson’s contract there and they get the number two. So, h uh I think yeah, I think that’s enough. I think the nine and two or nine plus Byum and Samson is still probably one of our better defenders. Yes. So, yes, like I’d have to watch more Samuelson to be sure. Like if he’s an absolute boat anchor and he’s going to suck for nine years then no. But they they would do that data. So yeah. Yeah. That’s when you could you could you could figure out like just what’s he you know can he can he pass as fourth defenseman for Exactly. Can he be your number four and then Byron be your, you know, in your You still need a number one defenseman. He would, but but Byron would be a good sort of Yeah. You can build around him with Sam Dickinson and Canone and anybody else that you pick. Yeah. And you can still wait for the right number one guy to you just you just have to wait on that. The number one guy obvious the true number one defenseman is not is just not there. So, and at number nine, you can get guys like Jake O’Brien, right? Or you get a defenseman, right? You can get Smith, right? Yeah. Um, yeah, you’ll get somebody or Eklund even if you wanted to get, you know, Ekan. Yeah, that’s a good spot for Eklund here. And Ekkan’s a great player, too. So, I think it’s an interesting proposition. You definitely upgrade your defense by a lot. Um, but it’s not like buy like those two guys on Buffalo are not making them world beaters even though No, no, no. I mean, the idea isn’t isn’t to do that, but it’s to is to it’s to make you a lot more competitive next year and this is this is you what you do have to do, I think, for Mlin especially. And then when you add pieces around them, are these guys still going to be good players? Well, Byron should be still a a valid part of your top four as you become a good team, a playoff team. And yeah, the number nine pick obviously you hope it could become something and you hope that Samuelson is not a disaster. If he is, you buy him out. So Sam’s question, yeah, is the next one which kicks off two questions about our boy, not our boy, a boy, uh, Porter Martone. Thoughts about a big boy. Thoughts about Martone? I think he would fit well. I think we need some big body type forwards with elite potential. That’s the first question about uh Porter Martone. And then Brad, I’m gonna just flash this quickly. Brad Fitzpatrick also had a could Porter Martone be the number two pick. We’ve been saying it’s going to be Michael Misa, but could this be Porter Martone slot? I um I have some thoughts. I don’t know if you have any thoughts related to how Greer has answered these questions or not. No, I’m going to leave it to you. But I would tease though that next week we’re going to have a fantastic guest. We are a big Porter Mone fan. So, as am I. And I’m super excited to talk with Okay. this guest, which we have had on the podcast before that you guys probably know. Um going to be a great episode. I’m happy that he’s coming back. I’m super excited about that. Anyway, I’m geeking out a little. Um, I didn’t think he would come back cuz last year we had Celebrini and you know, makes sense that he came. But anyway, um, I don’t think it’s unreasonable. I that Porto Marone is the pick at two rather than Misa. I don’t think it’s un like it’s probably in the realm of like 10 15% chance something like that that that Greer has set his sights on this guy above Misa. Yeah. And as I mentioned and wrote about, Micro has been tra trying to trade for the or I’m sorry, trying to draft the Marone type for the last three years. Yeah, he does this a lot. Yeah, he really likes that kind of player. Yeah. So, Haltonin, Musty, Lond, and Sherop, right, the big scoring winger. So yeah, it’s it’s possible, but at least what you hear, at least what what I’m hearing from people just in terms of Misa and just his upside, just hard to pass up on that. Even if he isn’t your ideal player, and I think Will Smith is a good example of this where Will Smith on the surface does not look like an ideal Mike Greer player, but he just was the best player there. Yeah. At least for for Mike Greer’s judgment. And so he didn’t go he didn’t go for size with the number four pick. Granted, if he had the number two pick, he might have gone for size, but he didn’t have that choice there, right? So in this case, he does have the choice of Martone, but I I still have I’m the sort of at least the thinking that that Misa’s just overall impact is going to be too great to ignore and that Misa being well, I guess, we’ll probably talk about this in a second, but just that um that it’s going to be those one of those good problems to have. You had too many good centers. I would probably be one of the few Sharks fans that would not be upset. I like Marton for a long time. I had Martone ahead of Misa in my draft order. So, I’m not I wouldn’t be upset. I there’s something to be said about like there’s a lot of flaws with Martone, but there’s something to be said about that high-end the plays that he makes at speed in front of the net that you see every single night in the NHL playoffs that you’re like you can you can connect it. And while Misa put up a ton of points and did a great job and has a lot of high-end talent and he has he does he does everything really really well. Like that’s what Misa does. Everything is like above average or more. Marton has like the high-end to elite handling. His puck skills are fantastic for a guy that is is that size. And a lot of times, yeah, there’s warts in Marton’s game like he lags. He doesn’t doesn’t always back check effectively. He uh skating is not as like Mis is great skater as well. So, it’s tough. Like there’s a lot of warts, but the high-end plays that you see happen in a split second with Martone that just make you excited more than Misa. And that’s what drew me to me Martone originally was like those things. So, I wouldn’t be upset. I would I think Misa is the smarter choice because he plays center. He has a very projectable game, but uh Martona is still a great option. Um right now on the the halfall hockey draft board is Misa number two ahead of Okay. Yeah, it’s Misa then Martone. So it’s Schaefer, Misa, Martone. Um as of right now, but it’s it was at some point Martone as high as two. So um and then Haggus was two at some point, but then moved down all the way to four. So he’s four now and Fondell is five. So okay, you’re not as high on the new kid that’s that’s uh kind of bursting up the charts a little bit, the Den Denois or Oh, Dway. Dan Way, sorry about that. I watched uh I watched three games with Deno last weekend. I think he’s fine. That’s my answer. I think he’s good. Like I think he’s a good player, but I’m not like I’m not gonna bet the farm on him. Like he’s a good player and he will be a good NHLer. Um well that’s a tease for we’re going to do a special draft episode, a Keegan draft episode. Yeah. Half wall hockey draft ranking revealed. I wanted I I did want to more into Dana Way, but I just I don’t love him as much as other. Okay. I think I have him seventh right now. So with the two sweets in between them. So it’s from Don’t give it away. Don’t give it all away. Give it away. But that’s, you know, that’s my ranking. It’s not like it’s other people have many opinions. I think Danaway was high as three on Prawnman’s and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. I’ve seen him quite high and then he uh moved Martone back up because once you watch like some games of Martone, it’s just like this, oh that’s really good feeling. So anyway, that’s the myarone thoughts. Okay. Uh Austin Diaz says, “How interested are teams in the number two overall pick?” Okay. What are the realistic chances? We I don’t know if we’ve heard too much about the buzz with it, but he’s a little early, but I would say that the number two pick, a guy like a prospect like Amisa, there’s going to be interest in it for sure. And with the Sharks perceived as maybe not needing a center as much, right? I’m sure that they’re getting they’re getting uh already getting good offers for it and will keep getting it until the draft. Now, would it be good enough to move it? I don’t know. But yeah, I would think this this is a pick that there’s a lot of interest in. This isn’t the Dallas pick. Yeah. that um especially in this draft, I think there’s a range um from like two to five that have very similar upside maybe. Right. Right. But then if you get two, you get your choice of those guys, right? If you assume Schaefer is the class of this draft, which isn’t even necessarily true concrete, you know, he’s not Schaefer isn’t quite a celebrity like prospect. Uh, and actually to tease, we’re going to talk about a similar past instance of a defenseman that I think everyone thought was going to be number one who fell in the draft, which might remind you of maybe might be a Matthews Schaefer situation, which maybe the Sharks hope for that. So, so that’s something that we’re going to talk with our with our guests too uh this this or next week. But anyway though, yeah, so I I would think there’s a lot of interest in it though because yeah, it’s it’s the it’s the cat bird position for the maybe the next layer of the draft if you subscribe to Schaefer being number one. All right, Ben, we’re getting there. Yep. Um they’re already fully into the battle of Minister right now. Oh my god, we’re like halfway. We still got a lot of questions to go. Like they are fighting. Uh they’re bringing in the wolf’s head to try and knock down I think we might be halfway into our questions. We’re getting there. Uh Ben says, “What does the package look like that might tempt Greer to trade down, right? Right. I mean, just generally, right, we can guess, right?” And actually, does Matt Harrison have a similar question coming up? Should we kind of put them together or or No, just looking at it. Uh looking at the blurb. So kind No, his is a little No, it’s different. Okay, that’s fine. Um, so anyway, the kind of package though I think is you need a defenseman that can play now, but you need somebody who is young, right? So you’re not trading the number two pick for Chris Latang or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. So you need somebody and the the Byron mage is right even if he’s not the right guy, but I think the the age is right and so you need you need you need a centerpiece like that. And so basically a a a guaranteed top four defenseman that you can grow with for the next decade. So it has to be like I think uh under 25 or around that basically and that would be the centerpiece of it. And there might be some other stuff too like yeah maybe maybe it’s a late first maybe it’s this or that. But I think for him to trade down, I think that’s where it starts because the Sharks don’t necessarily need a number one centerman in the future or number two center in the future. They don’t need a number one goalie. I guess they could use uh if there were a guy out there available that can fit the the big strapping power forward, nasty, got a little bit of that, right? Like if suddenly you go back in time and Mack Kachchuck was willing to come to the Sharks, which I don’t know why he would, but like that’s the kind of guy. Okay. You know, then then that’s the kind of guy that we know that Mike Greer craves and a lot of other teams in the league obviously too. But so maybe one of those two kind of players though, that power winger type that’s the uh or that allound top four defensive type that is already established as that, not a a hope guy. So established power winger type, established top four defenseman who is about 23, 24, 25. Hm. Yeah, you need the plus has got to fit with the Shark system. And it’s tough in this in this scenario because you’re still going to want a high pick. So, you have to like somehow Nashville has to move from five to two. That doesn’t make sense. Or Boston has to move from seven to two. Seattle maybe, but but you can I think you can live without the high pick. Let’s say like, okay, let’s say the deal. Okay, I’m going use Buffalo as example. Let’s say it’s Byron. Byron straight up for the number two pick. I don’t think you do that with if you’re the Sharks, but let’s say let’s say Buffalo’s going to give you Byron and something good. Maybe not the number nine pick, but something good with with with with Byron, right? Not sadd contract, huh? Zack Benson. Excellent. Maybe because yeah, he hasn’t been the most productive player, but maybe he that’s that’s a guy. Or maybe like they don’t think they can sign Peter. So, right. And then maybe you had to give back like maybe you had to give him the Dallas pick too to make it but something like that though, right? And so you don’t need you don’t need to pick back. You know that’s I guess that’s the thing I would say that obviously the Sharks need everything kind of but you don’t really need to make this pick number two if it’s not Matthew Schaefer in my mind. Like they could trade out of it and not make a top 10 pick this year and that’s fine. They just have to make the value worth it. Right. Right. You just need to get the value back. I’m not advocating the Sharks to trade a number two pick for Sydney Crosby or something like that guy who’s going to be retired in a couple years. Yeah. So, if but you make the right trade for the right guy, right guys? Maybe. Yeah. Matt Harrison has uh a similar one, but it’s more if we’re saying that the number two pick is off the table, we’re not going to trade it. Are we gonna trade any of Eklan, Musty, or Shernness um to get our defenseman of the future? Actually, we do have a similar question like this later, but yeah, I think I think that I’m going to answer more about Ekkan a little later, but I would have to think that Churnishoff and Musty are on the They’re not untouchable. Yeah. Right. Right. And I did want to say with Musty, one thing that I saw in his playoff game, I want to give him credit for because I think I I’ve been hard on Musty at times on the podcast. Excuse me. But um I talked with with with Quentin in LA. I the series he didn’t play against Ontario Rain and he said one of the things that he he was working on was trying to take the puck off of people. not not not kind of like getting into people physically. And I think that that was that was something I saw in his first couple regular season games. I didn’t really write about because again, I didn’t want to be too micro on a 19-year-old guy, but I I did think that Chernob was more inside on guys. That’s why I thought the initial viewings that I thought Turner Shaw would be more pro ready because there’s a little more of that jam there that that kind of game that like if he’s not scoring he can still use him on a third and fourth line and that may still be the case on a nightly basis. You know Musty did it. So I saw Musty do that against Ontario I’m sorry in against Colorado in that playoff game that the Barracuda won. So I want to give him credit for that. that seemed like he he applied something that he’s been working hard on that they told him he’s got to improve and he applied it immediately. I think that’s that is a good sign. And so, of course, the trick is to do it for more than just one game. You got to do it every night. That’s how you become a consistent pro in the league. But I want to give him credit for that though. That’s a little bit of a side. Yeah, it’s got to be more consistent. Yeah. It’s also the next one is about musty for a deep prospect from a stove picks. Um they have a very deep forward group of U23 players. Do you think so? Straight forward, right? Yeah. Must for Neander or Sandine Pelica. So we’re kind of going down the line of Yeah, we’ve talked about Dobson. We talked about Neich and Clark. So now we’re moving down the line. So would you trade Must straight up for any of these guys? I mean, I would, but I don’t think they would. Better side wouldn’t. Okay. Yeah. I um I think Detroit maybe they would move ASP, but they maybe, but they I mean they have Cider who’s their number one defenseman, so they got Evansson, too, right? I think they would keep ASP and hope that that’s the that’s the answer for more than Edson. He says he moved ahead of Edmonson, you think? No, no, no. I think Edmonson’s ahead, but I mean like offensively to try and spark this team. Oh, I see. Okay. So then maybe Ne is the most likely just because of the glut that they have that they he might be the So would you do like let’s say Musty and a second round pick? Uh yeah. Or Neich. Okay. Yeah. I think look, I like Musty. Must is going to be good, but one of these deep prospects if we can somehow swing that trade, I think that’s the one that How about Neich and the Dallas first? Is that too much? [Music] Uh, Dallas, they’re busty for Neich, you know. It’s, you know, like not as exciting a player at this point, but uh with the how much capital they have, I don’t I don’t hate it. I think it’s fine. Okay. Yeah, for sure. Well, well, I got like to say though, the sharks can just go the way the maple leaves and just go forward heavy. It works, right? The maple leaves have proven that works. Uh, okay. We have more more number two overall. This is going to keep going on for a couple more questions at least. Uh, a couple more still. Okay. But this one is a very specific one. So, this one I haven’t even thought about yet. So, Dylan Smallwood uh says, “First off, this better be a 4hour mailbag.” It might be. We’re getting close. We’re two hours 17 minutes in. says, “To the New York Islanders, uh, would you trade the second overall, the second round pick, a B-level prospect?” Okay. And Delandrea for the Sharks getting Noah Dobson with an extension for eight years. Okay. Pierre Angvall, who’s kind of That’s a cap dump. Yeah. Colorado’s first. Okay. And then a B or Caleb prospect. Colorado’s first is this year’s first, right? Yeah. Okay. I believe so. Let me let me look up Angvall’s contract. You want to make sure on the Colorado pick? Let’s Let’s make sure we uh who? So, New York. Let’s see. Yeah, that’s next year’s 2026. Okay. Oh, it’s it’s 2026 pick. Oh, that’s a little more interesting. Interesting. Are there any protections to it? Colorado has the option to defer to the pick of 2027 is what it says. Okay. Then that’s it. That’s it. That’s all it says. I don’t know what that means, but they have the option to defer. Well, if they defer it, that means that it becomes unprotected for 2027, basically. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, usually that’s what unless there’s other extra conditions that that’s what it means. Yeah. Angal is signed, by the way, till 2030 for 3 million AAV. So, obviously don’t like the term, but 3 million is, you know, I think he was waved this year. He was waved this year, and no one picked him up, including the shark. So, yeah. Not great. God, that’s a long time contract to have on your books. Yeah, 2030. I mean, it’s not great, but um you could do it, I guess. So, well, let’s take away the the filler stuff. So, uh Okay, so Angal is just the captain. Dandra is just whatever in this trade. Second round pick is okay. So they’re taking the second overall for no Dobson and Colorado’s first next year or 2027. Huh. I just am not convinced of Dobson being your lynchpin guy for eight years. I like Dobson as a player. I but he’s not a guy that solves your defensive problems for the next He again is I think on a good team. he becomes your number two, which is fine, but I would still rather have a potential number one center fill in Misa if Celbrini is hurt or you want to put one on the wing. Just you can do a lot with that with having two number one centers and loading it up at times like Edmonton does with Dryside McDavid or Malcolin and Crosby or whatever examples you want to bring back from the past. Just center is so valuable. So, I don’t mind that the Sharks if the Sharks end up of course I’d rather have Schaefer than Misa, but if you end up with Misa, this is not a bad problem. Like, if the Sharks ended up at number three, I’m not sure if I like Marton. I Martone as much as Keegan does. So, then then then you think more about a trade if if you’re me. But for me to trade the number two though had to be a really good package back of just kind of and yeah I actually like Byron more than Dobson I think too. So to add to that too because I think Byron’s a little more allaround which I I value more than a kind of a offensive leaning guy. So I think I’d say no. Okay. I think I think about it though. This is not this is not like an awful package like Yeah, it’s very well thought out. Yeah, you can you can live with the angal the contract the the the prospects you can balance out or you can turn that the s you know San Jose gets a BC level prospect you could try to get a better prospect maybe from the Islanders. I do like the Colorado pick being 2026 though or maybe even bleeding into 2027 because you never know what’s going to happen. So, a disaster happens. Suddenly, that 2027 pick is like a top five pick out of nowhere. And that’s that’s a nice lottery pick to to kind of uh nice lottery ticket to kind of buy there. But I would say probably not still because I still would like the number two pick to go for a lynchpin kind of player. Like even that proposal I I just did what number two and taking back Samuelson’s contract and Byron at a number nine. I don’t love that proposal, by the way. I’m not advocating for it. It’s just a thought that I had that sort of terms of value and helping Buffalo out with the bad contract. Actually, the it’s a lot of the same thinking of uh Dylan Small Dylan Dylan’s proposal here. The the framework has some similarities. So, yeah. All right. A couple more questions related to the number two overall. Oh, here’s the Buffalo thing. Here’s the Buffalo thing. Trade number two for Power Doin or Byum. They’re not going to do it for Dalan. So that’s number one. Yeah, let’s let’s take that off the table. That’s not remove that. Uh I’d do it for Owen Power, right? And so why do you like uh Power more than Byum? I think um Byum the inconsistencies have been prevalent. Um it’s also injury concerns. Sure. That that’s I think that’s that’s real. Yeah. And Power has been more Yeah. He’s 22. He’s been up and down in the league, but like it’s still hard to be 22 and putting up like 40 points a year. Mhm. And playing 22 minutes a night um and being a number one overall pick. So like he’s been the guy that 10 years from now is still going to be playing probably on an contending team’s top pair. I don’t know if he’s going to be the number one, but he’s going to be on their top pair for a long time. whereas Byum has some components that are like super high-end, but there’s a lot of risk with his profile. So, I I like Power a little bit more and he’s also signed and he’s under contract for a long time to a good value that I would I would say that’s just like an easy Yeah, we’re going to upgrade our defense pretty significantly and uh go from there. That I would take in. Yeah. You know, for me, this is more like I think on the surface, Power is the obvious pick. He was the number one pick. He signed, like you mentioned, like I think he’s like 8 8.5, which is not a terrible figure for a number two defenseman. Um, so I think that he’s also kind of like the bigger, more exciting name. He’s a little bit younger than Byum. But the reason why I go with Byron is just things that I I talked with a a I talked with the AHL coach and just just talking about different players and what they’ve heard about different players. And I will preface this by saying that this is not this is not Buffalo’s coach or Buffalo’s assistant coaches or whatever, right? But I will also say that this is a this is a person that has been an AHL coach that is connected and people talk about players, right? And his impression is that Byron is the one you pick for sure just in terms of the room stuff and just that just the overall just anything that that that that you can point to in terms of I think the two things that stood out from from what I talked to them was just and there weren’t specifics given. So, I know that’s why I I hesitate to say too much about because I’m not trying to say that Owen Power is a bad room guy because I don’t know this, right? And this is not even what what this guy told me. But this but this coach told me that yeah, if I were to pick a guy, it would it would definitely be my room though. And just his his impression, let’s just say his impression of a guy that you want to build around more. And so that was good enough for me. So to to go to go with with with Byum and just my impressions of Byron game Byron’s game is that it is more allound it is more flexible it is a guy he has won a Stanley Cup so he seen that part of it right even if he had even if he wasn’t a number one defenseman on that Avalanche team that won a Stanley Cup and so I feel like those kind of components like I I like to bet that this is a guy the big concern for me is the injury stuff. So that would be the one that be yeah maybe I don’t make this trade. But besides that though in terms of like in terms of as a leader in the room off the ice that Byum is the one that I’m hearing a little more positive stuff on. And for me that is really important if you’re going to invest eight years in a guy that you’re investing in the right guy. Right? That’s always the question. If you’re going to invest that long in somebody be it Mitch Marner or anybody you can think of it’s got to be the right guy. All right, we’re out of actually. Sorry. Uh I I did promise I was going to talk about Samuelson too a little bit too before we get out of the the Buffalo portion of this. So just really quickly. Uh so yeah, he really has struggled the last couple of years is what this scout says. and yeah uh definitely didn’t become the player that Buffalo thought he would become when Buffalo signed him to seven I think a seven years $30 million contract at a at a really young age he is just 25 and so obviously Buffalo I think would love to move a guy like that right and so you again that’s something that that I can’t say because I don’t watch him enough but like if you’re the Sharks right you have or a Sharks fan you have to imagine like let’s say the Sharks signed Maro Ferraro to a seven-year $30 million contract a couple years ago, which actually doesn’t sound that inconceivable, right? In terms of just how much the Sharks love Ferraro and like whatever, right? And then he struggled a bit, but do you believe in the guy, do you believe that he could turn it around, right? So I would say if Mar forall had the same kind of kind kind of like contract with the Sharks was another team looking at him. The thing I could say for Marillo at least is that is he ever going to be as good a player as his contract? Maybe not. But there is not a question of how hard he’s going to try that he does can help you still if you use him right defensively that he he brings a lot to the table still even if it’s not three four million worth right and so if if you check out Samuelson that’s what you get back that hey this guy still still has those intangibles that we talk about those winning traits right then that might be a a gamble worth taking. So, if he doesn’t, if he got his contract and now he’s he’s he’s living fat off of it, which I would not say off of out of a Ferrar type. Ferrar is a guy that you know is going to try to make the most out of whatever he signed to even if he is not a capable of doing it uh physically for whatever reason. But, but so that’s what I would check with the Samuelson. So, again, if you can make a commitment to the guy, is this guy a fit? Is this guy what you want? Granted, with a guy like like Samson, he can probably stomach a buyout, but this is per year total isn’t as much. But anyway, we got to we got to we got to get moving. We are at the part where Frodo just gets wrapped up by Sheilob in the thing and Sam is hugging Frodo who is covered in the web. So, if Okay. Yeah, we’re he’s about to get to Mount Doom. So, right. He’s inside Mount Doom, right? Isn’t that he’s actually inside me? He’s in like the cave before the passageway that’s called. Okay. All right. Arch Mckel says, “What’s the plan for Sam Dick?” Oh, you skipped you skipped the David’s question. Did I? Oh, I did. You’re right. David, sorry. I apologize. Um, basically, are there going to be any changes to the Sharks jersey? You can get this one really fast. So, this that’s the good news here. And or should the Sharks go back to using their original logo? That’s not happening. The Sharks are so invested in this new logo. Yeah, it’ll take a a regime change of some sort. So, it’ll be if ever did happen, it’ll be a while from now. But anyway, though, I did I did ask the question about any changes to the Sharks jerseys next year. And so, I do have uh official word. I asked Doug Bence. He’s the head of marketing for the Sharks. And he says, and I quote, he he said it was cool if I if I quote him here, we won’t be changing any of the existing jerseys next season. So, that answers the question, right? It’s pretty clear-cut. Does that mean for the year after that? Who knows? Right. But one aside I would add to it just to add really quickly is that there is a rule that David alludes to that if you have a if you debut a new jersey, you’re required to use it for three years before you think about changing it. So next year will be year three of three for Califin. And actually we’re already at three of three for the the teal the the the new jerseys that they debuted. in I think it was 2022 or um anyway so so yeah 2022 23 so maybe if you take Doug’s statement there like not this coming year but maybe 26 27 we’ll see but anyway got got your question answered from the highest source possible from from the Sharks or the highest source marketing kind of jersey related source easy peasy easy peasy so Arch Mckel says, “What’s the plan for Sam Dickinson? What are we doing? Are we sending him back to the OHL? Is he going to play in the NHL? Uh is he going to get in like nine games then go back? It’s really early to say. Um I think he might get nine games and go back. That that would be a guess for me. I think he’s got some some growth to do, but maybe they think that he has enough raw skill to at least survive for a little while and then see. So that’s my guess. Yeah. Yeah. In terms of the the PL, that’s a very internal question. That’s something that I’ll have to check up on throughout the summer. Honestly, it’s a little early to be to be I think uh to be digging too hard on that. We’ll try to get we we’ve we’ve had him for the last couple of summers. So, I think we’ll get try to get Todd Todd Marshot uh back on the show, too. So, that’s something that we can maybe ask him about. But if you’re gonna ask me just like a likelihood or prediction for it, um, one thing I would say is that that will go contrary to what I’ve said before is that I didn’t know if Dickson would be ready for the nine game just because he’s the defense. Maybe you don’t want to expose him to it, but maybe there’s an argument to to at least give a change of pace on the OHL season to give him nine games. It doesn’t have to be nine in a row. You can keep him around for like a month and a half. You can play him like Yeah. half of the games, right? Just the exposure, practice, just take it all in with the plan of telling him like, “Look, we are not keeping you unless like of course like you go bonkers.” But maybe even say it before, don’t even put that out there. Like just tell him like, “We’re not keeping you.” That’s not the plan. But the plan is for you to be in the NHL for two months. It’s kind of like a a compressed form of what they did with Will Smith, but with more scratches and u just more about like we want you to be here. We want you to see what Mario Ferraro is doing and pros like that. See what they’re doing. And don’t put too much pressure on yourself. We’re not expecting you to carry us out of the seller. you’re going to play probably bottom pairing minutes, some power play and work up from there. And it’s more about the experience for him. So, I don’t know. Yeah, maybe maybe like that. Teams don’t really do that, huh? But why not though, right? I think one of the things that this is a little bit of a side, but one of the things that we’ve seen with the Will Smith plan, the Leo Carlson plan is that maybe teams are going to get a little more creative with their plans for these players. You know, in the old days, it was just like, are you good enough? Is there a chance that these nine games you’re gonna be good enough to stay was sort of the always the looming thing, right? And instead of that, just be like, “Hey, we’re gonna have you for a couple months here. You’re going to get scratched. It’s not because of your play. It’s just we just we want you to we want you to be here for a couple months and just see what it’s about before we send you back.” We have two questions about um a specific UFA, but if you wanted to be updated on the movie, the armies of Rohan have just approached the battlefield um near Minister. So, okay. It’s about to get nuts. So, Gandalf, Gandalf, Gandalf’s come riding in. No. So, Gandalf in that’s that’s the Two Towers. See, that’s a different movie. Oh, okay. Um I thought I thought Gandalf comes back in uh Okay, well, whatever. So Gandalf is in in Minister getting bombarded the whole time. Oh. Oh, okay. Right. Right. Right. Okay. This is like when he’s when he’s when he’s up there and and he’s he’s gonna he’s he’s going to show up the steward of Gondor, right? He’s going to Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t think the steward has died yet, but it’s going to happen. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. Um and then so this is the armies of Rohan who have have marched um and they’re going to fight. Uh this is the part of the movie where things are looking dire though for very dire. Oh yeah. Super dire for all for mankind. for mankind in Middle Earth. Um, so Beast and Lincoln race um wants to talk to us about offering Mitch Marner $19.1 million for two years. The max 20% of the salary cap, which is 94 95.5 million next year. Uh, and then I don’t know, vibes happen after that. And then maybe he stays, maybe he doesn’t, maybe we trade him. but just that for some reason Mitch Martner is going to take a 2-year contract even if it’s at $19 million. I think my biggest concern with this is that the math of $38.2 million and the math of like $80 million do not add up. So, even if like say you sign Mitch Marty to two years and you give him $19 million, um the other option is that he signs like a seven or eight year deal for 80 plus million. Well, I think even more than that. I think like with the cap rising like I think we’re talking like eight years, 120 maybe even a ton of money. So, why is he signing a two-year deal in the first place? because this is guaranteed. The NHL has guaranteed contract money. There’s no way that you get these big names to even sign for that max amount, even if it’s more money right now in the hope that they’re going to sign again later on. It just doesn’t happen because like yeah, I would 100% take $110 million over eight years than, you know, two $38 million over two. And in these proposals those defense defense though I proposed something not that dissimilar with Brady Sheay last year but the difference between Brady Shay what do you ultimately get from Nashville like seven years like 50 million or something like that probably and so the difference wasn’t as high. I was talking like two years 20 million. So yeah so like there’s a little bit of difference in terms of the amount of money. This is like basically 40 million versus 120 million or versus so so there is that difference. So much money. Yeah. Yeah. not not seeing I mean you can offer it all you want but I’m not against it either because the Sharks do have cap space and Marner does make you instantly better even if I don’t know if he’s the right guy that you want to give eight years to or seven years to but he will make you instantly better but it just doesn’t really make sense for Mitch. Yeah, I just don’t think it makes sense for him. And like maybe it helps the Sharks, but it doesn’t make sense otherwise. So that’s Lincoln Race and Beast questions. But I I do think maybe we explore Mitch Martyr more in the offseason. Yeah. I mean, call his agent. I mean, what’s it hurt, right? But Mitch is also adding to his value, too, with a good playoffs, which he hasn’t necessarily had in the past. And so that’s going to be another thing too where if Toronto had been flamed down the first round again, then maybe he is going to leave and he is going to be creative in what he’s looking for because he he he’s going to leave no matter what. So, but in this case though, if if if the Toron Toronto goes far with him and maybe even though he was in trade rumors this past trade deadline that maybe maybe that will kind of calm things down or cheer things up for every area on for both sides, Toronto and Martner and so they’ll come to a deal relatively quickly. I don’t know, but All right, Boomer, question for Shang. Did you grow up a Sharks fan? So, I know I answered this a lot, so I’ll give a little more to this though. So, so you guys have something new to this question. So, yes, I Well, yes, I did. No, I did not grow up a Sharks fan. Sorry, we’ve been talking for well into Return of the King extended edition. Oh, yeah. But, but anyway, I did not grow up a Sharks fan. I grew up a Kings fan as many of you know. Wayne Gretzky got me into it. The Kings traded for Wayne Gretzky when I was a when I was a kid when I was six and I didn’t had heard of hockey and that got me into hockey. And I did want to add a couple things to this though that people may not know that when I got into sports writing and I’ve told actually a few people a few people ask me for career advice and I do tell them this so it’s not like I’ve never said this to anybody but when I got into sports writing my dream was to cover the Kings. That makes sense, right? I mean that’s anybody in this job. Their their dream is to cover the team that they grew up covering, but the Kings wouldn’t let me into their press box for a couple of I don’t want to get into the reason. It’ll take it’ll be too long. So, we can we can talk about that over a drink one day, but not through my fault, though. I’ll be clear about that. I did I did good work uh when I was covering the Kings and I I I I deserve to be up there, but they they wouldn’t let me in. And so at that point I decided I had to move on with my life and my career. And so that’s how I ended up in Vegas, which some of you know that I covered the Golden Knights for a year, their expansion year. And that was because at that point in my career, I couldn’t wait for one team to let me in. And that’s advice I tell every young writer that that comes to me. They’re often Sharks fans and they want to cover the Sharks, but I’ve also been fans of other teams. And I say, you’ve got to expand your horizons. You can’t just cover, you can’t just expect to cover the one team that you grew up, even the one sport necessarily that you grew up loving. You need to be open-minded to other teams, even other sports. And if you’re good at those other teams and other sports, you can always return to the team that you love if you want. And so that might lead you to think like, oh, Shen is going to go cover the Kings again one day. I’ll say it’s not likely. The Kings actually reached out to me a few years later and they wanted me to not to work for them because that’s a different proposal because you make a you might make more money that way. So then I had to think about that. But they wanted me to open a site and to cover the kinks and they would let me in their press box and whatever. Right? This was a couple years ago and I said no because I was essentially tired of moving and I like to think that the relationship the rapport that that we have you and I have and you guys know mostly you guys most of you guys know that I’m not a Sharks fan but it’s okay though because I think along with that comes a degree of objectivity and I’m the one telling you hey don’t don’t don’t don’t don’t pencil in Sasha Chilleski into your second line for the next decade. And I I am very I say I’m not proud is not the right word, but like I know that that’s been my role, I guess, in Sharks media that like I have people I can talk to who tell me this guy is not it. And the sharks may be telling you one thing, but I can tell you that, yeah, I talked to somebody that I trust and don’t put all your don’t don’t put all all your stock into into this prospect. So I I think I I think that’s a very important role to have in in media. So anyway, um the other thing I would add to that too, just I guess since we’re going to talk about the kings, the fandom, right, is and I don’t know if I’ve said this story on the podcast, but I know I’ve told these people the story before, too, is that the first time it really was tested when I was covering the Golden Knights was Golden Knights and the Kings play each other in the first round. And to keep the story simple and short, I stopped becoming I stopped being a Kings fan in that series because I realized that I was more of a fan of myself and my career than the Kings because if you’re covering Golden Knights, the Kings, right? The Kings destroy the Golden Knights. What kind of is that good for my career? No, it’s not, right? Because I don’t get to cover the wonderful playoff run that I cover with the Golden Knights. That’s how I kind of a lot of people got to know me nationally from my coverage of the Golden Knights on that playoff run and making Gerard Golant mad and things like that. So anyway, people wonder how can you not be a Kings fan anymore? Oh my god, I can’t believe it. And I I get that that that fandom thing, right? Like I’m sure a lot of you guys listening to this would never drop being a a Sharks fan or you tell yourself that. But for me, it was a question of me or the kings. And I chose me. To quote Ivan Drago, I choose me. You choose you. Uh, okay. Uh, Juan Ribbolo says, “Do the Sharks pick for need in 2026?” So, if we picked like a forward this year because we don’t get Schaefer, uh, do we pick a defenseman next year? Depends on where we land, I guess, because there’s there are some good defenders like, uh, Savior Villanua, I can’t ever say his name, and Katon Verhov. Um, but it’s the same thing with this year. Like, we were like, “Oh, maybe we can get Schaefer.” And then we didn’t. So, they’re just going to pick BPA. Like if it’s not if it’s not one of the guys like not one of the defenders, they’re just going to pick the best player available if they’re this high. If they’re in like the two, three, four range, one, two, three, four. If they’re like 7 through 12, they might swing for a defender instead. That that might be lower on the lists. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I I’m all about BPA. So, I agree with that. Yeah. Like if anyone asked me when you start to pick for need like I mean never I think because if you get BPA you can always trade BPA for need maybe. I think the only case is and you’ve heard some scouting people talk about this before that if players are all things being equal then maybe that position is a tiebreaker but yeah that’s my philosophy. I don’t know Mike’s philosophy but but Zeke has two questions. Mhm. How can you tell if Mike is excited? That’s a good one. The first one. That’s a good one. So, watch the 2024 draft lottery post postdraft lottery media session versus the 2025 postdraft lottery media session. You’ll see a couple smiles from Mike in 2024 that I don’t think are as consistent and regular in 2025. I think that’s that’s how you can tell. But it is a it is a funny question though. Mike is is a guy that he he likes to joke around. But yeah, there’s not a ton of there’s not too much of that you see on camera. So it does it does remind me of and I don’t want to go through this whole story because I told the story earlier to Keegan. It was terrible. But just go watch the movie Black Dynamite. I love that movie from 2009. And just go watch the scene where Black Diamond says, “I am smiling.” And so if you know that movie or you can just look up Black Diamond, I am smiling. And you’ll see that that that’s kind of my career there. That’s a little Mike Greer there. So his second question was, “Are we gonna trade for Wool or Stellars from the Toronto Maple Leafs?” Which seems to be a little bit of a current news, I guess. Um I think we both have the question of why is Toronto trading one of these two goalenders, right? Yeah. Because they’re both signed next year to a combined 6.1 million and they are out outperforming or performing to that. Yeah. So that’s and that’s how you keep your team loaded up with forwards with Marner and Matthews and Knander because because in other positions you you need to you need to be efficient with it, right? And they needed to outperform the cap figure which those guys in in tandem have. So yeah, so I’m not seeing it. I guess the only reason why Toronto might want to move on from one of these guys is is they have Hill to be down there who’s a pretty good prospect. Um, I’m not sure if he’s waiver exempt next year. I think that’s a good question. They good question. Uh, if he is waiver exempt, then they might be forced to make a decision on him. So, I’m going to be I’m gonna look at that actually. I’m actually curious. That is a legitimate question. I think for Hill to be uh I don’t this year he is waiver exempt. I think next year he’s going to be too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They have a calculator for it. So, so next year Hildabby is still going to be waver exempt. So they can still hide him in the AHL. So I’m not seeing any reason for Toronto to move on from one of these guys unless you give him a super stupid stupid offer, but why would you do that? So for Joseph Wool and or Anthony Stolars, right? So Swede Shark asks, um, what about Victor Ecklund for the Sharks? How likely is it the Sharks draft Victor Ecklund who’s gonna be projected in this kind of six to 12 range for the draft? I’d say not likely. Yeah, I I agree. I’m not I’m not seeing it. Um I like Vic Directlin a lot. I think he would help the Sharks and it’s a cool story. It’s just not the right year if they if the Sharks landed in that seven to 10 spot maybe. Yeah. Uh I think that’s a solid possibility. He’s not like his brother in terms of his brother is, you know, the gecko, the like silky, the move around, don’t get hit guy like Eklan likes to or Victor Eklan likes to hit and likes to battle a little bit more than his brother did at the same age. Um, what what’s his size though? He’s a smaller guy though, right? I think he’s just slightly bigger. Yeah, similar size to his brother. Maybe tiny bit bigger. A little bit more built at the same age. Definitely more built at the same age. but um and a little bit more of a shooter rather than like the playmaker that his brother was. So good player though. It’s just um not in the Sharks range, I think. Yeah, I think I think next year with the Sharks, you’re hoping that that’s a range that they’re in that they have a chance at McKenna if things if things fall right, but more likely they end up with seven, eight, whatever. So, yeah. And if the story were there, we’d all be like, “Oh, that’s a cool story.” Yeah, go grab him. He’s a good He’s a good player regardless. So, Joseph said, “How hard is it going to be to fill the holes on the Sharks roster through free agency?” I think this is actually really similar to next question, too, if you want to. My answer is going to be similar to both. Yeah. And T Graaline kind of asked like, “How chaotic is this offseason going to be with some teams needing to retool uh like Boston and maybe Nashville and LA and stuff like that? I I I look at that and I see T graveline, but you’re probably right. Probably said Taline. You’re probably right. Anyway, though, um, so to answer both your your guys’ questions, the reason why I bucket these together, I don’t know what you think, but I actually disagree with something that that you’ve been saying, Keegan, about how the league is going to move from being less cap conscious to being like focused. Sure. I I think that this transition the next couple years to a much larger cap 95.5 next year I think projected what is it 102 like projected in in uh I’m actually curious want to make sure I give right projections here 104 in 2026 27 and 113.5 the next year right very quickly teams are going to catch up and they’re going to they’re basically going to going to spend stupidly I think this off season probably that’s my prediction and so you think you have a surplus of space by this time next year we’re going to be talking about the same things the teams want to get rid of contracts being willing to to to tack on high picks or relatively high picks to get that’s my prediction I could be wrong so but anytime teams have had chance to spend stupidly in general, they do. So, so I think that that that’s my that’s my historical precedent for this and I think it’s mostly accurate. So, I think what’s going to happen is that there’s going to be this crazy competition for players and then suddenly of Gabricov is going to come out with like eight million for a year for seven million. Like what the hell? It’s very possible for sure. you know, and that’s why I think a Mner is going to he’s going to break records because he’s just the best guy out there and he’s going to get he’s going to get if he come if if he becomes a free agent or if Toronto signs him, he’s he’s going to be, you know, you’re going to look at, oh, hey, 15 million it breaks a record, but or 16 million, whatever it is, it’s going to break a record, but in 2027 28 when the cap is that’s how teams think when in 2027 28 the cap is 113 million. You can stomach martyr at 17 million per year or something like that. So I think that basically there’ll be so much money spent that like within like next summer like I said I I would predict that that that there’s not going to be a ton of space anymore. So to answer the exact questions from Joseph how hard will be I think it’ll be hard because teams are going to be basically in my mind and again I could be wrong so remind me of this if I’m wrong but I feel like teams are just going to be outdoing each other to spend stupidly possibly. Yeah yeah I get what you’re saying. It’s going to be there’s not a lot of assets and a lot of space. So, we’re going to get the Who was it? David Clarkson that got there there’s there’s a lot of space, but there’s not a lot of assets. That’s what I mean. Yeah. Did I say the opposite? Yeah. Yeah. Well, you said no. You said there was there was there was there was neither of both. So, yeah, there’s a lot of space right now. Lot of space, not a lot of assets. There’s not a lot of assets. That means that I think we’re going to see some really stupid money for probably the top defenseman Eblad Gabricov uh for Marner for Eers. So that’s where like you got to find your bargains and not bargains but the guys this is where smart money where I might wag my finger this time July 1 and be like hey maybe we should have just resigned Kyle Brandlin back in back in February. So but I’m just I’m gonna maybe I’m wrong. So, we’ll we’ll see. But that’s that’s my prediction that that when teams have a chance to spend like drunken sailors, bet on them to do it. Um, quick update. The king of Rohan is dead. Oh, no. He has died. He has been crushed to death by Wait, wait, wait. Has his daughter stepped up yet, though? Yes, she did the whole like stab in and say, “I am no man.” No, no man can kill me. Yes, I am no man. Yeah, she did that. She She stabbed him through the the helmet. Okay, nice. And uh now she’s crying over his dead body. Okay, so that’s where we are. So we got to we got to pick it up because we’re we’re getting there. Did the Did the Ghost Pirates joined the fight yet? Because then didn’t didn’t they turn the tide in that fight? Well, I don’t Or is that a different They did. Yeah. Yeah, they did. They joined the fight. Okay. Um they’re wandering through the battlefield now trying to pick up the pieces. Has Aragon not released them from from from their battle yet? Okay. So yeah, he he stepped from the battle. All right, go on. Keep it moving, Aragon. Keep it moving. We still have an hour and a half, maybe. Oh, I don’t want to spoil how long we have left. Well, you just did. All right. Chris also asked, um, do we have like an idea of what the roster construction is going to be for the for next year for the Sharks? Hey, we’re near the end, though. I think we’re in the final 10 questions. Yeah, we got like 15 questions. 10 questions. Oh, okay. Maybe 15. Sorry. This really is like Return of the King. I thought we were at I thought we were at the end, but we’re not. There’s four more scenes to go. This, by the way, breaks the the record from last time for number of questions. So, by one, I think you said, right? So, but anyway, to answer Chris’s question, uh, the way that I’m going to try to answer this, the way that makes sense to me is Chris, you also asked about the barracuda, but barracuda are so hard. There’s so much movement in AHL that you really have no idea. Like you have a guy like Ptoarowski signed, but he might lead and the Sharks might have to let him go just because they got to be they they’ve got to be good guys. Like if KHO says, “Hey, we’ll give you a million and a half.” And your guy asks you, “Will you release me from my contract?” Well, you’ve got to just like the Ghost Pirates and the Return of the King. But anyway though, um, so the way that I’m going to try to answer this question is kind of in terms of more like what the Sharks really need on their roster kind of. And I know that it may be obvious answers, but that’s maybe the best way to look at it in terms of like, okay, the Sharks aren’t in the market for a 1C because they’ve got a future one already, right? The Sharks are not in the market for a starting goalie because they’ve got a future one already. very close, you know, AHL ready guys. So then we’re talking about, okay, well, they’ve got to fill their defense and they have no right now legitimate playoff caliber top four defenseman. You might talk yourself into next year Moan and Ferraro can be your second pairing, which is fine, but then that means you need to find a passable a passable top pairing just to pass the time. It’s a it’s a bridge top pairing. you’re not necessarily going to find your answer for number one, number two defenseman for next year. Maybe you will find it if you trade for Byron or Dobson Dobson or somebody like that, but I wouldn’t guarantee it though. So, you might have to make some magic and make do with the Wallman CC kind of kind of combo again, right? So, anyway, you need to find a couple of top four defenseman at minimum. So, let’s just say that you also are still looking for some help on wing, I think. [Music] um upgrades. You have good players in Tyler to follow. You have Willie Mcklin there. But maybe you have Will Smith back there. We’ll see. But I think you need a guy that, and I’ve said this before, you want a guy that you feel comfortable with. Okay. If Will Smith is ready to be your 2C, fine. We’ll put this guy that we signed or traded for at wing and he’s going to be good there. So that could be your John Tvarez. That could be your ML Granland. That could be a couple other guys that we talked about. Matthew Shane, guys that got have been played both comfortably over the years, right? You don’t want to get like a winger who can only do that. You want a guy, I think you want to still try to try try to add a guy that can do both in a in a top six capacity on a good team. Now, the Sharks, he’s going to be amazing player because the Sharks won’t be a playoff team. Um, so I think that’s that’s sort of the the need that you’re looking for for all these guys that we talk about. You want good room guys. you want, you know, keep the vibes going, right? All that kind of good stuff, right? So, that’s important, too. Um, I think, let’s say you do add that kind of that like that dream, that dream top six center winger. Really, the ideal guy, I’m not going to say ML Bren, the ideal guy you really wanted that was Logan Logan Couture. Pick somebody else. Logan Couture. It really was supposed to be Logan Couture. So if you can if you can find the kind of uh a guy who’s like 90% as good as Octo like Randlin maybe I don’t know 90% is probably accurate uh or a guy like Tavvaris that can kind of fill in there then I think that’s okay but that’s kind of what you’re looking for there. Um, so then let’s say you figure that out and so now you have the option to move Will Smith back to wing if you need to or you have a good winger to play with him in a in a John Tvarz or whatever. Right. So then at that point then you are Celrini Smith Tavvarz and Wenberg up the middle. I like that. That’s good. That’s good. And then at Fourthline Center, then Fourth Line Center, you can find somebody. You can find I think Giles or Stockchuck, uh maybe Beaststead, right? These are these are all reasonable guys that can do a good give you a good eight minutes a night maybe, right? And I think you could use another kind of middle six winger, a guy that can slide up and down between the third and second line. kind of like an upgrade on kind of like what you hope Luke Cunning was gonna be but didn’t quite end up being like a guy that you could trust for 15 goals a night that you could play in the in the top six in a pinch and he won’t hurt you or he could be a complimentary guy there like he can kind of be like the worst player on a top six line but help you because he’s doing kind of the things that other guys aren’t doing or a guy that’s a really solid third line guy kind of like a guy that basically basically you can play with Wenberg Sure. And uh so Wenberg is not the only skilled player on his line. And so then if you had a third line of let’s just say it’s like Colin Graph Weenberg and this this hypothetical free agent signing or trade then you suddenly have like if Graph pops off next year then you actually have valid third line and then you start to talk yourself into crazy things like hey this team is is is farther ahead in the development than than we’re talking about. So anyway, th those are sort of the the needs of the roster that I see that are sort of uh doable and fillable, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. I think we’re going to have more of a better idea in the offseasons. That’s my that’s my answer is once we start to get some holes filled and have some ideas, we’ll we’ll have a better answer for it. But to go back to Joseph and T Graalene or T Graveline’s question that some stupid money might be spent though to achieve these goals might be. Yeah, for sure. Especially short term. Yeah, it’s context that you would never dream of giving two years ago, I guess, is what I mean. So, just Steve asks, um, which teams do the Sharks leaprog next year because they’ve been last for two years. Right. Right. Right. Me look at the standings. One team that popped popped off to me is Nashville because Nashville unless you think that they’re going upward, which I don’t know if they are. I kind of don’t think so. Um that you have to get some new coaching in there and some new changes. I don’t think they’re changing a coach though, right? So I don’t I’m not sure if they are or not, but I don’t believe so. Um sometimes that’s what kickstarts it. you know, a team like Pittsburgh obviously, right, is not a team that you see on the rise, right? Even if they try to do things to kind of hang around. Um, you know, the Islanders are in a weird spot where they don’t feel like they’re going upward. So, what do they do with their big contract, so they start to kind of break it apart a little bit? Vancouver obviously has a ton of question marks in terms of is is Person any good really? I guess that’s a question these days if he’s really worth uh uh EP 1116, right? Or EP1 116 if if he’s worth that that contract figure. Yes, I mean is a team that’s made up of like a lot of decent players, but just not a lot of great players. And so if that doesn’t happen for them, um so anyway, those are some some teams out there that I would throw out there. But let’s see let’s see realistically though. Um because I I I don’t really see the obviously I don’t see the stretch making the playoffs. I think maybe they can leap frog from last place maybe like a handful of teams. So let’s say it’s Chicago because Chicago doesn’t get much better. Let’s say it’s Nashville because Nashville keeps hitting the decline hits even harder. [Music] Um, Vancouver smells like a big decline year like like uh like Person disappoints and then Quinn Hughes pouts and they they trade him next year in the middle of next season for a huge package from New Jersey finally. [Music] Um, yeah, that that smells like one. The Islanders, right? Obviously with upheaval there too, right? Pittsburgh because they can’t they can’t figure out what to what they just can’t find the guys. This is of course they’re very much in the Sharks position from a couple years ago or from five years ago at the end of their the Sharks kind of golden age or whatever you call it and somehow already here just depend on Detroit and Buffalo just not figuring it out. Uh Boston I kind of like I I have a good feeling about Boston kind of being better next year because their core players right yeah seem are young enough and good enough. They’re all in their late 20s, right? So, or earlier than that from Makavoy to Pastern and Swayman. So, are we ready to move on? Yep. All right. Matias A93 has one question for me, one question for you, Shang. Okay. Um, he asked me, “What is the my favorite book on the shelf behind me?” Um, a lot of these books are my wife’s, my fiance’s. [Music] Um, I think the the most apppropo is um is the the return of the king on this side. Um, I have uh I do love the Tolken book. So, I’m going to go with Tolken, but probably The Hobbit is my favorite Tolken book. That’s my favorite one, too. On the shelf. Have you read past I’ve only read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Have you read like this the what is it? A Samarian. Is that what it’s called? Seamarilian or whatever it is. Semeilian. Yeah. Have you read past? I own it. It might be on this shelf. I have never read it. I do own it. Um, besides that, most of the reading is done by by her and not by me. So, textbooks here, which if there’s one book on island that you you have to take here, what would it be? Desert Island. Your desert. Uh, I’m gonna go with uh the complete collection of Sherlock Holmes books. Okay, that’s a good thought. This is a like Sherlock Holmes complete collection. Yeah, cuz then it’s like you’ve got like 20 stories in one. So, it’s not like you just got one story. Yeah. Right. I’m going to go with that. Okay. But most of these books are hers. So yeah, it’s a nice it’s a nice bookshelf. There’s also Roberto Law Wongo up there which I found in a thrift shop for like five bucks. Oh, is that like McFarland figure? Yeah. Okay. It’s a McFarland figure. It says 14.95, but I got it for five bucks. Nice. Okay. Got to pump that guy’s tires. I love the Roberto with the the Orca. It’s just a classic look. It is. It is. Yeah. Uh yeah. Anyway, that’s my bookshelf. Your question, Shang. My favorite basketball player. Yeah. And I’m a Lakers fan. Sorry, guys. And I again, I can’t I can’t believe the Lakers blew a chance for Steph Curry, LeBron, round two. So, so silly, but it’s gonna be a Laker player. And it’s I grew up I grew up in the 80s so I was grew up a fan at a good time for the Lakers. So my favorite player is going to be Magic. I remember him getting announcing an HIV and everyone thought that was like a death sentence back then, right? Everyone thought Magic was going to be dead in two years and I was still Yeah, I was still a kid back then when when he announced that. So, but still remember the great plays. I was a little older when Magic returned much chubbier and less effective. But anyway, so it’s it’s it’s got to be Magic. Um the other players like Shaq was a lot of fun, but uh co Kobe was great, but Kobe is really tarnished in my mind with the the rape allegation that he basically admitted to more or less. Um I I like Luca a lot. Luca is a lot of fun to watch. I do like LeBron. Not a Lakers fan. kind of hates on LeBron. Um, so anyway, a lot of great Lakers, but I’m going to go with Magic. So, it stays safe there. So, all right. Finn Co had a very long question which we have thoughts on basically basically like where is Leo Salenius play next year and what do we feel about him? Right. And I think this is out there already, but I talked with OF Bowden and you guys know him. He’s like the man for Swedish in terms of Swedish hockey. And we were DMing right after Wenius signed his his his ELC. And so anyway, Wenius is a second round pick. So again, the SHL NHL agreement that you can’t you can’t you can’t put those guys in the AHL basically unless the basic of the agreement is like a guy like Beast said, right? You can have over here and put him in the AHL because he’s a first round pick. But if it’s not a first round pick, I think it’s seen as okay, why do you have him in a lower league? Why are you taking away this prospect from the SHL? Mhm. And so Senius then the only way he can go to the AHL until he’s 24 is if his team lets him go his SHL team. And so my understanding is that and it’s out there is going to play for how do you is it Vro? Is that how you say it? Vak Vro I don’t know. Yeah. Um Vaktro I think. I don’t the Lakers though. The Lakers. He’s gonna play for the Lakers. Anyway, so he’s going to play with them next year. But what what mentioned and we’ve seen like said a few examples and I mentioned this is that teams can’t get around this SHL NHL agreement. I mean there are ways to get around it, right? Basically the SHL club has to agree to let this guy go if he’s not a first round pick. And so this is where you start talking about I mentioned this with Havlid like that the team wants to take control of this player’s development. And so with with Willinius still in Willius signing his ELC, maybe there’s something where the Sharks are saying, “Okay, you stay in Sweden for one more year, but we’re going to take over his your development after this.” And his team agreed to that. Basically, one thing that did tell me, and I’m not I’m not I’m not as uh I I wasn’t as familiar with this, is that he described Selen Williams’s season as really messy playing with a bunch of different teams, which I think is right. Right. Didn’t he play in Lia too this year? I think I saw that. Yeah, he was all over the I think he played in Liga as well. Yeah. So, I think this is a sense of like, okay, like um we’re going to give give you one more chance in Sweden, but yeah, don’t around with with this guy or we’re going to take him back next year and and there’s a tacid agreement between the Lakers, the Bachelo Lakers and the Sharks that that that’s going to happen. So, that’ll be the guess, but we do know he’s going to play in Sweden next year, and I think that the hope is that he finds some stability there next year. So, yeah, I think he can do it, too. I’ve He’s got some I think he’ll he’ll find a roster spot. It’s just how much time he’s going to get hopefully. But that’s just And I guess in terms of his development, um, yeah, obviously bouncing around all the teams he did this year, not a good thing, but he’s still, I think, a pretty good prospect. kind of leans more defensive, right? And kind of a smaller guy, though. So, we’ll see how it all works out. But anyway, just to give you a quick quick uh cap of all the teams that he played with. Quick recap, he played for both the uh the Lakers, uh SHL, I guess J20, is that like their their highest junior league? He played for Al Spenskin for a team called Nro. Um he also played in Liga for TPS. So, that is a lot of teams. Yeah. Bounced all over the place. Yeah. Um, okay. James Barrett says, “Is there a specific like position or position grouping that has a valuable surplus in the shark system that we can try?” Oh, we probably other questions. Yeah. To uh get a specific asset like defenseman. We know, right? We mentioned it. So, especially in the prospect pool, Musty, Turnoff, Palton, Lond, all those guys, right? And of course, centers too. The centers too. So yeah, scoring winger and um guys that haven’t made it yet but have still some value. They have not diminished their value a ton from their draft year. So they do have some guys there. They could they probably will attempt to swing those guys for places they don’t have places of need. All right. R Phillips 19 says, “Where would Misa and Schaefer be picked if they were in the This is a question for you. I’m going to turn on I’m going to turn on the light for Mushu. I’m going to step away for a second. Take a take a moment. Yeah, literally I’ll be back in a moment. So, go ahead. Um, it’s interesting. The 23 draft was loaded. So, Schaefer and Misa would behind would be behind the top four probably. I think the Carlson, Fanti, Bedard. I think once you get into the Smith territory, then you’re starting to think about Schaefer. um because there wasn’t a a D in that draft that was super good. So I think maybe around that four spot for Schaefer. Um maybe three if something else happened or a team needed a D and then Misa right after that spot probably after Mitchoff but that’s also dependent on teams boards related to Mitchkov and Smith and all that. So for 23 I was just saying it’s like I think the top three remain the same and then Schaefer maybe three maybe four and then Misa after Smith and Mitchkov. Okay. Right. We we actually answered this uh during the our draft lottery live live stream. You said that you had Misa. You think Misa will go behind Smith? I think so, but it would be close. Okay. Be pretty close between the two. I think Misa has a little bit more size, so maybe teams would value that, but not a lot lot size, just a little. And then 24 draft, it’s a little tougher. I mean, Celbrini goes one, right? But I think Misa would or I think Schaefer would beat out Levana for top defenseman. So, he might go two if Chicago was looking for a D. Um, and then Misa in that three to four, five range somewhere in there. Okay. So you think do you think Lev could go ahead of Misa then? Maybe. I think I honestly think Misa would probably go ahead of him. I think Lev was picked just because he was the best defenseman on the board and that’s it is what it is. It’s just the way that it it it crumbled in that draft here. Um I think he would go ahead of like Kaden Lindström and all of those guys. Um now who was three in that draft? I forget. Lindstöm was four, right? Let’s for um I can’t remember. It was only one draft ago. I should be able to remember. Uh Becket Senica was three, I think. Oh, that’s right. Okay. Okay. Okay. And then we’re in that portion of the podcast that we’re in that portion of Return of the King extended edition. We’re pretty far in. They’re marching on um Mount Doom right now in a in a uh feudal attempt to distract uh Sauron from finding Froto. They got to what? We We’ve got to be almost done. Whenever they drop that into Mount Doom, we’ve got to be almost done, right? We’re almost We only have like I think we’re going to That’s the whole point of the movie. So, I think we’re gonna beat it to be honest with you. Yeah, I think so. I think so, actually. Okay. our R. Phillips second question was, have all successful rebuilds actually drafted their defenseman? And I think there’s two ways to answer this. I guarantee you that all of the the winning Stanley Cup teams have defenseman that they have drafted probably. Well, I I don’t think that’s the I think it’s more question. We’re asking about the the Lynch fame guys, right? Like, yeah, no one cares about your number six defensive you drafted, but So, I don’t think that’s the case. I think teams can be built in many different ways and have been built in ways that do not require I mean look you can kind of like like look this up like on your own kind of in a sense of like look at all the selling cup winners and their number one defenseman and how they acquire them right so like Florida is a very interesting case where it’s probably not not the most likely case where their number one defenseman is arguably Forsling or even Montour right and they Forsling they picked up off of waiverss monour I don’t remember But they didn’t I think Montter was like one of those like two-year like $6 million signings or whatever. You know, he was he was kind of he was on the outs in I think Buffalo. He wasn’t he wasn’t doing well there. So, um so that’s that’s unusual case. You’re not usually going to build your your your top defenseman. You’re not going to get them off the scrap heap like that, but it can happen. So, um yeah, I actually do want to double check that with Mont. Mantra was signed to a three-year $10.5 million contract in uh 2021. So, yeah, not not a high-end contract. Not not a waiver pickup, but still not a high-end contract there. Um, if you look at though the year before Vegas, right? So, Peter Angelo is our best defenseman and that was obviously out of free agency. But then we go into Colorado, Tampa Bay, and then the Blues in 2019, and Peter Angel was their draft pick. St. Louis, Macar, Headmond, all draft picks, right? Uh Washington was what? John Carlson, that was a draft pick, too, but not a it was like a I think John Carlson was a late firstrounder. So, doesn’t always have to be like the the number one pick or number two, number three pick or whatever, right? Um, the Penguins, they found Latang, but Latang was a third rounder maybe or second rounder. The Blackhawks, Duncan Keith, second rounder. Uh, the Kings 2014, we’re back to that. Drew Dowy was a high high pick. The Bruins, Zoara, we’ve talked about that, right? That was a free agency signing. So, I guess if you look at that, and probably if you look back in the past, too, you’re going to conclude that the most likely way is to find him in a draft, but it’s not the only way. Yeah. And you’re going to need to build the rest of it out, too. I think we we do that a lot where we think we need to build every piece through the draft, and you don’t. You just need to build the right guys. And also doesn’t have to be a top five pick, too. Um, true. Like we mentioned, Latang, we mentioned Duncan Keith. Mark Edward Blastic. Well, no. Yeah, if you find a Mark Edward Blastic in the second round, a guy that like for a decade is going to be your version of Jacob Slavven, then yeah, that’s actually a good example. If Carolina wins the Stallion Cup this year, and if you consider Slavven to be their number one guy, Slavven was like a third round pick or something, right? He definitely wasn’t a first round or anything like that. Um, even if you go far back to like the Red Wings, the most their their their last selling cup and Nick Litram is not Nick Lram is not the best example of this because he was drafted in a time where Swedish players maybe weren’t drafted as high normally, but Lit was a third round pick a long time ago and actually in that draft a Swedish player did go number one, Matt Sundine. So, it wasn’t like Sweden was was ignored that year. So, uh, so yeah. So, I think I think again the point is that like you don’t need a tank forever and and to get your guy. That’s one of the the points there that uh that I would I would make. So, all right. Stephanie K um asks, “Is Ekkan the most valuable expend expendable trade piece?” She loves Eklland. He’s her favorite shark. Um, and to be honest, that’s not inaccurate. He might be the most valuable expendable trade piece. Expendable is not the right word, though. I think they still don’t have enough eklins in their system to Yeah, expendable is maybe not the right word, but I guess like you consider Mlin untouchable, you consider Ascaroth untouchable. Maybe not untouchable, but like you need that guy in that position, right? So if you do trade at Asparov, you need to have a goalie solution some somewhere else. Um you consider a defenseman like like Dickinson or Mikub Mullan to be you want to more likely keep him because again you don’t want to take from one hand uh rob one hand to to to to to feed the other. Um so then it’s like Eklyn and then we talk about Sherneshoff and Musty too. I will say one thing that’s going to be a little controversial, but like I think Will Smith could find himself in that place a couple years from now. Maybe not right now, but like uh we’ll see if Will Smith defines himself as like your Patrick Kane, even Clayton Keller type at least, right? Where he’s going to be more offensive leaning, but he produces so much offense that you kind of don’t worry about the other stuff. And that could be a really deadly pairing with Mlin Cabbrini. But if he tops out as more 60 70 point guy, like you mentioned like Dylan Stro as sort of a a a low a flourish kind of comp for for for for Will Smith, that’s expendable if he’s not if he’s not the Dylan Stro that we see now maybe, but like the Domestrom from a couple years ago where it’s like there’s a lot of scoring but it’s like it’s to some degree empty calorieish. Yeah. Calorieish. I’m not saying that it’s gonna that’s what’s gonna happen with with Will, but I would say that um I’m interested to see what happens there. Yeah, there could be a reality where that’s the case, but I think it’s going to be Yeah. three or four years before we get there. Yeah, it’ll be it’ll be it’ll be it’ll be uh it’ll be a couple years from now. Mhm. So, to answer the exact question, yeah, I do think Ekkan probably is the most valuable trade piece that is, let’s just say, the the most conceivable player that they might trade I guess right most valuable conceivable player like I can conceive them of trading Mukuma Madulan and I think Ekan is more valuable than Mukuman but because Ekan’s the because Mukulan’s a defenseman too I think it’s a little less likely anyway it’s a little less likely but so I think to answer your question Stephanie yes I think Ekkan might be I want to add something to your question that really interests me is how the sharks treat Eklan this summer like do they treat family. Uh Ekkan is eligible for extension on July 1st. He’s got one more year left in his contract, but he is he can sign for extension. I just give you an example of a guy, surefire guy that there’s no doubts that you’re going to give the eight years to was Conor McDavid. And when Conor McDavid became eligible for a similar extension that Edmonton signed him the first day, I think July 1st for like eight years, hundred million dollars. And I’m not saying that Ekkan you’re comparing Ekkan and Conor gave it any kind of sense, but I wonder if they if they give him that kind of treatment. I expect actually that they will give Mlin that kind of treatment when the same situation arises next summer. I don’t know. We don’t know what Mlin’s going to do next year, but I would guess that’s that’s what happens there. So, I’m really curious with with Ekkan if this is like a fight for a contract, if they’re like, “No, here is eight years.” And I mean, not $100 million, but here’s eight years and and 56 million. Eight years, $60 million. We love you. We want you here. Or if it’s like, h, you know, you have some points here, but we’re not sure if we’re going to win with you. I think that is a real question. And so, I wonder how that’s going to trend. And I know that’s going to be deeply imp unpopular to say that about to allude to that with Will Smith in a couple years from now. and to say that about Mlin, but I think that’s the reality of like the hard like the truth of where the Sharks are that like you can see Mlin being a playoff he wouldn’t stand up with him. Ascarov’s a goalie. So like okay like you can see like he has the potential to be elite guy uh shurkin a hella buck right if everything works out for Ascaroth everybody else I don’t know and that includes Will Smith that includes Sam Dickinson that includes William there’s a lot of talent there but like I don’t know if if this guy is is going to be if if any of these guys is going to be your Victor Hedman your lynchpin number one defenseman for a decade if any of these guys is going to be your Nikita Cucherov your lynchpin scoring winger or Patrick Kane, your Lynchman scoring winker. So, yeah, I think that’s that’s like if you look at the Sharks in a in the most real way, I think that’s the reality of the roster. So, all right, we have five questions left. They are trying to to scale Mountain Doom as we speak, so we got to hurry this up. All right, well, we got out of like the first 50 here. So yeah, we have five questions. And we haven’t actually reached like the the how do you say it? Um one of the movie the the endings of the movie like the movie probably should have ended arguably when Frodo woke up with the elves after he he he dropped the ring or dropped a golem in there and the eagles came to save him. He could have ended the movie right when he woke up basically around them. But anyway, go on now. Let’s not get We’re getting there. Um, Kyle J asks, um, where would Sam Dickinson be ranked or drafted in this year’s draft? Another Keegan question. I’m going to drink some water. Uh, I think he would honestly probably be around number like four. Like I think that because of this year’s draft, um the defenseman is Schaefer and then a bunch of question marks that Dickinson projects at such a higher level than guys like Murka and or not projects but like has a higher chance of of reaching the top four potential than Murka and um Jackson Smith that I think a team would reach for them in the top five. I think I think Dickinson would go top five. Um, I think a guy like Z Buiam would probably also maybe go top five, but it depends. Um, teams would still have question marks about his size. So, um, but he would because there’s just not a lot of defenseman beyond Schaffefer and teams love to draft D. Um, even if they don’t like even if there’s a good forward available, D still end up going higher in the draft than you think they do. Right. So, Right. Right. Right. Uh, okay. So that’s that’s that’s interesting. So he’s debatably the second best defenseman of this draft class, then I think he would be. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, that tracks. That makes sense. Yeah. Uh Chaz Marshall says, “Assuming the Final Four.” All right. Huh? Final four. Yeah, final four. Okay. Um assuming Mis is the pick, who do you think moves to wing, him or William Smith? Smith. You think Smith? I’ve always said I mean I think from the beginning when they drafted Smith like I wondered if he moved the wing eventually. So yeah. So I think he did well enough at wing to convince me that he could do wing. I was worried that because he played center for so long and his game is very um stretch the ice very playmaker kind of thing and he doesn’t have a lot of board battling to him that he might struggle at wing but he did okay. So, I think he would do all right at wing, but either one they might they might give the preference to Smith in the beginning just because he’s older. So, I mean, you what do you what do you think? Do you think Smith ends up as a wing? Like your prediction? I I still think he ends up as center, but I just think that there’s more of a debate there than people think, I guess, is is what I would say. Uh, I think he switches. I think it’s one of those like dryidal McDavid things. Okay. How about me? He comes in and out of the centerwinger position. Misa, but I think his primary would probably be center. Okay. Misa. Okay. Sorry, I’m talking about Smith. Oh, sorry. Okay. How about Misa? Misa seems like more of a center overall. His game seems more suited to being a center. I feel like Mlin’s gonna be one of those guys where it’s like an insult that he’s on wing. Like you’re not going to put him on wing. Like he’s on wing right now, but it’s because he’s with like Sydney Crosby and Nathan McKinnon, right? Yeah. Exactly. like he’s but like five years from now I’ll be like you’re you’re never going to take Mlin off a center. No, he’s going to be a center forever. Yeah. Yeah. So that’s going to be his job. But yeah, the other guys it’s a little bit of a question mark. Chaz Marshall also wants to ask NCAA or NC NHL for Misa assuming he doesn’t go back to the OHL which is still a possibility I think unless he signed in the NCAA and I didn’t hear NLI money could could Misa get like can can’t he like go with his brother didn’t his brother sign with Penn State so yeah you go play with him yeah actually I wonder why the rumors about Porter Martone why don’t you try to get get Michael Misa to come over instead of Martone to Penn today. But anyway, um I would guess that that keeping him in a level that’s not the NHL is going to be better for him. So I think Mlin is exceptional. I I do hear what you said earlier that Misa might be able to survive in the NHL, but I mean even with like Will Smith did it, but Will Smith, they gave them another year in college. And also too, uh, they were in the Will Smith had the leverage where he was like, “If you don’t put me in the NHL, like who knows what’s gonna happen, you know, as a as a NCAA free agent, right?” And so this coming year, Michael Misa doesn’t have that leverage. He may have it after a year in the NCAA, but doesn’t have it yet. So, I would say that for sure you would you would you put them down in a lower level and not expect them to to come into the NHL and do much of anything for you. So, yeah, I think just the way the Sharks have done with under Greer, I think it makes sense that he would go back to a lower level. Yeah, that would be my guess. Anthony says, “This is slightly different. Are we trading up from the Dallas pick to grab a D in this draft?” Yeah, that’s that’s a that’s interesting shape to the question. So So, okay, gotta look back on this to make sure, but so the the last four picks are the conference finals, right? I remember looking this up for the team Omire stuff. So they’re automatically the conference finalists, right? So Yep. Yep. Yep. Okay. So I think Dallas will be Winnipeg. They’re up to one in the series right now. So that’s like going to be 29 to 32 then pretty much. [Music] And so yeah, I mean I mean can that get you can that be a centerpiece for I don’t know centerpiece may not be the right word. It might it might have to be like you trade a Dallas pick. It can be one of the centerpieces, but then you add a good prospect or you add a second round pick and then maybe you can land at the low end like a net mitch or something like that. I don’t know. So, so yes, the answer is yes. Yeah, I think that they’re um um I think there could be guys in the middle of the first that that are available. Um Right. Right. That’s what you mentioned, right? Yeah. Jack Jackson Smith, Ram America maybe, um Cameron Reed possibly um that could be available that you might consider in that that range. Let’s look at the I want to look at the Puck Perry calculator right now. I’m interested in it. Let’s say you trade the let’s say it’s the 29th. Oh, it’s a Dallas pick. Sorry. And let’s say that pick is let’s just worst case scenario, it’s 32. And you trade it to who’s got a 15 pick? Uhhuh. 15 is or Calgary. Calgary is like 16, right? Yeah. Calgary 16. Vancouver is 15. Although Montreal has Calgary’s pick. So Oh, Montreal has it. Okay. So, let’s say Well, Montreal has a lot of defenseman, right? So, let’s just say they don’t want a defenseman. So, let’s just say Montreal then. They have the Calgary pick and let’s say 16 and yeah so you’re tra trying to trade 32 for 16 and the value right now is the 32 pick is 10 point 10.4 on the Perry pick value and the Calvary pick 16 is 23.5. So you basically need to add another late first rounder to even be close like to to talk about it. So, um, that might be the Edmond Edmonton pick next year then, right? So, or that’s a crapshoot a little bit. So, or we talked about it. It’s like the Sharks traated 11 for 27 34 and 45. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. 11. So, let’s say, well, Dallas is going to be is probably going to be 29 to 32. That’s a small shade of difference. But the but the Sharks do have 33. And what who uh whose second round pick do they have? the other one. This year’s a Colorado. I think they have Colorado. Let me double check. They have currently slated as 53. Okay, it’s close. You might add a little more, but like Yeah, that’s not quite 112745, but um or not. It’s not quite 2734 and 45, but but it’s also not the quantity team that you’re really or quantity draft that you’re looking for. So, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, 15 is lower than 11, I guess, if that’s your or 16 if that’s your target. But uh but yeah, as you mentioned though, it’s it’s not a quantity draft. So yeah, so teams may not be looking for that. Oh, it’s it’s Ottawa actually that they they have the Ottawa, which is going to be a little lower, but uh Gollum has fallen off of Oh, man. Okay. Well, we’re almost there. We’re almost there. We’re almost there. So yeah. So where’s the Ottawa pick projected then? 53. Oh, 53. Okay. All right. Yeah. So, it’s 33 and 53 is what they’re they’re projected for the second round. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, it’s close, but you know, we’ll see. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. You could see it. You could see it. But, like you mentioned, I think teams kind of know it’s not a quantity drop, so they might be a little a little a little more reluctant to do that. So, our last question. Um, take a deep breath, everybody. Yeah. Uh Sean Abu Zaliff says, “Can the Sharks sign Zland to an offer sheet even though they just traded for traded him?” Yes. Um yeah, they can. Yes, I checked I checked with an agent. They absolutely can. But the question is why? Yeah. Um so offer sheet is uh basically if the range that you’re probably looking at for a Zerland is 2.3 to 4.6 six and you have to trade a 2026 third second round pick. So if you give Ekkan I’m sorry is Zelin a contract in that area um you have to basically trade the 33 pick for him or not the I’m sorry that’s 28 I’m sorry not the 33 pick that’s next year but but you’re trading the pick that might be the 33 a high second round pick for him. So is that worth it to you? Maybe it is. Um, obviously he didn’t do much. Uh, he wasn’t as productive in Ottawa as you’d like. And I know he did the same thing with the Sharps when he first came over. So maybe next year he finds his game. I think with Ottawa too, it’s really interesting. I was talking with the agent, not not Zerland’s agent, but um, just what are they going to do with Zerland because he definitely didn’t add to his value with what he did in Ottawa. I know it’s not all about points, but I think in 20 games, regular season games, I think he had three goals and two assists. and in the playoffs, six games, he went pointless. So, [Music] um I don’t know. I don’t know. Yeah, I I don’t I mean, of course, they’ll qualify him, I guess, but like uh what is he at 2 million? Yeah, I think they would, but still though, it’s one of those things where I think they probably will keep him for another year to kind of see like, hey, did we make a mistake with this guy or let’s give him a chance because it’s kind of it’s kind of rough to move him so quickly. But I think it is a question mark though in terms of what exactly they’re going to do, right? Yeah. Like u if they were a little more cutthroat, you know, they might move on from him. But I I think that they obviously gave up a like a okay package, not an overwhelming package for him in the second round or no stop check. So they’re not going to just like cut him loose, I think. But yeah, you’re getting a stop check for free and then having to pay Zland. Well, if that were happen Yeah. like if they let Zelin go and just sign Zelin as free agent, right? That’ll be that’ll be fun. It’d be very wild. Um it’s just unlikely because I think just for the save face thing and really just to give a guy not even the safe face thing, but just to give a guy like a full year um to really figure out if he’s a player or not. But I can see them if Zerland doesn’t figure it out within by next year, they can be like we made a mistake here. So, so that could be like a short-term contract basically for a Zerlin where you know before with the Sharks you might have been looking at three four years or whatever, right? And or a bridge contract but a decent amount because he was productive and the vibes were good with him. He was wellliked in the room and all that good stuff, right? But with Ottawa though, higher expectations, playoff team, I’m sure they still like him because they did trade a decent package for him, but like but how does his kind of subpar regular season playoff showing, how does that affect his his contract is for sure it’s going to be a question. I think he’s not going to get as much money as he’s looking for. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely not not what the Sharks probably were going to kind of offer him. So, uh, which I tal I don’t think that Greer is going to retreat in that direction. That’s just the way that it seems. I don’t think he’s going to offer Cheetah for sure. Like I don’t think he likes him that much. I think I I could see like if Ottawa is crazy and just cuts him like Yeah, sure. Then you know, he can sign it back and he he can fill a role and and what we are at one of the endings so far. They’re sitting on the rock staring at all the Oh man, we So we passed the the first ending where the first hasn’t happened yet. They’re just sitting on the rock. Oh, are are they waiting for the eagles to come save them? Is that Yeah, they’re kind of just talking about the end of the world um to each other. Okay. Okay. That’s one of the first endings. Well, that one would be a weird ending, I would say. I think the first one that made sense to me is is the next scene when Yeah. the eagle’s coming or whatever. Yeah. And and he he wakes up to the to to his boys. So, yes. Um but anyway, uh yeah. So, not likely, but it is there is no rule barring the sharks from doing that. Just a reminder um that if the sharks were to offer sheet zerlin at a lower amount 1.5 to 2.3 basically that they would need to trade back for the 2026 third to do so though. Um do you want to say a quick word to the people who could not be featured? Oh jeez, thank you for reminding me. I almost forgot. Yes. Um, and a couple a couple of the guys I I couldn’t find the subscriber information, but you guys you guys have like I know the names. You guys have subscribed for a long time. So, maybe just something didn’t renew or maybe maybe maybe the the site’s gone downhill. I hope not. But, uh, but um, let me find Hold on. It is Where is the dock? Here’s the Streamyard. Oh, here’s the dock. And okay. Uh, okay. So, okay. Uh, oh, so here a little announcement. Um, and we’ll talk more about this later on, but uh, uh, Austin Del Austin SJ had a question for me, but Austin actually is a writer editor on the website, and I’ll talk more about his role. He’s also going to help with moderating the comments on the website a little bit. And I don’t know why he asked the question because he literally can just text me and we have a 4hour podcast. So yeah, so that that probably is more efficient. Um Stephen Stoker asked a question about weaponizing cap space and I couldn’t find um your your membership info. So Stephen uh just send me and this is for anybody in on this list here. just send me um the email that you use or whatever. That’s why I ask in the the call the mailback questions if you can let me know the mail that the the email that you use as as a member of of San Jose Hockey now. So, it’s easy for me to look up to backtrack. So, anyway, he asked a question about weaponizing cap space. Good question. But anyway, uh Jeff asked a question about well another pick another question about the number two pick basically and how actually maybe the number two pick was good for the Sharks because Misa is going to be so good maybe. And so Jeff again, uh, email me at shangpanggmail.com or at I think it is, is it SJ Hockey now or San Jose Hockey Now? SJhocking SJhawkowgmail.com. So either of those places will work. Uh, more likely I I’ll answer at my email though, [email protected]. And again, show me uh your membership email and and I will answer your question personally um or on the next episode. Andy asked a question, actually a good one about America and Jackson Smith. And sorry my uh my sniffles are getting worse at the end of this. So uh but watching the end of Return of the King, but anyway, I need proof of your membership. So again, shankpanggmail.com, [email protected]. George, uh, who has been a longtime subscriber, so not sure why I couldn’t find your email. Same question. Actually, it was, what would trade, uh, what would your trade move up to number one? Okay, so we did actually kind of answer your question anyway, but nonetheless though, uh, bonus question, even question for me, George, hit me up at those two places. So cool. Everybody else, I think that’s it. We had done it at 3:45. So 3:45 has met his boys in uh Oh god. He met his boys in Rivendell and now there’s 40 minutes of other endings that are happening right now. But Bill Bull hasn’t asked to see the ring again, which is kind of a Yeah, I don’t think so. A dark moment. So good. So we we we got we we beat the extended edition of Return of the King, but we would not have beat the theatrical version that ran 321 and was still too long in my opinion. But yeah, we would not have beat the uh the regular edition. Yeah. Um but we did beat most of the endings of the extended. So all right everybody, it’s been a long night. I hope you had a fantastic week and have a good week next time. It’s been fun. Uh, we will see you next time. Don’t be Don’t be sad that What is it? Uh, don’t be sad that it’s over. Be sad. Don’t be sad it’s over. Be happy that we experienced this together. There it is. Perfect. All right. Bye, everybody. [Music]

The San Jose Hockey Now Podcast is sponsored by Bring Hockey Back!

It’s part 2 of a mega-2025 Draft Lottery mailbag!

Part 2 is all about what the San Jose Sharks should do with the 2025 No. 2 pick.

In case you missed it, Part 1 focused on how to improve the Sharks next year, especially on defense.

Let’s get to the questions!

Jeremy: What would it take to trade up to the No. 1 pick? (2:16)

Nick Valderrama: Who would Keegan replace Sheng with? Is there a trade for the San Jose Sharks’ No. 2 that we like?

Sam: Thoughts about Martone? (18:02)

Brad Fitzpatrick: Is Martone a much more serious possibility than we think?

Austin Dias: How interested are teams around the NHL in the No. 2 pick?

Ben: What does the package look like that would tempt Mike Grier to trade down?

Matt Harrison: Who should the Sharks dangle for defensive help? The No. 2 pick? Which prospects?

Astoverpix: Trade Musty for defensive help?

Dylan Smallwood: Would you make this No. 2 pick/Noah Dobson trade with the New York Islanders? (34:54)

GH: No. 2 pick for Owen Power, Rasmus Dahlin, or Bowen Byram?

David: Will the San Jose Sharks make any jersey changes this off-season?

Arch Mickel: What’s the plan for Sam Dickinson?

Beast: Offer Mitch Marner a short-term, max AAV contract? (52:48)

Lincoln Race: Pitch for Marner?

Boomer: Sheng’s hockey background?

Juan Rebollo: Do the San Jose Sharks pick more for need in 2026?

Zeke: How can you tell if Mike Grier is excited? Should the Sharks target Anthony Stolarz or Joseph Woll?

SwedeShark: How likely is it that the Sharks pick Victor Eklund?

Joseph: How hard will it be for the Sharks to fill their holes via free agency?

Tgraveline: How chaotic will this off-season be league-wide?

Chris: San Jose Sharks’ roster construction/needs next year? (1:12:43)

Just Steve: Which teams do you think that the Sharks are likely to leapfrog in the standings next year?

Matthias893: Keegan’s favorite book on his bookshelf? Sheng’s personal favorite basketball player?

Fin Coe: Thoughts on Leo Sahlin Wallenius?

James Barrett: What’s the most valuable surplus in the San Jose Sharks’ system?

rphillips19: Where would Michael Misa and Matthew Schaefer be picked if they were in the 2023 Draft, 2024 Draft? Have all successful rebuilds actually drafted their top defensemen?

Stephanie k: Is William Eklund the Sharks’ most valuable (reasonable) trade piece? (1:37:53)

Kyle J from Australia: Where would Sam Dickinson be ranked in the 2025 Draft?

Chaz Marshall: Who goes to wing, Michael Misa or Will Smith? Should Misa stay in juniors, go to the NCAA, or the NHL next year?

Anthony: How about trading the Dallas Stars’ first for defensive help?

Shaun Abuzalaf: Offer sheet Fabian Zetterlund?