Media Availability (6/24): Grier

Media Availability (6/24): Grier

um I guess just to kick things off um what’s it like to be knowing that you’re adding uh a top caliber player for the second year in a row at the top of the draft even though it’s not number one yeah no it’s it’s exciting time for uh the franchise and our group here scouts have done a lot of work and um you know it’s been some tough seasons for our fans as well to kind of get through but you know I think we’re starting to turn the corner and um you know we were fortunate enough to get Mack last year and then the year before that you know at Smitty as well so um so we’re excited and um you know we’re looking forward to adding another you know another good player to our to our our group is you know I mean uh I was Matthew Darish this morning you know had a lot of really nice things to say about Matthew um Schaefer um without but stopping short of saying he’s going to pick him is that your belief going into this thing or how do you approach being number sitting number two oh I mean we’re just excited we’re going to to get a good player i haven’t talked to Darcy about that pick or what he’s going to do with it um you know um he’s got to make that decision and you know we’re just in a good spot where we’re going to get a a good player no matter uh whoever they take you know whoever’s left for us we’ll be excited to get good stuff thank you yep thanks Max hey Mike how’s it going um in in years past we’ve seen you in the draft kind of go after I don’t want to say specific players but like we’ve seen a model you know the Zack Austin to Philip Beaststead what goes into creating that model of a player that you want to pick not only just at two right there’s some debate but as you get down to the draft what sticks out of those qualities that makes you want to say “Hey I like him as a San Jose Sharks prospect.” Well our scouts do a great job they work hard all year um putting their list together and getting uh you know our the front office group as much info as they can and you know for us we kind of have an you know uh kind of an outline of players we like uh you know we kind of call it call it the identity of a shark and things that we believe in make players uh have success in the National Hockey League and you know we realize at the same time this is a draft and these are 17 18 year old kids that not all all these kids are going to play but um you know we’re we’re looking for kids who are competitive smart hard to play against um obviously skill um you know the skilled players stick out you know we when you look at you know Luca Kagnani he might maybe not fit what you know a lot of people see or some of the pe other defenseman we’ve drafted as size-wise but you know the talent and the IQ are super high and so um you know we’re just looking for good hockey players but you know if they’re smart and competitive I think that kind of um those are kind of things that we kind of uh gravitate towards when you when you look at last year this year we know Mac was the pick and he was the guy you told us somebody called the trade you hung up within 30 seconds at two right there’s been so many rumors going around this year not as obvious what has maybe been the most difficult thing in creating what you’ve told us the past you know doing the best opportunity to improve the sharks whether that’s looking into trades what has been something that you’ve really kind of looked at in terms of if there has been phone calls for number two or if you’ve been interested number one what’s been the biggest thing that you’ve heard or wanted to accomplish in those situations well I think it’s just being thorough and thinking through and and talking through everything um you know not getting too excited if if uh you know a proposal gets made or a player’s names gets gets made you know I’m just trying to be thorough and think through it and talk with the group and see if it’s best for us um you know short term and long term really especially um you know when you’re picking high up in the draft you you know it’s a it’s a good player that you’re hoping is going to be a part of your core for a long long time so um it’s just being as thorough as possible you know you get some some opportunities and things kind of thrown your way to uh consider but um you know we have to try and take the the short and long-term view of it and then last quick one here so that that you have been getting I’m sure the phone’s been ringing a little bit for number two given a lot of talk around town here yeah we’ve had some we’ve had some uh some offers for it and some um things to consider i’m not out there shopping the pick i think like I said I’m excited to add another really good player to our pool um but you know when someone calls and and presents you with something you got to listen to it and and um and consider it so there’s been um a few of those scenarios so far and we’ll see what happens rest of the week thanks Mike thanks Shane hey Mike uh do you expect to make that number two pick as of right now yeah uh wanted to also ask you about William Ecklan and how uh extension talks are going with him uh I mean right now I think Ekki were just focused on him getting healthy you know um we really lucked out with that injury could have been a lot worse for him so um you know he’s got the cast off and he’s starting to skate and train a little bit so I think that’s that’s kind of the focus right now is is his health and and getting him ready for uh the season uh rightly or wrongly uh Michael Misa that’s been the significant name attached to you guys and the number two pick uh what can you tell us about Michael just uh having dinner with him and just any other impressions of him uh really nice kid um um smart i think he knows knows the game and knows what his strengths and weaknesses are um really bright the interview was great center was really uh went really well really enjoyed having uh getting to know the personal side of him um but I think he’s a worker he’s a serious kid who’s serious about hockey serious about um doing whatever he feels he needs to do to to play in the NHL and be successful in the NHL so um he’s an impressive kid um you know the season spoke for itself very talented two-way game um dual threat shooter passer scorer um really good on the PK plays both ends and um you know we obviously saw him a lot with Igor there so um yeah talented player and a and a nice person as well and kind of the same question about Anton Fondell he’s the other name that sort of been attached again rightly or wrongly not asking you on that part of it but just uh tell tell him uh tell us about him as a player as a person yeah we had a real good interview with him really uh kind of an outgoing kid um I think he’s detail oriented um you know he was kind of has a personality that uh it’s kind of excitable and like to talk talk hockey with us um big kid he’s physical um can really shoot the puck um can play center and wing you know he’s wants to play a 200 foot game um yeah just a a really good player he’s um you know last year in in February when when Hagens and Eerman and those guys were in the tournament in February I thought he was the best player as an underager um and then this year people kind of knock him for his U8 performance but you got to give the kid credit he um went on a long playoff run won a championship and literally that night was on a plane to come over and play um play with his team in Sweden because he he wanted to see that through with his age group so um another impressive kid good hockey player so um yeah it was good to get to know him a little bit and uh I wanted to ask if you have any update on I guess some of your your major uh UFAS or RFAS just going to route off a bunch of names for you right now uh Yan Ruda UFA um RFAS like uh Guushian and Greger Cen Kovaleeno Bordaloo uh do you plan on qualifying those guys um I got really nothing for you that um for you on that yet it’s something um you know our group’s discussing and it’s you know it’s not kind of right for me to to talk about that without speaking with the player and his agent first okay thank you yeah curtis morning Mike thank you for uh thank you for doing this here today is there still an internal debate on who you’re taking at number two or is that kind of your list kind of maybe maybe settled there at that at this point um we’ll have uh guys are coming in today actually we’ll have we’ll have more meetings tomorrow and and Thursday but I think we have a a pretty good idea of of the board right now but we’ll we’ll definitely have some more conversation in the coming days how crazy do you expect this week to be obviously the draft people are speculating teams are going to be moving around a little bit in the first round and it’s obviously followed by free agency i mean how how crazy a few days do you expect this to be not only maybe with your team but but around the league yeah I I think it’ll be busy um you know there’s a lot of things that go into it you have some teams that are coming out of the rebuild um you got some teams that want to take the next step as far as playoff wise stuff like that and you have a you know maybe a situation where um you know it’s not the strongest free agent class so I think you have you kind of combine all these things with the cap going up then um you know wouldn’t be surprised that there’s a a decent amount of movement in the next week or so you said before that maybe you’re not going to be um you know handing out long-term contracts or or spending you know major amount of money this this off season i mean do you do you can you say you’re not going to be in on on some of these you know high-profile free agents guys like you know Mitch Mner and and some of these other players that have been mentioned here recently is that is that fair to say or or do you guys maybe have some interest in in the top end of the of the market here um I mean I would say I like like you mentioned and I’ve been pretty consistent with I’m not not in any rush to you know hand out a you know a seven or eight year contract to someone uh in their late 20s or early 30s so um you guys can kind of take that for how you’d like to what do you what do you kind of consider your roster needs to be as you look ahead to next season well I mean everything you watch the games right so we got a lot of work to do here we got a little bit of uh you know we’re starting to lay the foundation but you know we need we need to get better on the back end one we got to keep pucks out of our net for sure um you know that’s probably priority one uh we got to get a a goalie to kind of support Asky here and push ASI um and then up front you know there’s holes up front too we got you know we got some some good vets that played well winnie and Goodie and toe those guys played well for us last year and you know Mack and Will played well and then you know we’ll have some cont some internal competition with Grapher and and Chernav and and Musty and and those types of guys so um yeah I mean there’s lots of holes we could we could use a lot of things we could use some help up front and definitely use some help on the back end i’d like to ask a question maybe at the end after some other people uh are in the queue here but um you know there’s a lot of discussion right now after Florida wins another Stanley Cup about tax states and no tax states you know do you consider uh that to be an issue and and is there a hindrance to your team u considering California uh is California’s taxes and you guys being a rebuilding team are those things hindrances to you to you as as you try to you know attract free agents here i would I I don’t think it’s a hindrance um you know is it is it an advantage for those teams probably a little bit but you know I think we have other things to offer here quality of life you know weather you know things like that and franchise with some history of winning so every every market’s got its its pluses and minuses so um you know I’m I’m not so hung up on the tax issue i think um Florida’s a really good team so players are going to want to play on really good teams tampa was a really good team players are going to want to play with other good players and and go places that um you know they have a chance to win so if you got a good team if you build a good team um you know I I I think the tax stuff um kind of works itself out and and it isn’t big of an issue all right thank you we’ll go to Greg hey Mike you uh two questions one about your decor um I was looking at uh one of the salary cap sites and saw a lot of uh red next summer for you guys uh as far as expiring contracts is the decor something that you’re looking at switching up this season or do you think that might be easier to do when money comes off the cap in 2026 um I mean I’d like to improve it this year um you know we we’ll we’ll probably have a little bit more maybe a little bit more flexibility and maybe see where some of the young guys development path goes this year um but um so to answer I I we have to be better on the back end this year um you know however we do that whether that’s um you know trades or free agency whatever it may be we need to get better back then and back there and and hope you know some Shakir and maybe even Sam you know Henry Thun these guys kind of improve as they get older um so we need some internal um improvement and growth but um you know I we need to improve it this year and then you know if next year um we have more flexibility maybe dive into it a little more we we can do that for sure that was a ninja-like move with the motion lights man that was pretty oh sorry i got the motion yeah the lights keeping off the other thing I want to ask you is obviously like everyone’s talked about how how thin the UFA market is for goalies you mentioned wanting to add a veteran uh for ASI is is do you think that’s a more of a trade proposition or do you think there’s somebody on UFA that could could serve that role as a veteran um we’re kind of looking at both avenues i think there’s you know I think there are a couple guys in in the UFA market um you know that could probably help and help mentor him and and help push him i think you know we all see as upside and his potential but it’s not something where I just want to hand the net i want him to feel like he’s pushed and challenged a little bit um and also have someone who who uh he can get along with so it’s kind of finding that balance for for us but um you know I think it’s both avenues we got to be aware of and there’s a lot of teams looking for goalies and there’s not a lot of goalies out there so it’s not a it’s not probably not going to be an easy thing to do I guess and just one one quick one like from what you’ve your conversations with your colleagues with the with the cap going up and then having the sort of cost certainty of the cap going up in subsequent seasons do you do you see that as as more of a situation where that’s going to really help with transactions this summer or do you think it’s going to maybe have the other effect where people are going to be able to spend to keep their guys more yeah I think you’re it’s almost a latter what you’re saying i think it’s it’s given teams the ability to try and keep their guys um in house especially early on here i think there’s probably a little bit of fear of what’s going to happen on the open market and what the what some of the costs are going to potentially be so I think teams seeing that the cap’s going up and having a little bit of your own money to spend internally or um seems like they’re using it to lock their own guys up instead of risk getting into bidding wars and things kind of get out of hand on the open market thanks Mike yeah thank you we got a few minutes here left uh we’ll take a final round of questions starting with Shang uh Mike uh actually on kind of uh Greg’s question there um you know so far you know for agency doesn’t open until next week but you know know you you start to have conversations with agents and all that sort of thing is there any uh kind of with the cap rising next year and then the year after that quite a lot you know have you uh have you been surprised by sort of some of the money figures thrown around um you know uh at you that you’ve heard any sticker shock there or just Yeah what is your reaction to that what does that look like so far well we’re not uh you know we’re not allowed to talk to agents here yet so we got to wait till July 1 to do all that stuff so we’ll uh we’ll kind of have to see how it it it shakes out i would imagine um you know with the cap going up I’m going to I would imagine agents are going to be um you know pushing to get as much money possible for their players and um you know with the flat cap being here for so long I’m sure their agents and players feel that they haven’t maybe got compensated as much as they would have liked so um I imagine they’re going to they’re going to push the envelope and we’re probably going to see some some contracts and things that um are probably higher than maybe uh maybe expected thanks Mike thanks we’ll go Eric JD and then we’ll finish up with Curtis hey uh Mike thanks for uh doing this um you you’ve covered a lot of ground here um so actually I wanted to ask you uh something off on a different direction uh Joe Thornton um if if he does get the hall call today um just what what in your mind defines uh Jumbo not only as your teammate for some time but playing against him as well and then also what he meant to you just in terms of someone off the ice yeah it’s a big day so you know we’re pulling for Jumbo and Patty here um so true we’ll see how see how that goes um but as far as Jumbo goes um it was an honor to play with him um you know he was the best uh probably the best passer of the puck I’ve I’ve played with um you know him and Douggee wait but he he just anticipated plays so well um saw plays happen to step before they did and found lanes and threw layers where you never really thought he was going to be able to get you the puck and next thing you know um puck hits your stick and you know you got an empty net all of a sudden so it was great playing with him he loves the game um I think he was underrated very tough and kind of mean not an easy guy to play against um you know he would fight he would stick up for himself he would stick up for his teammates um just kind of a a unique player who um you know kind of at that size and that reach could um you know make the plays he he could but um and make everyone around him better but then like I said at the same time um kind of be a little bit mean so um you know it was like I said it was a pleasure and to to play with him and to play against him and to see the passion he has and he still has the passion he loves being at the rink he’s he’s at the rink almost every day here um talking with the guys and working out and just being on the ice and giving little pointers here and there he just loves the game and it’s and it’s infectious and when you’re around him um you know it just it just he just brings kind of joy to everyone in the uh and apologies uh no slide on Patty um uh at all um if you have a thought on him I I’ll take that as well what sorry what’s up no yeah I said apologies no slide on Patty um if if you have a thought on him as well I’ll take that as well okay yeah um so yeah that was Jumbo um very generous to I’d always want to add with him he’s one of the most generous teammates I ever had about taking care of young players and um you know buying them suits taking them out to dinner getting them whatever they needed and um you know you saw that again with you know having Mac at his house with his family this year so um so pulling for him and and Patty like I said Patty was like the uh consmate pro um you know funny quietly funny um really driven professional um I don’t think people realize how big he is um and to skate the way he did at that size and was willing to sacrifice and play the wing um you know when he needed to and um always seemed to um you know score when we needed a goal so um great guy great teammate um you know so very uh pulling for him as well and you know he had a his longevity and and everything and everything he accomplished is uh is is very impressive so two guys that I feel very fortunate to have played with and you know as an as in an organization and our young players to to have them still being willing to sacrifice their time and and help our group out with on the development side and even have those two kids live with them this this past year um very very grateful that um you know they’re they’re with the Sharks organization jd uh following up on Thornton uh have you given him his director a vibes title yet officially or is he still still want to sign the contract yeah he’s uh hopefully you know hopefully he’ll uh sign the contract and help out you know he’s already basically been doing you know player development for uh basically for the love of the game and you know now we’ll hopefully hopefully uh sometime this summer we can get him on board officially as a as a development coach slashdirector of vibes good uh print the shirts um you mentioned like the free agency class not maybe not the strongest right uh you guys have of course cap space heading into the off season here um is there thoughts of maybe bringing on like an IR type of contract to help you guys reach the floor or are you going to try to the the focus this year is to really try to improve the roster um I would say the focus is more to try and improve the roster um Um but you know there’s 31 other teams and GMs out there that have all big ideas this time of year like ourselves and things they want to do and things they hope they can accomplish but you know um you never know so you might get to you know you might get to uh you know August and maybe you need need to take a contract on and and get a sweetener to to take that on and and get a pick or a prospect or something to help build this thing but um but for sure the the plan is to to try and push it forward and be a better team and and improve the roster for for this season uh Dickinson had himself a uh pretty nice run in the Memorial Cup and in the playoffs here uh is he gonna get every opportunity you think to try to to crack the opening night roster yeah I mean Sam is you know um had a dominant year was great in the playoffs um I don’t know how much more he has left to prove at the at the junior level it’s been three years there um of good hockey in the last two years of he’s been uh really really good um so yeah I mean it’s up to him as it is with with all these other young players same with you know Chernob and Musty and and Graph and you know the guys like this um it’s up to them to uh put the work in this summer prepare train um come in bigger stronger faster and kind of um force our hand but um you know we’ll give him every opportunity but we’re not just going to hand it to him he’s got to he’s got to earn it he’s got to earn his ice time up here and earn his roster spot if if that’s what happens and then finally uh pick 30 um I know you’ve talked about potentially trading that pick or is it still potentially in play are you kind of more focusing on uh players who could be there at 30 or 33 or maybe even combining those to to move up to get a guy who might be falling yeah I think everything’s on the table um you know I think you kind of mentioned the three outcomes there i mean we’re definitely definitely open to um moving it um but we’re also we also know looking at our looking at our board that there’s going to be um you know a good player there available too to help us uh then you know to see how the draft goes you never know the drafts never go how you expect so you know to use that with you know another piece to maybe move up into the first round if there’s a player that we really like that starts to slide you know that’s definitely a possibility as well all right thanks Mike all right thank you we’ll wrap here with Curtis thanks Mike again for doing this um do do you just from what you know I mean do you think whoever you selected number two could be ready for to play in the NHL this upcoming season um they could be i don’t want to say I don’t really want to put that type of pressure on any kid just to to say yes or no really or discourage them if I say no um you know I think they’ll probably have an opportunity to see how training camp goes um but as we all know it’s a it’s a big it’s a big jump to go as an 18-year-old to play in the NHL right away um you know these are all good players talented kids that we’ll see how camp goes but um you know what Mlin did is is the exception to what most normal 18year-olds do so um but we’ll have to wait and see i’m not you know it’s not a yes or no for me they’re talented kids and you know not too different than Sam we’ll let we’ll let their play dictate to uh where they end up know you asked about Eklund a little bit earlier just uh is your preference to get something done maybe this off season with him um I mean I’m not I don’t know if it’s a preference or um I’m open to it I guess I’ll say um you know he’s he’s played well for us uh you know he’s got a lot of the attri attributes we like he plays hard he shows up every every night and gives his best so um it’s something I’m I’m open to it’s not a uh you know I don’t know if I would say it’s a priority but you know we’re open to having those discussions and seeing where it takes us the rest of the summer and and maybe into the fall and with uh with Joe Thornton again I mean what do you think he meant or means to the city of San Jose not just the hockey part but just having a uh maybe a true superstar in the city um you know with the recognizable figure I mean what what do you think he meant uh to this to the city uh I mean think he he meant meant the world to it i mean he changed the franchise here him coming here changed everything um and bought a little I I think belief um into the fan base that you know we’re going to have a chance to win every single year um and then his his personality I think when you see him he loves loves kids loves people um you know he’s probably the most rec recognizable figure in in San Jose still to this day um so just his you know his outgoing demeanor and personality and his his love of life and love of hockey I think um you know kind of transformed this this city a little bit and and transformed the franchise for

Sharks General Manager Mike Grier speaks with the media ahead of the 2025 NHL Draft.