My Top 10 San Jose Sharks Prospects

My Top 10 San Jose Sharks Prospects

class is now in session i’m Professor Hockey and today we’ll be discussing my top 10 San Jose Sharks prospects i’ve seen a couple of posts about this topic recently and I thought why not throw my own hat into the ring and we start off with the honorable mentions here which I think is very interesting portion of this list because I view the Sharks as having kind of a top nine group of prospects right now where the ordering within that top nine is up for debate but the players there are relatively set however when it comes to actually nailing down who’s that 10th best prospect that’s where you begin to really be splitting hairs and you could honestly make an argument for a bunch of different players and that’s where these honorable mentions do come in starting off with Cam Lond he had a few really good years in the NCAA and made the jump to the NHL this past season uh he managed to score a couple of goals but otherwise I don’t think had a truly inspiring performance necessarily that perhaps is to be expected the Sharks obviously were terrible at the end of this past season so it’s certainly not Lun’s fault and on top of that the jump from college to the NHL is not an easy thing to do right out of the gate but with that being said he will likely begin next year with the San Jose Barracuda and the hopes will be is that he will have that kind of Colin graph style of development where he starts the year with the Cuda he does very well makes the jump to the NHL at the midway point and we go from there but I’m not fully ready to predict that this will definitely happen for Cam London so he just barely misses the cutoff for that top 10 position then we have Jack Thompson he’s a defenseman we’re not super high on i think he has the possibility of being like a number six maybe number five guy in the NHL but probably not much more than that however the good news for him is that because he plays a position that the Sharks desperately do need which is a right-handed defenseman San Jose is likely to give him the room to grow over the next year over the next couple of years but I’m not sure if there’s much upside here which is why I have him as that honorable mention then we have Ethan Cardwell who’s actually one of my favorite Sharks prospects within their system but if we are being realistic likely caps out more as a fourthline winger this is still an important position to have obviously if you truly want to make an impact in the NHL and get all the way to the Stanley Cup finals and compete for that trophy you don’t just need the guys at the top of your lineup doing well but also the guys at the bottom even if they’re only playing six seven eight minutes and in three to four years time I could see Ethan Cardwell being that type of player but the Sharks prospect pool is so deep that a fourthline guy is not quite enough to cut that top 10 then we have Denil Guushian i don’t even know if Guushian will still be on the team within the next couple of months it’s possible that the Sharks don’t resign him it’s possible that he decides to just leave himself but if he is there’s arguments to be in that top 10 position and then other guys like Joy Mul Downey or Leo Selene Wolinius I could certainly see being in that position but I ultimately decided on Sharks defensive prospect Eric PCamp he has been playing in the NCAA for the last couple of seasons and has looked really really good came in as a freshman with Baiji State obviously it’s not a a BC or a BU but he was under the radar one of the better defenseman at that time even though he was just a college freshman so good in fact that he ended up getting picked up by Denver University for his sophomore season the team that was the defending champions of the NCAA and he helped them get pretty far in the playoffs once again this season he wasn’t quite their number one guy obviously Zeve Buham filled in in that role but he still played a pretty important position and now with Ze Buham having signed his NHL contract with Minnesota Wild it is expected that heading into his junior year he could end up being that top pairing very important player on a good Denver program so he’ll be someone to keep an eye on if he can continue this upward trajectory for himself while I don’t think he necessarily has top pairing upside in the NHL maybe a middle pairing position could be in his future and that to me is just barely enough to get him above some of these other honorable mentions and I should also point out that because this is his junior year the Sharks will likely pursue a contract at the end of this season and with him being a right-handed defenseman we could see an NHL debut as soon as like March or April by this uh upcoming year then we move on to number nine on this list where we have Philip Beast he brings a lot of stability to the Sharks prospect pool you know you’re probably not getting like a top six player out of him but you likely will end up with a bottom six type of guy he certainly has the build and the makeup as a player to be a fourth liner maybe even a third liner in the NHL he had his first full season in North America this year where it went okay obviously he probably could have liked it to go better but it was mired with inconsistencies he had some great games he had some not so great games and that certainly carried in to the playoffs with the Barracuda they played a total of six games i’d say in about three maybe four of them he was really solid but in the other two or three he was not so great and so I’m not sure if it’s enough to actually get him into the NHL as soon as next season but within the next couple of years I could absolutely see it and the thing to me that makes the difference why he’s above a player like Cam Lond or Ethan Cardwell who maybe project out in the same type of position is the fact that Philip Beast is a centerman and that is more valuable especially in that bottom six having a really good fourthline center is harder to come by than a solid fourthline winger and so he does end up in that number nine spot at number eight we have Casper Helton and going from a more certainty to a lot more uncertainty here this is a player who in three to four years time we could be talking about as like a 30 goal scorer dangerous player to on the ice for the Sharks on the power play and in three years three to four years time we could be talking about him as like a guy who just never could quite crack it in the NHL and the reason for this is that he has one skill that just stands out above pretty much everything else that he is capable of which is his shot perhaps the best in the OHL perhaps even the best in the entire CHL he is just an absolute weapon on the power play or even at even strength when given some room on the ice at the World Juniors with team Finland teams had to go into their matchup against Finland with plans on the penalty kill to cover for him in that position or they knew that given the one-time chance he would likely put the puck in the back of the net so they would design their penalty kill in trying to stop him from actually getting that clean shot off that’s how much of a threat he is but the fact is is that just having a really good shot is not really enough to crack it in the NHL there have to be other aspects of your game that are at the very least pretty good you don’t want to just be a one-trick pony i take a look at a player like Martin Furk for those who have never maybe heard of him he has just an absolute bullet of a shot he set over 109 mileph shot at the AHL All-Star game a few years ago but he doesn’t offer much else besides that and so he’s basically been an AHL player for most of his career only a handful of NHL games here or there hinan doesn’t want to fall into that position the sort of good news I’m not even sure if I can fully call it good news is that this was something he had been working on this season with London the thing was is that his production his actual numbers weren’t great he was only just barely over a point per game pace and as a D+2 player in the OHL that is not great but he was trying to work on some of the other aspects here defensively trying to get his skating to be at a higher level also just trying to add a little bit of an edge to his game have a bit of a mean streak be more physical which is something that we definitely did see through the playoffs for London in the OHL so that could benefit him moving forward especially since he does have some size to his game he is 6’4 so there is a possibility that he could crack it more as a bottom six guy if he truly transitions his game to that but you obviously want to see him pan out more so as a scorer and it’s kind of a hit or miss whether or not that does happen and so he finds himself a little bit further down this list at number eight then we move on to number seven another player who has some uncertainty to his game Luca Kagyon defenseman here for the San Jose Barracuda at least this past season and he was absolutely fantastic production-wise he put up some great numbers despite the fact that he came in as a 19year-old sure he turned 20 a couple months into the season but still pretty young to be putting up the numbers that he did in a professional league that was really great to see and honestly if Luca Kaguni was like a 63 defenseman putting up production like this you’d be talking about him as like a top three maybe even number one defensive prospect for the Sharks currently but unfortunately that’s not the case he is instead 5’9 which means the bar for him to clear is a good bit higher there needs to be a high level of play for him to actually crack it in the NHL just this past season there were only 11 defensemen who played at least 30 games who were either 5’9 or even 510 so there’s not a ton of sample here and that is because you do need to be a truly special type of talent and it remains to be seen whether or not Kagnoni really is obviously the production in the AHL was fantastic but we saw him make the jump to the NHL at the end of this past season and I thought this was a great thing to see i wanted him to get this experience and I think it will benefit him moving forward but I was also hoping we’d see more flashes of brilliance offensively from Kagoni and we didn’t quite get that in particular if you take a look on the power play he was the power play quarterback for the San Jose Barracuda and helped lead them to the top power play unit in the entire AHL but when put into a similar position in the NHL he didn’t really make much of an impact at all and so it remains to be seen if he can truly be that difference maker in the NHL and unlike someone like Haltonin who could theoretically crack it as a bottom six guy just due to his size it’s hard to imagine Kagnoni being like a solid bottom pairing defenseman however the real difference maker and why I have Kagnoni above Htonin even then is because their D plus2 years could not be any further different hton as I said despite working on those other aspects of his game still just offensively wasn’t that great for a player in juniors but D+2 for Kagyoni in a professional league putting up the numbers that he did that is very very impressive and so he’s a player who I never really want to count out he already proved at the beginning of the season when he not only was able to make it to the AHL but put up the numbers that he did that he is someone who is dedicated and should not be really bet against but it remains to be seen if he truly has that fullon NHL upside we shall see at number six we have now Colin Graph he is a very stable player within the San Jose Sharks prospect pool one of the few who has actually had a decent amount of games in the NHL not quite enough to not be eligible for this list to me he has not yet played a full season in the NHL so I’ll consider him here but right now he is a step above a lot of other Sharks players even if he doesn’t quite have a ton of upside i don’t really view Colin Graph as like a topline player of the future for the Sharks but I think he could fill in quite perfectly into a third line role which is still exceptionally important take a look at the Florida Panthers who are in the Stanley Cup finals currently against the Edmonton Oilers yeah you think of Bararkov and Reinhardt and Kachchuck up front as the bigname players but the Florida Panthers don’t get anywhere near the position that they are in without guys like Lustin or Rodriguez or Lendell putting in the strong work in a more third line middle six type of position being strong penalty kills good defensively and still contributing 30 to 40 points which I think is where Colin Graph could land in so not a ton of upside that cracks him yet into the top five though it remains to be seen perhaps he could be someone who could be a decent fill-in into a a second line role at some point in the future but still a key piece to the Sharks currently looking really good this past season or at least to end it off and will probably a full-timer next year at number five we have Quinton Musty and perhaps this will be viewed as slightly a surprise here but this season kind of a stagnant year for Quinton Musty didn’t manage to make much progress and to be fair it’s not really his fault it was to be expected because he was a casualty of the NHL CHL agreement which meant that he could not play in the AHL he was considered to be too young so either he had to make it to the big leagues or he would be going back to juniors and he was not quite ready to make it to the NHL it’s not really his fault necessarily as a 19-year-old it’s quite difficult to crack it as a teenager in the NHL so he went back to juniors and he still didn’t really do himself many favors there obviously there was the injury that’s not easy to prevent that kept him out for a couple of months including the World Juniors but he also sat out games at the beginning of the season when requesting a trade to be moved away from the Sudbury Wolves and so he only ended up playing about half of the year his production was still fantastic but some of the strides that people were hoping to see in his game just didn’t quite happen and then he lost quite quickly in the playoffs with Sudbury which kind of proved his point of why he wanted to be traded in the first place when they got swept for zero the good news is that Musty did have a strong finish sort of to his series because or to his season I should say because it was almost a blessing in disguise to be eliminated in so early on in the OHL playoffs because he was able to make the jump to the San Jose Barracuda he played a couple of games for them at the end of the season but more importantly he got into a playoff game it’s a small sample size of literally just one singular game you don’t usually want to read too deeply into one game but he played against Colorado it was game two of that second round playoff series and I actually thought he looked rather solid which sets up a I guess a good feeling heading into the off season and going into next year which will be his first professional year of his career it will probably be mostly with the San Jose Barracud unless he has just an absolutely incredible preseason but it makes it so you kind of have the faith that he can continue on this development path he does have the upside to be a top six player and is I would say more of a sure thing I guess you could say compared to a player like Casper Hton which is why he does have this number five spot and I would say the reason why he drops here to maybe number five in compared to where some other people would have him rated is because I’m more so high on who I have on number four which is Shakir Mukadul and coming into this season I didn’t necessarily think much of this particular player especially since Will Smith and Celbrini would be on a top 10 list at the beginning of the year i probably would have had Mukadum like number nine number 10 something like that but this season the 30 or so games that he played just so extremely impressive i felt both sides of the puck defensively he looked really calm cool and collected in his own zone in comparison to other young defenseman that the Sharks have like Henry Thrron and Jack Thompson it was like a night and day contrast just looked very much in control and offensively while obviously we didn’t see much where you think oh yeah this is going to be a 80 point per game type of player in the future we did see enough that it feels as though he could pot 30 to 40 points he was had some strong offensive instincts of when to jump in from the blue line moments where he would go right down the middle into the slot to get a chance or even go pretty deep into the zone below the goal line and crashing the net to try and get an opportunity while still being able to get back for his defensive responsibilities i really liked what we saw from Mukamed the only worry for him is that he started this past year with an injury and he also ended it with an injury and obviously that could be something that could easily derail a player’s career hopefully not the case and he can come back stronger going into next season and manage to maintain his health for the entirety of the year cuz I believe he probably has a pencil in top four position at least at this moment with San Jose and I truly believe he can be not just a middle pairing guy but like a strong number three capable of eating a ton of minutes in even key playoff situations then we get to the top three prospects and at that third position I have who I believe to be the Sharks best forward prospect currently at is Igor Chernishov he uh was actually injured for a good portion of this season the missed the first few months but then made his debut right at the end of January with the Sagenov Spirit in the OHL and he was just a dominant force in the regular season he put up a ton of points there was a portion over the first month or so where he was at about three points per game he still finished at the highest rate in a smaller sample size than most players obviously but still well over two points per game his playoff performance wasn’t great with Sagenov as they got bounced pretty quickly out of that first round but again like with Quinton Musty almost a blessing in disguise because it allowed Chernishov to make the jump to the San Jose Barracuda to catch a couple of games at the end of the season and he also again like Musty was only given a single playoff game but he looked really really great in that one game it was game four the final game that Barracuda had in the playoffs not only did he score their only goal but he was probably one of their best players making an impact almost every single time he stepped out on the ice which gives a lot of hope that Turner can not only be a solid potentially even top six player maybe even first liner for the Sharks in the future but that he could potentially do that as soon as next season because one thing that does differ from Quinton Musty is that while Musty has not previously played professional hockey Chernos actually has during his draft year he played a handful of games in the KHL so he is sort of more used to this type of environment I would say and with him being a older player of the 2024 draft a November birthday meaning he would turn 20 relatively early on he is a bit more further along than other 2024 drafties and so I think there is a possibility he could crack it in the NHL as soon as next season whether or not it does happen it’s hard to say but there is certainly a possibility he has a ton of talent from what we had seen throughout his uh time in the OHL as well as even with the Barracuda then we get to the top two and this is kind of where you could go either way it seems to me Dickinson and Ascrov are one step above the rest of the group as so important pieces for the San Jose Sharks within their system you could have Ascrov number one you could have Dickinson number one i ended up settling with Dickinson at number one for one major reason which is that if both of these players are to hit their ceiling Ascrov likely ends up as like a top seven top five goalender dickinson would end up as a key top pairing defenseman who can eat a ton of minutes maybe not quite like a Norris winner 80 point guy but someone in the realm of like a Alex Petrangelo who is still very capable of carrying a team to Stanley Cups in fact multiple Stanley Cups both with the St louis Blues and with the Vegas Golden Knights and to me if they both reach that ceiling Sam Dickinson as that top pairing defenseman would be more valuable than Ashgro as a top five goalender because I think you can have success in the playoffs even if you don’t have the best of the best goalender we see the Edmonton Oilers have made it the backto-back Stanley Cup finals despite having a very average goalie who actually is incredibly inconsistent like Steuart Skinner as long as you have a great team in front of him you can absolutely still manage to pick up some wins but without a player like Dickinson leading your defensive uh core it’s going to be a lot more difficult so that’s truly the differencemaker for me why I have different Dickinson at number one when it comes to Ascrov as I said still a very important piece within the Shark system can be that top goalie who can still use some games which also has its own value and we saw him be able to do that this season in the NHL he had some fantastic outings the one that really comes to mind is that game where he almost single-handedly managed to take out the Edmonton Oilers obviously it fell short right at the end but it was very close and it was almost entirely off the back of Asgrov’s heroics in that game but at the same time we also saw kind of some of the unpredictability in Asgrov as a goalender he is a bit of a eccentric personality and that shows in his game there were also many moments in which he just simply was not as good and it also shows in some of his skills as a player in particular when it comes to his puck handling abilities he loves to come out play the puck to try and be that important piece and this is extremely valuable if you can actually act as that third defenseman on the ice you can shut down teams offensive strategies but the fact is is that Ascrov would frequently come out and then almost like freeze in these positions where it would create this chaos and this uncertainty in the Sharks defensive zone that just wasn’t really a great thing it wouldn’t always backfire but occasionally it would we saw Ascrov in fact the first goal that he gave up as a San Jose Sharks goalender mere seconds into the game was because he misplayed the puck while handling it behind the net against the St louis Blues this is something that he will have to correct but one thing that truly works in Ascarov’s favor and what makes him truly a special the goalending prospect is his athleticism the way he moves in the crease is really something to see kind of reminds you a little bit of like a Jonathan Quick goalender for the Los Angeles Kings who managed to win a couple of Stanley Cups with them so Ascrov I do believe has that potential when it comes to Sam Dickinson at number one I remember when the Sharks drafted Dickinson this past year this past offseason 2024 the first game action that we saw with him with the Sharks organization not counting development camp was at the rookie faceoff tournament and the first thing that came to mind as a comparison for Dickinson was absolutely Brent Burns he just had Brent Burns written all over him and this is a great thing obviously Brent Burns was a fantastic defenseman wana James Norris as literally the league’s best defenseman in one of those years but they both have that size but also they move well with it offensively they have some strong instincts there they can get pucks through good one-time solid passing ability and even defensively they can make some great reads and eat a ton of minutes and be rather reliable but at the same time there are those moments where Brent Burns would leave you scratching your head and wondering what exactly he was thinking as he just gives the puck away or is completely out of position and Sam Dickinson is very similar i watched him at the Memorial Cup this season he was the best defenseman in the Memorial Cup in fact you could argue he was the best defenseman in the entire OHL this season pretty close with Zayn Parrick but there are definitely arguments to go in Sam Dickinson’s favor and yet there were also moments in that Memorial Cup in which he would make these crazy big mistakes think of the one game that the London Knights actually lost which was to Medicine Hat in the round robin the game winner that Medicine Hat scored was because Sam Dickson completely dropped coverage of his man allowing him to move to the front of the net and find this goal there was another moment in the final game against Medicine Hat which was the championship game the final 30 seconds this is a situation where London had a three-goal lead at this point so perhaps Sam Dickinson had his mind on the on the prize and wasn’t fully locked in and ready to play defense but he again found himself completely out of position allowing for almost a really great chance for Medicine Hat to form so these are the types of mistakes that do need to be cleaned up because if you are making them in the NHL that’s going to usually end up in the back of your net and singular goals can be the difference maker especially in the playoffs between wins and losses and you don’t want your top defenseman making those all that consistently but there’s so much to love there’s so much good with him and even defensively like 90% of the time he’s still able to make really really strong plays and so he certainly pans out at the very least as like a middle pairing defenseman who can take up a ton of minutes but perhaps at his best as that top pairing guy who really rounds together a Shark’s defensive core and so he does end up as their top prospect currently but that all of that could change within the next couple of weeks the draft is quickly approaching the Sharks know not only have the second overall pick but then a late first an early second a mid-second all of these players will be further added to already one of if not the best def prospect pools in the entire NHL so the future is very bright for this team class dismissed

Discussing my list of the top 10 prospects in the Sharks’ system.