A Deep Dive on the 2025-26 San Jose Sharks ft. Alex Hutton

A Deep Dive on the 2025-26 San Jose Sharks ft. Alex Hutton

The San Jose Sharks have a ton to look forward to. Some high quality young players entering their lineup and a team that’s finally starting to maybe see the light at the end of the tunnel, but for now they’re still sitting at the bottom of the NHL. This is the 2025 26 NHL deep dive on the San Jose Sharks. Hello and welcome to the most anticipated series on my channel, on my Instagram, my 2025 2026 NHL deep dive series. First of all, focusing on the San Jose Sharks, but we will be doing this for every single team in the NHL all throughout from now until the start of the NHL season on October 7th. So, it’s an episode every 2 or 3 days. So, look forward to that. It’s going to be crazy content. But, we’re starting out with San Jose Sharks, the same team we started out with last year. So basically how this is going to work if you are new to this series and the series has gone through a bunch of changes. So this will kind of be the first time it’ll be like starting it all over again um compared to what it was last year. So every team has been ranked on five categories. Offense, defense, goalending, special teams, and coach and culture. Each of them uh is weighted specifically depending on how much uh I believe it affects the team’s overall success. And then every player has been rated on even strength offense, even strength defense, their power play numbers, and their penalty kill numbers. And they’ve also been given a total like overall score from like 68 to 99 is basically how that works. And that’s calculated based on their role, based on the grades they get, etc. So the the grade is meant to kind of give you more of a perspective on a player because if a player is like a C++ offense um but like an 84 overall that means that he’s better than a guy who might have a C+ offense but is like a 70 based on his role and and all that. So just it the rating is supposed to give you a bit more context to how I see a player holistically um compared to just the individual grade. So just keep that in mind. I’m not going to make that caveat every single video, but it’s there. Hopefully people come back and watch all these. But there you go. So, this series took a lot more time than it did last year. Um, there’s a lot more depth in it, a lot more nuance. I tried to get a little bit more granular with each player, and I’m going to kind of dive into some of the key players on the team throughout this, unlike last year where I just kind of gave a quick overview on the whole team. So, you’ll see it’ll be a bit different than it was last year, and hopefully uh a bit more enjoyable to follow along with from the audience. So, let’s begin with the San Jose Sharks. And uh their ranks in the entire NHL do not look good. Uh 32nd in offense, 32nd in defense, uh tied for 27th in goalending, 32nd in special teams, and 23rd for coaching culture. It doesn’t look great. But at the same time, like before Sharks fans freak out, I really like the Sharks offseason. Um I’m a big fan of it. I think they had one of the better off seasons in the league. obviously they did really good in the draft getting uh Michael Misa who may or may not be on this team. Uh I don’t have him on the team currently but we’ll see. Um but like he’s a really exciting player and I like the fact that they went out and they’ve just been kind of acquiring NHL talent, right? Like they’ve they’ve risen like the floor on this team has been raised um just based on who they’ve went out and got in the offseason. We’ll touch on some of those players as we go through this, but I think that’s kind of the the key for what this team was supposed to be. And we talked about it a bit on uh the podcast a couple months ago, I think, where we said that the Sharks goal should just be to acquire NHL talent who can just keep this team afloat for as long as they can. And the goal obviously this year isn’t to win. Um maybe they go everything works out and and this team blows up. And I think they do have some potential to do that. Uh, I think there’s there’s definitely some potential for them not to be the worst team in the NHL at the end of the year, but this is just kind of my rankings as of now. And I I think it’s it’s interesting to see potentially what this team could be because they do have a bunch of really good young pieces and bringing in those those veteran NHL players do does help kind of mitigate the risk of this team absolutely bottoming out. Um, but first of all, let’s touch on that coaching culture because this is a big part of why I view this team the way it is. And and Mike Greer is somebody who I’ve really liked the way that he’s built this team. I think his drafts have been very good. I think he’s been acquiring talent in a positive way. And he’s done it in a way that’s very interesting because his team really bottomed out a couple years ago. But he’s been able to be a bad team while still surrounding his young players with guys who are going to benefit them, right? Like Tyler Defo has been a huge benefit to both Will Smith and Meline Silber and he’s become like part of their kind of friend group. um even just like off the ice and stuff, but even on the ice, I mean, like he’s he’s been maybe their best forward uh last year. And he he’s helped again raise their level of play without sacrificing the fact that this team still wants to be bad and acquire more talent. And it he’s done a fantastic job acquiring those types of players. Now, we’ll have to see. He’s only a B, right? Like some people might be like, “Well, B is too high because they’ve been bad.” But some other fans might think that B’s too low. And the reason why he gets an overall score of B is because this team hasn’t proved that they can actually win. They haven’t proved that these pieces that they’re bringing together are going to be cohesive and be competitive, right? Whereas like you look at a team like like the Canadians, for instance, who just made the playoffs last year. Um, and and they kind of have a bit of a proof of concept of that group being able to mesh well together and be successful. And we haven’t seen that yet in San Jose in a large enough sample size. Now, I think Mlin Celebrating and Will Smith worked extremely well together. Vic Willie Meland and and Mlin Celebrating had extreme chemistry together. So, like those pieces are fine, but there’s just not enough up here yet for them to make that push. And I think that’s why I can’t go higher than a B on uh on Mike Greer. But I do like what he’s done so far. And and same thing with uh with Ryan Waski who again like I don’t think he’s a bad coach but he and he hasn’t had a lot to work with but I also need to like see him win hockey games before I can go higher than a C, right? And and I say C as like being like kind of the average benchmark kind of score, right? to keep that in mind as as we go through this where C is kind of like your league average like replacement kind of level player and that’s where I see him at this point and I feel like we might get to a situation where this team’s just been bad for too long and and Mike Greer is forced to make a change at head coach and it kind of buries his his career before it starts because of the the team that he’s dealt with and I mean if you look at their numbers from last year like it’s it’s pretty abysmal like he really didn’t have a lot to work with and You’re talking about a team that whose best attribute last year was their shooting percentage being 20th in the NHL and that was that that they outscored their their xG in that sense, but like that’s not something to hang your hat on, right? Like this was easily the worst roster in the NHL and I don’t think they did anything to make it significantly better, at least going into this season. So, that’s kind of where I’m at on the Sharks as a whole. um obviously get the rebuilder tier of D. Um I don’t see them really having the possibility of going on a crazy run uh even like a Columbus did last year or Calgary. Um although like maybe Ascrov comes in and shocks the world and pulls off a Dustin Wolf type performance, but I I just don’t I don’t know if there’s enough there for me to say that at this point. Um I think Asgrov’s had enough time to to prove that he can just step in and in instantly become an impact player, but maybe maybe he does. Um, I like I like Ask Rob. This is me trying to dunk on him, but we’ll get into the goalies in a bit. But just overall, I don’t think that the outlook of this team is is anything more than uh, you know, maybe they can battle for uh for seventh in the in the Pacific and and not be the 16th team in in the West. But other than that, like I think it’s going to be another tough year for Sharks fans. But I think that’s overall like ultimately the goal and I think that’s that’s a good thing for the direction of this team. jumping into their offense. It it again it’s it’s a group as I said that it’s just you have your key pieces right you have your Will Smiths your M celebrating news your Willie Mlan’s and then it’s just a bunch of like guys right like like Alexander Winberg isn’t shocking the world with anything right like I do think the Jeff Skinner in uh signing is interesting we’ll get into him uh in a bit more of a deeper look but like Barkley Goodro is like nothing special Philip Kersev again somebody who maybe had changed the scene really changed things tyrio was kind of the Philip Kersev guy that they brought in last year where they just said we’ll take a flyer on him and see what happens. And it really has worked out for Tyandria, but uh maybe one more year there. Adam Goddet, same thing, just a guy to plug a hole in the lineup. Um you know, they also brought in Ryan Reeves, who’s not on this graphic, but just because I’d played, you know, Carl Granstrom and and I’d give uh Ospuk a chance over over Ryan Reeves, but I’m assuming Ryan Reeves is going to play a significant uh amount of games for this team, but his ratings, as you can imagine, weren’t very good. But like o overall like again it’s it’s the worst offensive group in based on my ratings in the league. And I think you can kind of see why by looking at the full breadth of it. As exciting as as the top three guys really are. Um and Tyler Defoley as I’ve said is is a very good player still in his own right. There really isn’t much else here to be excited about. And I don’t think that, you know, Ekkan, CBrini, and Smith can raise the floor of or raise the ceiling of this offense enough to get them out of like the bottom three or four in the league. Um, despite how much I like those players, they’re just like there’s nobody else really on this team um that I look at and say like that person could have a huge breakout season, right? Like Tai Deandria was the closest thing to that last year and and that obviously didn’t work. I don’t see Kurichev being anything better than, you know, a okay third line center if that even if that. Um, you know, Barkley Goodro, we know we’re getting there. Carl Grer, we know we’re getting there. And Adam Goddet, you know, you kind of have an idea of what he’s going to be. So, there isn’t a ton here to really get excited about, but I mean, the the guy to get excited about is obviously Mlin Selbrini, who had a phenomenal rookie season, and if it wasn’t for uh an all-time performance by Lane Hudson, would have been my runaway Calder pick uh last season. And Runaway might be strong because Dustin Wolf had a pretty good case, but he would have been probably my favorite to win the Calder. And the the thing with Celibbrini that I think needs to be discussed is the fact that his defensive numbers might get a little overblown from his rookie season and like he was fine. Um, you know, 30th percentile here on on evolving hockey. I think uh Jay Fresh’s model had him a bit lower than that. We’ll take a look at that in a second, but I I think the the big thing that really kind of helped push his defensive metrics is just how safe he was with the puck. And this what like he was especially for a rookie did not turn over the puck nearly as much as you’d expect him to. Um his his exits were fantastic. His ability in the neutral zone was really good and it was those things that really helped hide the fact that maybe there were some defensive deficiencies in his game. Um, and again, I think a lot of it was too is that people didn’t really notice his defensive deficiencies because of just how bad everybody else around was around him was. And that kind of helped create this this shield around people criticizing Celebrin’s game. And and although I really like him, I think that the uh the the jump to he’s going to be a a Selki player like this season is a little extreme. team. And I think it’s it’s very similar to like the the Nick Suzuki development where during the the the 2021 Cup run for the Canadians, like Suzuki’s defensive metrics really weren’t that good. He was just placed in favorable situations. Um and then three, four years later, you know, now he’s he’s one of the better two-way centers in the NHL. So, I think that’s kind of the trajectory I see with with Celibbrini, maybe just to a bit of a higher level because I think CBrini has a higher ceiling potentially. Um so, that’s kind of where I see this. But I think people overreacting to his defensive numbers at this point are a little premature. And I mean, you look at his his micro numbers here. Yeah, Jay Fresh had him at 11%. Um, a little bit better offensively, a little bit worse defensively uh than Evolving Hockey. But uh, you know, the numbers that really jump out to you is the uh the zone exits being in the 95th percentile, right? like for a player like this that does really contribute to how people view him defensively because he’s not turning the puck over getting it out of his own zone. And I think that’s so valuable especially for a center that’s going to be a primary play driver for this team. And that’s a number that really really jumps out to me uh immediately here. You know, you look at the the rush shots again uh in the 96th percentile. A guy who can really help lead those rushes. And when you have a player who is not only exiting the zone at, you know, a top five percentile in the NHL, but is also taking those opportunities and creating it into rush chances, you know, being in the top four percentile there, um, you know, his his shots off high injured passes, uh, is really high. His zone entry is still in the 74th percentile. So for a player who really hasn’t had a ton of talent surrounding him, I mean obviously he’s been placed with uh Ekkan Tafoy who both had very solid seasons last year, but his ability just to get the puck into the offensive zone and create offense virtually by himself, like he’s taking it from the defensive zone as one of the best zone exit forwards in the NHL and then also taking that into becoming one of the best rush shot forwards in the NHL is such an exciting prospect if you’re a Sharks fan. Like that’s something that you really really need to be excited about if you’re a fan of this hockey team. And uh again, you know, you look at you look at some of his his defensive uh you know, stuff. It it’s just there’s not a lot of turn like he’s not turning the puck over as as I said earlier. Um and I guess the one negative about his game is the forche involvement. Um but that’s not going to be his game. Like that’s not going to be who he is, right? based on his his body type and his size. I think overall though, like you really need to be excited about what Celibbrini looks like as a player, especially after year one. I mean, these are very special numbers. Like he’s in the an elite elite company in a lot of these numbers. And uh that’s something to get excited about, especially as this team starts to get better. And the other player that really took a big step forward last year was William Ecklund. And you know, here’s your defensive guy, right? like on that line. I mean, Willie Melan’s defensive number is really good. I mean, he’s in the like JF fresh has him in the 90th percentile uh for even strength offense. I think Adam had married a B overall. Um it really is just going to be the finishing for Eklund. And I if either he can figure that out or if they can get a player to play with CBrini that can figure that out, then getting, you know, h setting CBrini up with somebody who is after he is able to get into the zone out of his uh, you know, with his his rush ability. If Ekkan can find that scoring touch to a higher degree than what he’s at now, I mean, his finishing really isn’t that great, especially compared to where his uh his offense uh projections say they should be, then the Sharks could be on to something really, really special here. And I mean, Aklland already, you know, he’s only 22. Like I feel like this is somebody that feels like he’s been in the league forever and people kind of gave up on him and he’s finally starting to come into his own and I really think that Ekkan could be on a great trajectory. I mean you see his war percentile just continuing to rise and I don’t see that stopping anytime soon. He’s somebody I’m really excited about watching with Celebran and seeing how that connection can continue to build and you know maybe it’s Will Smith on that line, maybe it’s the Foley, maybe it’s Ekkan. They’re they’ve messed around with it a bit. I think the best case here for the Sharks is they do Ekkan CBrini and then they run Misa and and Smith I think is is going to be the idea at the end of this and then you can really have two lines with extremely extremely exciting young talent. And Willie Mlin is a big piece of that and I don’t think he gets talked about enough as uh one of the exciting pieces on this team because he was brought in earlier than this new regime was and he was kind of the last remnants of the past for the Sharks and he’s somebody that I really like still. He’s somebody that’s super exciting. You know, we finally have Will Smith who again the defense isn’t there with Will Smith at all. Right. Like you talk about Min Celebriny um maybe not being as good as people say. Like Will Smith’s actually not very good defensively right now. And maybe that’s something that comes with time, but as long as the offense can keep shooting up, like if if Ekkan can still play defense and and Celibbrini can cover that, like Will Smith might be able to get away with not having to worry about it as much. And he just needs to continue to develop, right? Like I think he had he had moments last year where he looked like arguably the best player on the Sharks and then he also had moments where he was a little bit invisible and would make costly mistakes, but that’s going to come with like most young players anyway, right? Like Celebrating didn’t really have those costly mistakes and again I think that’s what elevated his his defensive um perception around the league whereas Will Smith did. And if those mistakes can kind of get limited, Will Smith is also going to be somebody who’s super excited. I mean, I I loved him out of the draft. I’m a big fan. Overall, like this big three that the Sharks are kind of forming here, they’re all really excited. You can add Misa to that who’s also a super exciting prospect. Um, and then they have, you know, a couple guys on the blue line who are starting to come up. The Sharks might still be two or three years away from like actually pushing for a playoff spot, but they’re going to come really fast because they have this core already established and it’s just going to be about filling those gaps around them. And guys like Tyler Toley have been really good bets that have worked out and I’m interested to see how they decide to fill out the rest of this roster when they’re actually trying to compete. And you know, speaking of Tyler Tvoy, uh, another player here who’s just fit really nicely into this offense. And, uh, you know, his his the big news here is that his expected finishing and his actual finishing have been pretty much aligned. And that’s really help. I mean, you saw the the tofo kind of outburst here with the expanded role and uh you know, obviously he has three years left on that deal now um instead of the four, but especially with the cap going up like the $6 million cap, it doesn’t seem to be as you know, insane of a number as people kind of thought it was at the beginning. Now, obviously, uh you know, he’s going into his age 33 season with three years left on that deal. pays him until he’s 36. But and we’ve, you know, we’re seeing kind of the the slight steady decline for tofully, but even if that number drops off and he becomes, you know, a a you know, 50th percentile war player, for instance, I by 36, like that feels like somebody that eventually I I don’t know what the the the finances are, but it feels like it might be a bio candidate for that last year because that’s probably when the Sharks are really starting to comp contend. you know, if he can be a similar level to what he was last year for another year and a half, uh, he’s going to do his role pretty good. Like that that’s that’s really about it. You know, he’s he’s great on the power plays. Even strength numbers are really good. Um, he’s kind of been that scoring winger for Celebrating last year. And again, like I think that gives Ekkan some time to figure that out. But ideally, Ekkan kind of takes over that spot or Miser Smith can step in and take over that spot. um for Tofoley once he starts to fall off a bit more than he already is. Jeff Skinner is a really interesting piece that this team brought in. Uh it was a deal that was just done about less than a week ago uh at the time of recording this. And again, like Jeff Skinner could be somebody who potentially steps in and plays a bit with Celibbrini. Uh I think that the top six has a lot of interesting moving parts. Justin Gner feels like a guy who’s going to have a crazy um point total run here because he’s going to get a ton of minutes uh on a bad team and somebody’s going to buy into that the deadline and try to pick him up which go for like I don’t think Jess is a bad player. I just think that he needs to be used in the right situation. And uh obviously the Oilers brought him in to be higher up in their lineup than he probably should have been on a Stanley Cup contending team when they made that move. And uh you know his whatever it was one or two playoff games that he played really kind of proved that and he was basically non-existent in the playoffs when he was in. But on a team like this, it’s it’s a really good opportunity for Jeff Skinner to kind of reinvent him reinvent himself here at the end of his career where he has the ability to step into uh a Sharks team that’s going to give him plenty of opportunity to make mistakes and figure it out because honestly like they’re in a position where they don’t really care. Like go make mistakes. Like we if they’re losing games four, I don’t think they’re going to be that bothered by it. And that could give Jeff Skin a really good opportunity to fix his game up a bit, right? He whereas in Edmonton like they were a team that was trying to win every single night because they kind of had to and he didn’t he wasn’t given that opportunity. Now, do I think Jess is going to come out and be like an absolute world beater at the end of this year? Probably not. But do I think he’s somebody who could be looked at in a similar light to what like Ryan Donado was looked at um at this year’s trade trade deadline where he goes on kind of a a not career high in points but goes on a a pretty solid point total run um that’s higher than his last couple seasons and somebody’s intrigued for him to add to like their third line. Yeah, like that’s that feels more or less what this is going to be. Um, unless Jeff Skinner has like some crazy connection with with Will Smith or Celebrity, I don’t see him lasting past the deadline. But I also think that it’s a good it’s a good buy for the Sharks just to flip them there and they can even eat half the salary or whatever they want to do and and uh recoup some of that money and maybe get a decent asset out of him. Looking at a couple of the depth guys on this team, uh, Philip Kurv and Adam Goddard both both brought in this season. Kurushev’s intriguing um especially for that third line if that is where he ends up playing. I think that there’s enough here in his uh in his like micro numbers that speak to him having potential of kind of a breakout season and a season that we’ve expected more or less from. Now, I don’t think he’s going to become some top six like highc caliber forward, but if he can become like a solid third liner for this team, uh he might be somebody they want to keep around a bit longer than just this season. As for Adam Goddet, like I mean his his micros kind of tell the story here. He’s not a very good player. Um, but he again he’s an NHL body and I think that the the combination of bringing an NHL body who is kind of good enough to be on a team but not good enough to win you hockey games was exactly what this the Sharks needed and they needed somebody to eat salary and Adam Goddad’s going to do that and he’s not going to make them very it’s not going to make them a lot better. So, uh, keep him away from the kids and he’ll kind of do his job. Now, I hope that if they do end up playing him with Kurishv, that doesn’t mean that’s going to stint whatever could happen with a Philip Kuresev quote unquote breakout season, but it’s an interesting player. Uh I’m far more intrigued with with Kurv uh here opposed to Godette. And uh maybe maybe they can get something out of Kurosv. Jumping into this blue line, it’s very similar to the offense. And uh I think Demetri Olof was actually the player that me and Jack had pinned as the go pay this guy as much as he wants uh to bring him in for like a year or two and just have him eat salary and and eat minutes and they go and get Demetri Orv but you know Mario Ferrar and Timothy are still here and the rest of this blue line is basically new. I mean, uh, you know, Orlov and and Lety were basically brought in. I guess exclude, just as, you know, cap dumps essentially just to get them to the floor. And I really like all those ads. Like, now Orv is a decent player and Clintberg had flashes in the playoffs, but like none of those guys are going to lift the floor of this blue line. And I mean, obviously, they’re still ranked 32nd on my on my rankings. Um, with only one of these players being above a C++ defensively, and that’s that’s Demetriov at the moment, I like it in the sense that they’re not going to be pushing their young players up the lineup super fast and they have, you know, experience and that experience can be valuable to those young players. even like on the offensive side, just having people in the room who have been around and can help out. I mean, Nick Le is a a guy who who has a Stanley Cup. Um, you know, to be Troy Love’s been on some some deep runs. Uh, you know, John Clinberg just went to a Stanley Cup final. So, having those guys around in your room can help lift the culture up and but also not make the team better today. And like it just it was such a perfect at like I love what Mike Greer did with this blue line and it’s not going to be a very good blue line. But I love it in the sense that you’re you’re plugging people into these roles who can at least keep the team afloat, right? Like Nicollet is not a good player, but he can keep the team stable. And that’s kind of all they needed. So I think this blue line is is better than what they’ve had. And I think that the Sharks team in general is better than what they had the last couple years. It’s just that every other team in the league basically got better this this off seasonason for the most part. Get they do that every year and the Sharks were just so far behind everybody that they’re just they’re going to have to catch up. Now again, I don’t see a lot of like if you think the offense didn’t have any growth potential, this blue line probably has even less um where basically all these players aside from Shakar are at their cap or like they are what they are at this point. Uh maybe Timothy Lilligan in a bigger role can get some of that offensive juice that we thought he might have in Toronto, but aside from that, there isn’t a lot here to be super excited about. But it’s just it’s going to be a stable or it’s going to be a lot more stable of a blue line than what Sharks fans are used to. And I think that that’s overall going to be a good thing for this team. Uh you know, we start with Mara Ferraro whose uh expected numbers are are solid. He just can’t finish. And some of that might be due to the team that he’s had around him. Um, and and maybe the the development of the offense helps kind of boost up his his uh his wrapom goals for in this case because the expect goal’s numbers are there. Like he’s he’s able to drive play fairly well uh from that back end and I think maybe uh Ferraro could be an interesting piece for a team as like a fourth defender. Um, you know, even a team like Colorado, let’s say Brent Burns doesn’t work out. I think Mario Ferraro could be an interesting guy to bring in uh at at a deadline for them. Uh, there’s plenty of teams that need like a a good number four defenseman who can drive play decently well. And so I I think that’s kind of where Ferrar is going to be suited. I don’t see him being much better than this on San Jose, just by virtue of the players that he’s going to be around. But maybe a team looks at his underlying numbers and takes a shot on him because there’s potential that he could break out with uh with a better supporting cast. But I I don’t think he’s going to get that in in San Jose necessarily. But I do like Myra Ferraro. Demetri is another guy who I guess is really he’s he’s legitimately a solid defenseman. Um and I think there’s an argument that he is the best defenseman on this team now. um despite the fact that his his playoff moments were a little shaky this year. But good news, Sharks fans, you’re probably not going to see Demetri Orof play a playoff game for you. So, you don’t have to wor at least not on this contract. Um but, you know, overall like he’s he’s almost certainly the most well-rounded defenseman on this team. Um at least being average offensively and then pretty solid defensively. I think that he’s going to be relied upon just to eat minutes and that’s a good thing, right? Like the Sharks haven’t really had that that player who can come in and and eat minutes for them uh a ton and Orof seems like he could step in and be that player. Uh, I know a couple of the the big ones here. I think his exit success rate is really good and I think that that paired with a Mlin Celibbrin’s uh exit ability is actually really intriguing to me. Um, despite that the fact that you don’t really think of Demetriov as like an offensive first defenseman, like his rush offense is decent at 85%. Um, you know, his his entry denials are also really good, which I think is something that’s going to be interesting for this team. Um, and then his pass entry prevention is also really good. So, you look at that and you look at how that kind of it’s not just the fact that he’s he’s good at those things, but you look at how it meshes with this roster, right? Like we go back to Min Cabrini’s chart where he was also really good at those things. And, you know, you combine that, you start putting these pieces together for these players that all kind of fit this this this archetype and are good at kind of the same thing. It makes it really hard to play against for another team, right? Like if all five of the guys on the ice for the for the Sharks can exit the zone with possession extremely effectively like at the top of the NHL level and they can get into the offensive zone the same way that makes it difficult to play against. And that’s how you put together a team, right? It’s not just about it’s not just about the fact that they went out and got to meet because they needed to pay somebody a bunch of money and he could go out there and play 25 minutes a night and not get caved in. But it’s the fact that he actually does mesh with what this team is trying to do. Now whether or not Orlov is here for the long term or not, the fact that you’re going to be able to grow players like Celebrity and Akan and Smith in this environment where they’re playing with players who fit their style is so important. And Mike did a good job of that, right? Like you look at John Clinberg and it’s the same thing. He plays a he does he’s good at doing the same types of things, right? like Nicki who’s not good at a lot of stuff but can still kind of do those things to a lot less an extent but and even you know Tyler Tofuloi being a great possession guy a great play driving player a guy who does very good off the rush surrounding yourself with these players right like everybody looked at this contract and was like well they just signed Orof to a bunch of money because they needed to get to the cap floor and that is true but Demetri Olaf also fits what this team is trying to be and that is such an underrated part of this signing and that’s why I really really like this move for the San Jose Sharks. It’s one of my favorite moves of the offseason honestly and uh it’s not going to get a lot of talk about because the Sharks aren’t going to be very good. Um and Demetrol might look not look great but the fact that he’s able to boost up what they’re trying to do with Celebia and company makes it a good move. Uh overall uh you know you talk about Timothy Ligren he’s another guy that I’m excited about. I think could be an interesting player. Uh his his even strength defense is is underrated for me. His offense is pretty mediocre. Maybe Timothy like I still have hope that Timothy Illigan can find a part of what we thought he might be able to do um in Toronto when he was younger. Uh you know, he’s going to be this is the age 27 season now. I I’m intrigued to see if he can with an elevated role maybe kind of find a bit more of that offensive game uh be able to use his transition ability to spark things where he actually has players in front of him who can do stuff. I don’t know how much faith I have in that. But the Sharks in the perfect position to give him a shot, right? Like and and maybe it works out, maybe it doesn’t. And again, like that’s one of the things that this team’s done very well is that they’ve went out and got players who have that kind of upside. And if they can find it, then great. And if not, then you know, you become one of the tied to the world and it doesn’t really matter, right? Because at the end of the day, like the team is going to be bad anyway. Um there’s not a lot of teams that could take the shot on giving Timothy Ligin, you know, a good long look. Uh the Sharks can and uh it’s an intriguing player to me. Do I think he’s going to become some world beater elite top four defenseman? Probably not. But if he can develop into like a good bottom pair guy who has that ability to, you know, lead rushes out of the zone and, you know, create some offense, then that could be a useful player down the road. And uh that that’s kind of what I see from the Red. And maybe the elevator role will help him kind of find that. Finally, you know, we talked about Shakar and Nick Ley. Um, neither guy uh did a ton last year that really jumps out to me. Shakar obviously super young and I’m not worried about him like at all. I think he’s got plenty of room to develop and these are pretty typical numbers for a third pairing defenseman on an awful team that’s just starting out. Um Nick Leo on the other hand like he is what he is. Uh is very Adam Godetesque um in terms of uh what he’s going to bring to this team. Um, but on the defensive end, but as your sixth defenseman, like again, he has that experience. He’s going to be good in the room and he’s not going to help you win games that you’re not supposed to win. And for a team that’s trying to be at the bottom of the league, not a bad guy to get. And, uh, he comes with, I think it’s a $4 million cap out. So, that gets you to the floor. And it also gives you some flexibility um in trades, right, where you don’t necessarily have to bring salary back if you move, you know, one of those other uh expiring deals out at the deadline or or at some other point. So, that’s something to think about, too. But, uh these I’m not, you know, I’m excited to see what Shakar can continue to develop into. Um Nick Le is just kind of there, but I wanted to highlight him because he was somebody that they did bring in um this off season. So, jumping to the goalies, this is where I think you could see a pretty big progression, right? Like, um, Ursul Ascarov is been one of my favorite goalie prospects pretty much since his draft and he hasn’t been given the full keys to the kingdom anywhere, right? Like, he wasn’t given an opportunity really in in Nashville at all. Um, and then when he came into to San Jose, he he spent some time with the Barracuda and then, uh, you know, last year had to be Mackenzie Blackwood’s backwood backup for a bit. Uh, they also bring in Alex Nelkovich, who I actually have rated one overall point higher than Ascrov right now just because I’ve seen more from Nelkovich and I think he’s still, you know, a capable backup goalie. But Asgro is going to be the starter. Like they’re going to give him his opportunity. They’re going to let him jump in and see if he sinks or swims. Now, I don’t know if they’re expecting, you know, Dustin Wolf numbers from last year. And I think that’s that’s, you know, outlandish to expect because even though despite the fact that the Sharks and and Flames ended fairly closely in terms of uh, you know, offensive production last year, the Flames had a significantly better team on in terms of like on paper roster. Um, so I I wouldn’t expect any like crazy run because Ascarov goes goes crazy. But again, like if the Sharks are going to be better than their projected 30 second finish, um, or their current ranking, I guess, isn’t necessarily projections. This is more where have these teams as of right now. Um, but if they’re going to play better than that 32nd spot, one of the big reasons because Yurus Asgrov just goes crazy. And, you know, there there is some hope that that could happen. You know, you look at his numbers from last year and, you know, his his own individual production in terms of, you know, DS percentage and, you know, expected GAR is significantly higher than what the Sharks projections were, right? like the sharks expected save percentage is basically on the the left column and then Asgrov’s numbers are the other ones and it it’s pretty clear to see that he was outperforming his his projections by a lot. Now his outperformance got him to about league average in most things but the Sharks were far below leaf average in terms of what they were expected to get. So, uh, I I think if you can get a full season of him playing league average goalending, you know, being the the 20th best starter in the NHL, um, yeah, I I don’t think that’s a bad place to be, uh, to end the season. I think that would show some good progression progression in terms of what the Sharks want to see from Asgrov. Um, and finally, we touch on the special teams. I I I think the the story here for the special teams is essentially what it was for the rest of this team. Now, caveats, I know I’m going to get comments about this. Um, all the lines, uh, the forward pair, forward combinations, uh, defensive pairs, uh, power play units were all from what uh, Puck Pedia has currently because I needed to find a way to do it standard. Um, and and that was that was the one that I chose. So, I could have went daily face off. I went Pedia because I was already using Puck Pedia already. like that that was the reason for the decision. Um so don’t come at me for for power play penalty kill lines being not what what you think they should be. Um blame Puckedia. So yeah. Um but overall like the thing with the special teams here again is just let the kids play, right? Like give them opportunities to learn and power penalty kill is a good place for that. Um, I’d expect Celibbrini to get, you know, a bunch of burn uh on the P on the penalty kill as although he’s not on this board currently. Um, you know, Willie Meckllin’s there. Uh, I I think that that those are guys who who could get a lot of in interesting looks there. That’s that’s what I expect from this team. Again, like there isn’t a ton here that makes me think this isn’t going to be like a an insane unit by the end of the year, aside from growth from the three or four guys that we’ve already talked about this entire uh deep dive. But I I don’t know. I don’t foresee any crazy uh shenanigans happening with this team that aren’t already locked in here. But we’ll see. I think the the the ceiling’s pretty low for the for the special teams units, but uh you know, maybe Smith, Ecklund, and Celibbrini can uh can lift them above that. So, now that you’ve had heard me talk as much detail as I can on the San Jose Sharks, it’s time to look towards an expert on the team. Please welcome from the hockey writers, Alex Hutton. Alex, thank you so much for being here first of all, and I’m excited to talk about the San Jose Sharks. Yeah, thank thanks so much for having me. Uh I the word expert uh scares me off a little bit. I don’t want I don’t want I don’t want to oversell uh my abilities, but but but thank you for having me on. And you know, you you you say like not exciting to talk about and it’s like in the sense of like playoff expectations of making the playoffs. Yeah, sure. But they’ve got a lot of really interesting players who I think are are worth taking a look at. So for for that reason, I’m excited about it. So I guess that’s a good place to start. So what are some relative expectations for this team that fans should have going to this season? whether that’s standings expectations, development expectations, whatever. What should fans um be looking forward to for this team going into this next season? Yeah, I think it’s we talk about the player development stuff. You know, the guys who have already made the NHL, played a full season there, can they take another leap, can the people who have, you know, been around the fringes and maybe gotten a few games here and there, can they establish themselves as full-time NHLers? And then the guys who are, you know, the prospects, the guys been done really well in in juniors of the AHL. Can they find a place on the Sharks on the NHL team uh later this season? I think those are the really big things to look at. You know, playoff expectations, standings, that’s probably not going to happen this season. You know, this this rebuild is a long process and, you know, we’re still a couple couple years away from that kind of breakthrough, I think. But fans want to see that the rebuild is going somewhere, that it’s that, you know, it’s been they’ve been stuck at the bottom of the standings for a few seasons now, and people want to see that they’re capable of taking a leap and starting to head upward. That that that part of the trajectory, you know, the downward portion of it, it’s it’s understandable. It’s expected. It everyone knew it was going to happen when they, you know, trade away players and guys come to the end of their contracts. But now at this point, you want to see that, okay, we we’ve gone down. Now, let’s let’s make that pivot and and start heading uphill. And so, and that’ll happen with the development of those players I was talking about. So, I think most people have the Sharks pencil in as like a bottom three or four team in the NHL going into this season. Um, what’s one thing that could help them exceed those expectations? Uh, I feel like Ascarov going on a crazy Dustin Wolf type run is is probably the obvious answer, but you can kind of take it wherever you want if that’s part of it or if that’s kind of one of the main things that could help them out. That that’s that’s definitely part of it. And I’ll just sort of expand that more generally, which is those those all those young players exceed expectations. It’s it’s Ascrov playing really well. It’s Celibbrini and Will Smith taking sophomore leaps. It’s someone like uh Luca Kangonei or Shakir Mcmullan, you know, um proving themselves to be true NHL caliber defenseman after they both got, you know, a little bit of a taste of it and trying to break through and establish those as full-time guys on the on the blue line and maybe someone leaving like a Sam Dickinson who can, you know, there’s been talk of him, you know, potentially leaving London this season and going to San Jose because obviously he can’t he can’t go to the Barracuda. So that you got basically those two options. If he were to actually go there and and prove that he at at 19 years old can be an NHL defenseman that young, that would be a great way for them to to take a to take that leap and get it, like you said, get a little bit higher in the standings than than you might expect. Is there any part of this roster that really stands out as a possible red flag or an area that uh you feel they need to focus on upgrading whether it’s in season or just down the line? You know, it’s it’s funny just talking about like the all the the explanation of the young defenseman I just wanted, but it it is the blue line. It is the defenseman. Like the the forwards are are really promising between Mlin Celibbrini, Will Smith, William Mcklin, Michael Misa, all those guys. really feels like they’ve found their future guys, that they’ve got a core there. The defense is a lot less certain. You’ve got those you’ve got those fringe guys, those guys who have played well in juniors or in the AHL who’ve started to creep their way into the NHL, but haven’t quite gotten there yet. And they we we still don’t know for sure if any of them have established themselves. you know, those other the the forwards, at least a few of them across a season or two, have have proven they can hold their own in the NHL. We don’t know that for the defenseman yet. And a lot of these veteran guys that they’ve signed feel more like stop gap kind of measures than guys who can really be part of this rebuild. You know, for the forwards, they have a a Tyler TFoley who can who’s going to be who’s under contract for three more years and might really be part of that. The defenseman at the moment don’t really have anyone like that. I like the signing of Demetri Love. I think I think that’s a that was a good move, but I don’t know if he fits in that same category. And so trying to figure out what they’re going to do, especially with the right-handed defenseman because a lot of the guys I’ve been talking about are lefties. So, where do they find a a defense core? They don’t they don’t know that yet. And it’s there’s a lot of guys. They obviously they just traded one of them because it was kind of a log jam there. But all these guys are kind of fifth, sixth defenseman types and they I don’t think they’ve really found their their top pair people quite yet. So, you’ve kind of mentioned a couple already, but is there any prospects kind of in the pipeline that you’re really excited about seeing get a shot uh at a full-time NHL role this season that could have an impact on this on the Sharks even this year? Yeah, I’ll I’ll go with Yarlav Ascarov for that one. Um, you know, he he got a handful of NHL games last year, played really really well in some of them, and then, you know, I mentioned the struggles the defense has had where they they led the league in goals allowed last season where he, I think, was kind of collapsing under the the weight of the the struggles that the defense was having. And just for a, you know, he was 22 last season and for a young inexperienced kind of guy, that’s that’s really tough to try to backs stop a uh such such a a weak defense. And I think that’s why part of why he didn’t get more games last year is that they wanted to let let the veterans who maybe were able to handle that a little bit more. Uh they focus on that and so he could and obviously he was dealing with injuries too, but he could also focus on his time in the in the AHL. But this year, the way that they’ve um rearranged their their goalie situation, I expect him to get a lot more starts this season. And you know, Nadulkovich will will mix in there a fair amount, but I think that Ascarov is going to get a much longer look at the NHL now he’s got under a new contract and they really want to start looking at him. Is is this the guy for our future? So, I I would hope he gets 30 40 starts in the NHL this season, if not more. And I would I’m really excited to see how he does of the workload of a maybe not an a full NHL starter season, but a but a decent amount of that. Yeah, I’ve been a big fan of Ascarov since his draft year basically. And it looks like the Sharks are going to give him plenty of opportunity to kind of take the ball and see if he can run with it uh here. So, like you said, maybe if he if he plays well, he can get even over that 30 40 game threshold. Yeah, I mean, and he, you know, has obviously been been craving that number one spot for a long time. It’s why he wanted to be traded out of Nashville in the first place. So, I I expect and I hope for his sake that he takes full advantage of the opportunity he’s going to get this season. Yes. So, I guess the final question here is just is there anybody on this roster that you think could really become a breakout star for the Sharks this year? Um either as a young player taking a step forward or um a Mikuel Granland type player who comes in as a reclamation project and uh really finds his his game again here in San Jose. For for that, I I think I’ll I’ll focus on Will Smith. Not not to say that people aren’t talking about him per se, but I definitely think he’s in Mlin Celerini shadow just a little bit. You know, Celbrini is the as the number one pick as the the future guy, the guy who gets all the superstar comparisons. He’s going to get most of the attention. But Will Smith, you know, had an up and down season last year. Um had some development days, but really started to, I think, find his own in the back half of the season. Played a lot better in the in the second half of the year than he did in the first half. And I I want to see him keep going with that this coming season. Continue that momentum and kind of remind people, hey, I know you’re all focused on Mlin, but but I’m here, too. I was a top five pick for a reason. I’m also a huge part of this of this rebuild and what the Sharks are doing. Uh, so I’m I’m excited to see what he can do um with uh a year and an offseason of of development and training camp and whatnot under his belt and if if he can be um a part of this in the way that he showed he could he could be in the in the second half of the season like I said. All right. Well, that’s all I got for you. Um again, thank you so much for coming on and taking the time to to chat with us about the San Jose Sharks. Uh if there’s anything that you want to plug or let people know where they can find you, uh the floor is yours to do so. Yeah. Um you can always check check me out at the hockey writers. Uh the hockey writers.com is the website. I’m the I’m the only sharks writer there right now. So uh feel free to check out all my articles and all the ones I have coming up. And then my Twitter is Alex Hutton35. So you can find me there. All right. Once again, a huge thank you to Alex for coming on and talking to us about the San Sharks. And a huge thank you to you for watching this video. Remember to like, comment, and subscribe. Uh, follow for the entirety of this series. We have 31 more of these to go. We have plenty of other great guests coming on to talk about their teams, and I’m here to break down the rosters as well. So, if you like this video, there will be 31 more to go. And if the Sharks aren’t your favorite team, we will be covering your favorite team at some point during the summer. Thank you for watching and we’ll see you for number 31.

Welcome to my NHL deep dive series! Today, we are covering the San Jose Sharks. I’m happy to have Alex Hutton from the Hockey Writers on today to talk to Alex Hutton from the Hockey Writers

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