How Celebrini, Smith & Eklund Have Gotten Better This Summer

How Celebrini, Smith & Eklund Have Gotten Better This Summer

Welcome to the San Jose Hockey Now podcast. I’m Shang Pang, editor and chief of San Jose Hockey Now. You can also find my work at NBC Sharks on Twitter, Shang_pang, Blue Sky, Shang Pang, and find us on Instagram, San Jose Hockey Now. And I’m Keith Mcnal. You can find me on Twitter at halfall_hockey. My website half-wall hockey.com or at San Jose Hockey Now. All right. I’m Zub Bear. Uh you can find me at San Jose Ice Division 2 Beer League. Nice. Saturdays, Fridays, Friday nights. Here’s the Stanley’s. All right. Before we get to the the show though, a quick word from our sponsor. Bring hockey back. Bring hockeyback.net. I am wearing one of their shirts today. This morning the macro one in uh respect for our episode today. Uh Keegan, I don’t see your shirt. What where’s your shirt? Uh I wanted to, you know, I got I grabbed a nice sweater. It’s I’ve got the AC turned down to frosty. So I was like every time I’m in this room I get cold. So got the sweater on. But bring hockey back. Bring hockeyback.net. So they make awesome t-shirts, awesome sharks themed t-shirts. I believe you can still buy this Mlin t-shirt, Mac Attack, and Joe Thornson, director of Vibes t-shirt on there. I got to double check if you can still buy it, but go go go take a look. But anything else they have on there, any other t-shirts, apparel, also they make custom hockey jerseys, great hockey jerseys for any kind of event, for your beard league, for a corporate event. And you can use the coupon code San Jose Hockey now for 15% off. 15% off of anything in the store. Coupon code San Jose Hockey Now. So go to bring hockey back. Bring hockeyback.net. So do I got to use a coupon code or am I going to get a shirt here? Uh, I don’t know. Yeah, honestly, I didn’t expect to get a shirt and then they just kept sending me shirts. So, you’ll probably get one if if you gave Shang your address. It might be over budget. So, you and Keegan might have to fight over the spare shirt. So, what size are you, Keegan? They sent me a beer koozie, which I I still have and I use. They sent me a bunch of stickers. Like, you’re gonna get some swag, man. I’m just joking. Yeah. Okay, we’ll get to bear on on the swag train. Yeah, there you go. I’m going matte black until we figure it out. Yeah, right. You’re in protest. You better sell. Exactly. All right. So, we got some fun stuff to talk about today. I mean, Veloic buyout, should Pavvelski’s jersey be retired, SAP agreement. So, lots of things as well as getting your thoughts on Helinka. So, uh let’s get started right at the top of that list. Yeah. But the main topic though that we’re going to talk about today is what are the Sharks kind of young guns? What are they working on this summer? So, this was a topic idea that Zubar thought of and so I kind of dug in on it. So, what’s Mlin working on this summer? What is Will Smith working on this summer? What is William working on this summer? And so, we’ll get to that at the very end of the show and there’s some interesting stuff that I have found out digging around talking to people and so stay tuned for that. We learned that CBrini is, you know, learning piano. It’s uh Will Smith is taking French. Who knew? Um, what what is what is Ekki doing? Yeah, Ekki. Oh, man. He uh solely focused on hockey. There’s no there’s no for for That’s funny. All right. Well, start at the top. Bless. Yeah, because I was pretty stunned about this. I don’t know about you guys. Like I was pretty stunned as well. Yeah. I I read the quote and like the the multiple quotes that he had and The the weird thing is like this keeps happening in some ways. I feel like I keep we keep getting these like once a player leaves San Jose, they say something crappy about the management. Like that happened with Martin Cout that happened with Laurelic, that happened with um Nicolak Kovaleeno. Like I don’t know like maybe we need to do a little bit more digging on like what’s going on here or or Velasic just has some sour grapes and he’s a little and he has some right to be I think I guess. Let’s uh update people a little bit of what was said uh just really uh really briefly. So the Sharks bought out Mark Edward Blastic at the end of June. It was a little bit of a surprise I think just because he had just one year left and the Sharks had kind of they had just strung it out for so long and Sharks did not need a cap space. So this was not a cap space decision and so it was a little surprised that they did buy him out. When I asked Mike Greer about it, I think I think I think I was the one who asked him a couple days later after free agency. Mike Greer was like, “Oh yeah, uh Mark took it really well. He’s uh he’s a pro.” Actually, to quote uh Mike Greer, I think he understood where we are at as an organization and the decisions that we have to make as far as roster construction. So, he handled it really well, very professional. It’s not something I’m surprised by. He’s a class act. This was, I believe, July 1st, 2nd, something like that. And so anyway, Mark Edwardic though about a month and a half later at a some kind of tournament, maybe a golf tournament in in Quebec. Uh these are comments translated by the Mercury News. So Mark said this in French. Um so anyway, the the the couple of quotes that Zubar and Keegan are are referring to is couple of the key ones are they told me this was in Mark Revolic talking about his exit interview in April. They told me that I played well, especially defensively, and that they liked that I was a mentor to the young guys. They told me they wanted me to do that next year. So, when I left, I thought I’d come back. This is about midappril. And at the very end, Mark says, “I still have a residence in San Jose. It would have been honest of them to tell me right after the season. Now, I have a lot of things to think about.” I think he’s referring to just the house and and and things like that. Just kind of real life kind of stuff. So anyway, so that’s just kind of a recap of of uh of Blastic’s uh well Pickles sourness, right? And that was pretty good. So I agree with you, Keegan, that that Mark has something to be to be upset about. Uh the way I see it is I can I think it’s very believable that Mike Greer did not know uh in midappril that he was going to buy out Mark Edward Velic. So that’s a little bit like for Velostic to kind of say that like hey if you knew then you should have told me. I would I would I don’t know this as a fact. Uh this I haven’t like checked in with with with the Sharks or sources there but I would guess that at that moment they don’t know yet. But I would say that between midappril to June 26th or whenever like whenever the bout happened that they knew before June 26. This is not something a decision that I don’t think they arrived on this decision on June 25th. I would find that very unlikely at least unless somebody is going to prove me wrong which is again it’s possible. I don’t know for a fact but I think realistically though they knew sometime between midappril and June and they should have told Mark immediately when they decided whatever that was. Um, and that and that is that is shitty. Uh, Mark, you can I know a lot of people are mad about, oh, he declined the last four years. He was taking money from the Sharks. Big contract didn’t didn’t pan out. I get that. Um, you know, I I’ll talk about the other side of it that Mark’s game has declined quite a bit. Obviously, that he deserved probably shouldn’t have been on AHL roster. Yeah. arguably like the last year or so for like I I would say the last year or two maybe. I thought he was actually okay a couple years ago, this first year under David Quinn, but then it took another drop again his game. But anyway, the the point though is that for a guy who’s done so much for your franchise is your games played leader for a defenseman that spent his entire career with the Sharks that you got to let him know as soon as possible and It’s not the buy out window. That’s not I so I do agree that that wasn’t respectful. Um and I’ll talk about the other point that I have about his game because there are points where like I do see that there’s kind of some sour grapes here too in my opinion. But anyway, I don’t know what you guys think about that. I I I agree. I think that I mean just think about it from any job. You want to if you’re on the way out, you know, you want some proactive communication from your managers, right? And it sounds like here there wasn’t any of that and he had this expectation and and to your point Shane like you could have just talked to him earlier like hey this is what we’re planning on doing depending on you know the roster makeup and who we bring in here and some of the youngsters we want and just had that proactive communication but it seemed like it completely took him by surprise. Yeah. I think it it’d be strange though. I guess like if Mike Greer had said in his exit interview, you know, there’s a chance we could buy you out. It almost seems like, hey, we’re gonna buy you out. Like it feels like uh yeah, if there’s a chance, they probably are gonna do it. I don’t know. It I think it uh it’s very telling that there’s just this whole like there’s this disconnect, right? Like Mike Ger is clearly saying in his statement, “Oh yeah, he took it. Great. He took it fine. He’s a pro.” And then a month and a half later, Pickles is like, “Fuck that. that.” Like I mean, I don’t know. I it’s all pro sports and like different management styles, but there’s been some kind of stuff like this. I wonder if this is a theme or just some newness maybe with Mike Greer as a GM. Like he’s done a fant fantastic job as we all know. Like he’s made some great trades. He’s rebuilt this franchise into what is hopefully going to be a contender and like he deserves all the credit in the world for that for right now. But uh yeah, I think that we keep hearing these things. So I don’t know. It’s not my place to speak on it, but interesting. Yeah. I, you know, I don’t really uh tie in C and Kovaleeno to this classic thing. They feel like it’s a very different thing. Count and Kovaleeno are two younger players who thought that they deserve more and they were grumpy about it. I mean, I guess it’s Wasik, but Wasic’s not a younger player. I think this case though is more similar to I’m not saying that that there aren’t communication problems with the Sharks like and I’ve reported on this before that like that Mike and and David Quinn you know they weren’t they weren’t getting along a lot by by the end um that’s that’s a one one example of it classic in this case again like there there so there might be something there I do also want to reference though that in our last podcast with Todd Diamond, he talked about how Mike has improved. And I think one of the things that that that Todd is referring to is in terms of communication and things like that. So maybe there is an improvement in general with Mike, but that this maybe there was a gap here with with Lassic. It’s hard to say. I mean, maybe maybe he maybe Lassic did take it well when they talked. I really we weren’t there for the conversation. I don’t want to call Mike like u you know maybe Mike is reporting Acra that’s what Mike saw that that that that Vic was taking it well but I’m just kind of trying to look at it from just realistically like from from midappril to the end of June that they must have had some inkling in between even enough of inkling to to be like like Mark actually said like if you’re thinking about it let me know too and so like and that could have been in miday who knows but just like give him a call call up his agent and say, “Hey, this is kind of” and who knows, right? We don’t even We’re taking Mark Edward Vloic’s word on this. Maybe the Sharks did do that and Mark is still unhappy about it, but assuming that everybody’s kind of like what they’re saying publicly is is is there’s some truth to it that there wasn’t that communication from between uh mid May mid mid April to to June. That is up. That’s disrespectful. Again, let’s not like confuse like uh the decline of Mark Edward Lasset’s career to like treating him with the full respect that he deserves for all the years of service, all the years of great play, all the great memories and all that kind of stuff. But I did want to address that part of it though, I guess moving moving it forward a little bit that u you know Mark talks about in in I think one of the translations like oh like uh I think he he said in another This one, this one I I haven’t checked or like I think it’s the same interview, but he says something like, “Oh, yeah. I I think like I didn’t want to come back anyway.” I mean, you gotta be honest about this, like with with Lassic, right? Like, no one has signed him. There’s a reason why. Like, if Lassic was a kind of a prize free agent acquisition, he would have been signed July 1st, July 2nd, July 3rd, like pretty quickly because everyone needs a good veteran defenseman, right? Mark’s game has declined quite a bit from what I’ve seen as a non-professional observer from scouts that I talked to who are professional observers from you guys you guys at home watch we’ve all seen the same thing basically and so for him to say that that does seem like s grapes because you’re talking about well yeah I don’t know if I want to come back to a place that didn’t want me and we’re not seeing obviously that that demand for him out there that the sharks made some some grand mistake right I mean even with like a kovaleno too you talk about right kovoleno was free and clear to sign anywhere. No one wanted him. Probably because no one wants a talented but not that talented 25-year-old bitching to the press about the coach hating Russians. No one wants that on their team. That’s just not a formula for for success. And so in the case of of Vassic here, that yeah, that does seem like sour grapes. Maybe maybe we’ll be wrong. Um I it’s certainly possible that that Velasic can sign a a PTO somewhere. Um, and then maybe he’ll he’ll show us in camp that, hey, it, you know, it’s just that my team sucked. Now I’m on a better team. I can show my game again. I hope so. I I I like dealing with Mark overall over the years. You know, there are up and downs with that. But Mark and I personally, we came to a really good place because he loves dogs and I love dogs and so we had that in common. So I I I I like I like Mark and so I hope I hope it works out for him. But like in terms of what I saw on the ice and what I think it seems like most of the rest of the league has seen that like I’m not sure I’m not sure what’s going to what he’s going to do in the NHL next year. Uh if he is even in the NHL next year. I get I bet he gets like a PTO and stays through training camp but doesn’t get a contract and then that would be yeah a pretty good I bet he gets like I don’t know New Jersey. Let’s go with that. I’m gonna say PTO to New Jersey. I agree. I his I think everybody can kind of see that he was not worth the the money for a couple of years for sure. And um yeah, it is a it’s a little strange because I he’s one of the obviously the last guys that that brings you back to the sharks of old, right? The the good sharks. And it sucks that it’s kind of ends on this note because you want him to be happy with his time in San Jose and maybe even later on in his career come back because he is, you know, still obviously a great hockey player and lots of good memories in San Jose with him. But yeah, so kind of sad, but I don’t know. That’s all I got. I think that’s that’s that’s that sums it up pretty well and a good transition to, you know, another old shark who we love who’s given us tons of great memories. Uh Joe Pavvelski. So obviously, uh to the next point of, you know, should Joe Pavvelski’s jersey be retired? We’re talking about this because um you know Joe Pvelski uh on the Dropping the Gloves podcast with John Scott uh interviewing Eklan said that you know he might be coming back to San Jose for a Joe Pavvelki retirement which Shang you obviously refuted with some research. So uh first you know for sure confirm no Jersey retirement. Yeah no Jersey retirement next year. Um I don’t even know if there are plans for that to be honest. Um but the point though for sure is that there’s none next year. So I’m not sure what John was doing there, but yeah. Yeah. And then I I think if you just look at it practically because when I I I when I first heard the the the interview with Ekan and I heard obviously I heard John say that but I then I thought I just didn’t seem to it didn’t make sense to me. That’s that’s why I didn’t report on because I just thought no this is this doesn’t even make sense to me because like they’ve already released their promo schedule. Why would they not include that in their promo schedule? That’s just stupid. That’s poor marketing. Yeah. And and I know the NHL is not they’re not great marketers. We’re not that stupid, though. They’re not going to miss a chance to advertise their the one of their bigger nights of the season in the in the schedule release. They did that with Joe Thornton last year. They announced that with the schedule release because you want maximum exposure. Hey, we are retiring Joe Thornton. Get your tickets now. And that was the hottest ticket of the season last year. So that just that didn’t even make any sense to me in the first place that like the that would even be kept under under wraps. Um the other part of it and this is I guess what we’ll debate briefly I guess just because the topic is here John Scott has brought it to our doorstep in terms of should Joevel’s jersey be retired and my initial take is no and uh the way I I look at it you have those two jerseys that are up there Patrick Marlo and Joe Thornton and I think that there’s a combination of longevity success and how beloved those two players are that no one else can match on the Sharks. I I I don’t think so. Right. All those those three factors and if you include Joe in there and Joe is definitely beloved and he did play a long time for the Sharks and he was very successful for the Sharks. None of this is a discredit to what Joe Pvelski did for the franchise. But I feel like if you put Pavvels up there, then you start to need to think about a lot of other people that are in that range, uh, very much in that range. Now, we’re talking Owen Nolan, the Sharks first star, uh, we’re talking Bachov, we’re talking Brett Burns, we’re talking Mark Edward Vloic. And then you start to include all these names up there. And now you retired what I I’ve thrown in five names that I feel are Pavvelski-ish caliber. Even Logan Couture. And yeah, you can say, “Oh, I love Joe Moore.” Well, I can guarantee you I can find a lot of Sharks fans that love Owen Nolan. Like that was their first guy, right? Or Sharks fans that love Nabi or whatever, right? Maybe Blic doesn’t have the same love, but he played longer than anybody. Brent Burns, Bernzie, the Sharks maybe their first kind of like allaround superstar. There’s the media. Everybody knows him, the the beard, all that kind of stuff, right? Even more than than Jumbo, maybe Brent Burns. So anyway, the point of of all this is that I feel like I feel like the bar is really high with with Thornton and Marlo. That’s where the bar should stay. If you include Pavvelski, again, no discredit to him, but that lowers the bar from the Thornton and Marlo bar. And if you include all these names I’ve just mentioned, like four or five, six games, Sharks have won zero championships with these guys. These are This isn’t the Yankees. This isn’t the Lakers where where he can you can reasonably retire like 11, 12, 10 jerseys. You know, the Lakers have like five statues. I think they’re including one for Pat Riley. They have like five statues outside of Staple Center, which sounds stupid. Five Lakers with statues outside of Lakers, outside of Staples Center or Crypto.com Arena. But if you know anything about basketball, Shaq, Kobe, uh, Elgen Baylor, Jerry West, Chick Hearn, now Pat Riley, you can’t really argue with it because all those guys brought championships or they were trailblazing players or etc., etc., right? And trailblazing players not just like for the Lakers, but for the NBA, for the leap. And you don’t Yeah. I It’s to me it’s kind of like Yeah. It’s it’s just it’s again I’m not trying to discredit uh Joe uh um and Destruct should have brought him back. I’ve seen that a lot in the comments. Of course, he should have brought him back. We we we we know this, right? But um but I just I feel like it just I just think he doesn’t quite make it for that significant of an honor. This is my opinion. Um I you know not a fan so maybe you know you guys might love uh Path more but that’s that’s my thought. Yeah, I would say like a I agree Shang and then but if I was going to say like if there was any point for it like is there a delineation between like is any of the players that you mentioned with velocic’s category of like Sharks that could potentially get it between Nolan and Velocic maybe even Burns on that list right I I I see Pavvelski you know cut just a little differently than them because and I think about through the lens of like who would who has the highest potential of being a Hall of Famer. And and and I think that if I was gonna think about it through that lens, I see Pavvelski with like, you know, most goals in the postseason from an Americanb born player. Um, you know, which is interesting. Over a thousand games played, uh, great leadership qualities. I see him as a higher likelihood of making it as a Hall of Famer than the rest of those guys. Um maybe Burns has a higher chance though because maybe Burns for sure. For sure. Nor multiple Norris finalist too. So he might have a higher chance. I think this is but it’s a good um comparison. It’s like the Hall of very good versus the Hall of Fame. Like I think if you’re going to be retiring guys like they should be pretty set Hall of Famers or they did something absolutely spectacular for your franchise even if they weren’t a Hall of Famer, right? like if somebody was just super good for two years and won you a Stanley Cup or two um or something like that. I don’t know. But like yeah, there should be a the bar and Marlo and Jumbo are I agree with Shang like my hearts I agree it’s it’s too high of a bar that even Pavvelski classic uh Brent Burns my favorite player in the world Scott Hannon doesn’t meet. Well, why to include a family member in there? The nepatism going on on the on the San Jose hockey, but it’s like you’re Yeah, he your favorite player. It’s like it doesn’t matter. There there has to be a certain bar and Pavvelski probably doesn’t meet it. Even though like if I think of a clutch performer, it’s a Couture because his playoff performance is amazing. um and be Pavvelski because he he wills himself to win games sometimes and he’s one of the few sharks that did that consistently. So yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. No, I agree with you guys. Probably not a Jersey retirement coming for pass. But I’ll say though, if it fetches him a job in the front office and attracts him back, give it to him. That’s a fair point. That’s a fair point for the optics, right? If he comes back and helps with player development, oh, I’ll take that any day. Oh, yeah. It is a great story, right? Like he’s he’s such a good guy and and just his it’s the ultimate hockey sense. Um argument, right? Not a Yeah. Not a high draft pick, not a big player, not a fast player, just a the smartest guy on the ice sometimes. His hockey IQ and ability to find a way to be relevant in this league consistently, like that Stanley Cup run that he had with the Dallas Stars. Yeah. Oh my god. I think he led the playoffs in goals last season. I think he did. Yeah, I think the playoffs. Yeah, he was incredible. And that’s after like, you know, even Sharks management and Doug Wilson, for which he’s apologized, was like, “We’re not resigning.” He saw probably him on the decline and he’s like, “I’ll show you.” Yeah. And it’s like anything that he learns, look at his golf game. Like he’s just Yeah. He’s ridiculous. Professional. He learns how to be great at whatever he chooses to do. Um and that’s significant leadership. again isolated from retiring his number but just as a great player in person. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean um I think like if you’re to pick like all these names to start a team who is going to be your captain even throwing Thornton and Marl out there you you might make Pavvelski like your number one or two pick just because like you just need a captain right even if he’s not as like impactful on the ice player as Thornton or Marlo but the off the ice stuff all that kind of stuff. But yeah, one one interesting thing though, listening to you guys talk about is like maybe this is a good definition, but not every team exercises this exercises this, but maybe a good definition of whether or not player should have his jersey retired is if his career just with you is Hall of Fame worthy. And if Joe Thornton only played for the Sharks, I think he would still make the Hall of Fame. Not the first ballot guy, but he would still make the Hall of Fame. Patrick Marlo obviously most of his success was with the Sharks and he’s not in the Hall of Fame yet but he’s gonna he’s going to make it eventually and everyone else though like Joe Bvelski’s resume was obviously buffed up in Dallas and uh Brett Burns actually there’s an argument that maybe just because he was so impactful in that like three four five years under Peter Dbor where Brent was in his prime he might make it just based on his San Jose career he’s actually there’s argument for for Brent there more so than Pavvelski and the Bachov and guys who won’t make the Hall of Fame in like like the Bachov and uh and uh Couture and Velic. So that’s just a thought. Obviously not every team exercises that. I mean I think the Kings they retire Dustin Brown’s jersey. Yeah, exactly. That’s what I mean. Like so if a guy just does something that wins you multiple cups like Dustin Brown maybe maybe that’s fine, right? Right. Just a thought. Yeah. Sharks are an interesting spot because they just don’t have that level of success. Yeah. Also, like I I I’m going to look up these stats later, but I wonder what Burnsy’s drop off in apples were after Pavvelski left left because he was just tipping those pucks in all the time for him. That’s probably probably pretty pretty high. Although I think he still had a good season with um they did the with Carlson and stuff too. Yeah. Well, the the the last season 201819 that was also Sharks last playoff appearance. Pavvelski’s last season with the Sharks and Burns scored uh 80 80 plus points. He was a Norris finalist that year. But then after Pavvelski left, I don’t think it’s a direct correlation because Burns dropped to like a 50 point player. He didn’t lose 30 points because Pavvelski left. That’s that’s a little bit much. Yeah. But the entire team declined though, right? And we saw in Carolina that the Burns was still a very, you know, valid, excellent player, but maybe he wasn’t the Brent Burns of old. There’s a whole a whole lot of factors there. Yeah, of course. Oh, we get to see Brent Burns with Colorado this year. I forgot about that. That’ll be interesting. Yeah, that’s going to be fun. I bet he eats up minutes. Yeah, like they just um he gets higher in the lineup. He’s still got juice in the in there. I agree. I think he’s still a good player. Guushian assisted by Bernzie. Howard thinking over under 40 points for Daniel Gushen is where we should the line at in the AHL or NHL. In the AHL I was uh so I do I do tons and tons of uh fantasy hockey. Um, and there’s a website called Lineup Experts, which is a very in-depth fantasy hockey or fantasy whatever baseball, hockey, football thing, and it gives you projections for the seasons and stuff. And Gooin had like I don’t know, it was like 35 point projection or something, and I was like, “No, you don’t even don’t give me hope. Don’t don’t even see Keegan Colorado hockey now.” Yeah, exactly. to see you. Right. I got I gotta let my my guy at Colorado Hockey now know that if you need uh any scouting report on Buchanan, just go go to my guy Keegan. So yeah, pump some air in those tires. If there was one person who’s probably watched him outside of the actual scouting world, it’s me. I’ve watched too much Denil Gushon in my life. All right. Anyway, let’s move on. Yeah. So, moving on. Um, obviously big news. Uh, Sharks and SAP center agreement with the city of San Jose. Um, obviously going to get to voting. Shang, you got a great piece out on it. Let’s, uh, go to you for some of your thoughts on the on the memorandum. Yeah. Uh, just some very quick bullet points, uh, from it. If you guys aren’t aware, it’s on the the website, too. Uh, I I I scanned the I think it was like a 16page memorandum. Uh, I double checked with people too that my reading was accurate of it and they said it was accurate and so I’m also a pretty good speed reader too. So I’ll say that for myself. But anyway, um, so the basics of this are that this Okay, so the city and the Sharks have agreed, but the this agreement has to go to city council. So it’s not finalized. So I want to want to make that clear. So when you say agreement, people think, “Oh, it’s done.” So it’s almost done, but it’s not done yet. And the city council will vote for it on August 26. So the basics of this is if this agreement passes, the Sharks will basically they will stay in San Jose through the 205051 season. That’s 25 years. The city of San Jose and the Sharks will share the cost of a $425 million renovation at SB SAP Center over the next decade. And one of the curious things here that I didn’t know or wasn’t aware of before they released this memorandum is that by September 2027, the city and the Sharks will agree to a new arena location and district plan. Though the the the details about that are nebulous. So, when this was kind of first talked about in May, I think Mayor Matt May of San Jose, he talked about it at a city event that oh, you know, the sharks are here to stay. We’re close to agreement, right? The way that I understood it, and I might have understood this wrong, so this might be on me for kind of reporting it incorrectly, that that meant that the sharks would stay at SAP Center through 205051. Now, if you read that agreement though, and if you just like that the bullet point summary that I just gave to you, it doesn’t make sense, right? If you think about it, for the Sharks and the city to agree on a new arena location by 2027 and for the Sharks to move in in 201, 24 years later. So, so that doesn’t make sense. So, so there’s something that I’m not sure about yet, which they haven’t really discussed, but that it could be that the renovation of SAP center is sort of a just to get it up to sort of standard because if you read the the memorandum, there’s a lot of talk about how just it’s not SAP center is substandard compared to other arenas. And so that might just be keeping it up to standard as they buy time to build a new arena somewhere else in in San Jose. Or it could be something like this is just me spitballing. I don’t know this for a fact, but because the location SAP center, if you guys are residents of San Jose, that’s a pretty good location. It’s close to uh close to Cal Train. Uh eventually hopefully one day to get BART down here. Anyway, it’s close to a lot of public transportation. It’s close to the the freeways. Um, it’s it’s a good place for it’s a good place for a arena and it’s a good place for a for a arena district, right? Like a LA live kind of kind of thing. So what they could also do which I don’t know this for a fact but also makes sense to me is that this is also like a chance for them maybe maybe they in agreement it’s very clear that that they say that like SAP center like it’s like it’s not tenable for them to to stay there. I think they they say very clearly like past 2050, right? But basically the idea that I’m thinking is that like after they they do these kind of necessary renovations that maybe they knock it down uh within within a few years of completing the renovations and then they build a new arena on site. That’s how I that’s how I kind of read it that the location may be fine still, but they need to build a new building infrastructure. And so maybe this sort of just buys time uh for for for them to figure it out. And then of course there’s a question then if the Sharks do knock down SAP center which again is entirely my speculation. But if they the city and the Sharks do that then they Sharks will obviously need to play somewhere temporarily for a couple of years. I don’t know where that is. Again we’re talking like a good decade from now. But that’s how I put put all this together that I think the point of this agreement is just to keep the Sharks in San Jose till 201. No question no matter what. And you need to get SAP Center just up to standard because SAP Center is the uh the I think they said it was the oldest non- major renovated arena in the league, which I believe is correct because MSG and the Saddle Dome are older, but they MSG has obviously had like a billion dollar facelift. Um Saddle Dome, I think, is having a facelift like this year or something. They have they’ve had they’ve also had a major renovation. This might also explain too because one of the things personally when I looked at this was I looked at that $425 million total. I thought well like like yeah that’s a lot of money but like and you know MSG’s number is a billion dollars. That’s a kind of figure that you if you’re going to stay somewhere stay in that infrastructure you put that kind of money into it. Maybe I thought, well, that 400 million seems kind of low. And maybe again, that’s why it’s low because it’s a kind of a holding. It’s a it’s it’s it’s basically just to keep SAP Center competitive while they figure out exactly where they want to put the new arena. Is it on the site of SAP Center? Is it somewhere else? I don’t know. Some of this is just pure speculation on my part, but I think the overall takeaway, if this passes, and it should pass, the mayor expects it to pass. And I don’t get signals from the Sharks that there’s too much worry about this passing that the Sharks are here to stay in San Jose till 201. 205051. I just don’t know if it’s going to be SAP center like as we know it. But no, lots of good points. And I think they have uh the renovations are spread out over seven years. Is that correct? Yeah, something like that. Over a decade basically. Yeah, they’re doing it in the offseason. So what they can get done and yeah I realized also that like I I some of the things are not up to code like having the opposing team walk across so they have to restructure the entire base. I love that because I always when I watch from the press box I was like who’s a man who’s going to walk across eyes like a man who’s hanging along the boards. That’s a lot. Exactly. I always judge that judge the the ballsiness of the co the visiting coaches what they did. Yeah. And also renovated press area. saw that on there which Shangers is I didn’t see that. I think that’s in there. Um I don’t know that’s in there. I was looking for that. Okay, maybe it’s in there. I might have missed that. Yeah, the word press immediately and couldn’t find like where’s my free Where’s my free snacks? Am I getting luxury chairs? Well, in fairness to me, like if you guys have been up to the press box at SA Center, a lot of the views are obstructed and that’s ridiculous. Yeah, there’s like beams. There’s a lot of beams. Yeah, in in a way of certain seats. Not not in front of my seat, but just in general. That’s just kind of a silly thing, but Yeah. Yeah. And then I you know, to your point, I don’t know if they’re going to take down SAP and rebuilding the same area. I you know when Google’s downtown west project has been talked about in San Jose, I know there was a lot of talk about like you know more livelihood around and you know I think Nashville’s like a great idea of that like where the arena’s like right in downtown you can get out and you know they want more of that kind of environment and so I think Deridon or North Montgomery there’s some other areas because I think it has to be about 12 acres is what I was reading too and so you know that allows a couple of possibilities in downtown closer to night life like downtown core edge parcels and obviously Google construction has scaled down from what they were expecting. But I I’m just theorizing here, but I think it’s going to be a different location if not just across the street where then they can build more retail and and other experiences around it. Um, but to your point, I think, you know, likely that’s going to get done, you know, after these renovations and then maybe they won’t have to play anywhere. They play SAP, then they go over, then they tear down SAP. Ah, good point. So there won’t be any turnover. Yeah. Yeah. It’s kind of what I read into. That’s an interesting point because like I obviously I don’t go to SAP Center very frequently. Um if I can get out there once every two years, I can I would I’m happy about it or once every couple years, right? Um but when I was there last, I was like, “Yeah, it is like just disconnected.” Like it doesn’t feel like it’s part of a city. Whereas like, you know, obviously places that are MSG and Boston’s arena, like they’re in the city, right? Even even like the AHL arena here in Providence is like in the city right next to the biggest mall in Providence and it’s like Yeah, you you kind of feel like a little disconnected I think. Maybe. Yeah, absolutely. And now that like sort of like Alama’s developed a little bit towards like that Whole Foods like half people move there, the other half is dispersed and it’s like you got Henry’s high life and like that’s it. Like that’s the only like closest spot which is like kind of tucked away in the back. And yeah, to your point, I think it’s fun for the fans even where like you get out and you could pregame, you could go after like it’s just brighter made in the shade for sure. Yeah, they’re definitely the model for how it should be done. Um, and yeah, so there’s a couple of places I think like downtown core edge parcels. I was just kind of doing some research on like where you could get like 12 acres in downtown that’s better located. Um, and I think those are the top three I came up with like Autumn Parkway, Corridor, and like Derodon Area, obviously, which Google tends to redo anyways, is like more of like a Grand Central Union Station type thing. Um, and I think you could have retail, have a great like opportunity to like have some restaurants and other experiences around the arena, which would make it more fun for everybody. And there’s also that park right across from SAP that’s just like kind of dismal and empty and just like drab and I’m like they need to develop this, you know, just for fans. So I think I’m hoping at least uh that, you know, this is all in the works and and and Sharks have a really great arena when when the team’s really good, too, which should be fun. Yeah. I want to mention, too, that I think Zubar has really great insight on this because he’s a lifelong San Jose resident. I’ve only lived in San Jose for two years. Keegan lives in Rhode Island. But uh never lived in California in my life. So but anyway though that yeah actually you bring up actually interesting point that maybe the parking lot across from SAP center where it’s like Duridon parking. I don’t know who owns that. Maybe you do but like that could be where you put the new arena and then uh you’re building that as they’re still playing SAP center. Then when that arena is ready to build, then you tear down SAP center turning into arena district parking all those kind of things, right? And so that’s a thought too. And then you mentioned two other areas. So uh what where are those areas again? The Yeah, so north North Montgomery Autumn Parkway corridor. It’s like 160 North Montgomery Street would be like the there’s there’s like parking lots and parcels that the city is already acquiring. Okay. Um near SAP Center. Um, and so that allow for like a good phase transition. Okay. So that’s still really close. That’s like kind of close to like the target there, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We’re getting to really nitty-gritty San Jose now, but Yeah. Exactly. And then I I guess third one like downtown core edge parcels. Um there’s some parcels near Guadalupe River Park in the convention center. I think that’s actually like a really feasible one. I mean the hard sell on these things is selling the city, right? like taxpayers never like and I think that’s probably to your point why they came to this price point as well is like because you know people it it’s in any city where they develop like an entertainment center or an arena where it’s like well a taxpayers funding this and that’s like a billion dollars and so it’ll be interesting when it gets to there which is probably why they gave themselves the leeway to like 2015 um you know they’ll try to get it pushed but that always you know there’s always going to be debate and bureaucracy in that processing so um yeah so I those are the three that I sort of just brainstormed when looking at this online. Yeah. So my my read then and I don’t know if this is your read too since you looked into the different locations that make sense but this agreement and the possibil it is possible they stay at SAB center until 205051 uh that it’s like a it’s like an insurance solution in case just things can’t get figured out or whatever for a new arena location and sharks have to play somewhere and it has to be decent. Um, and that’s, you know, that’s why he made you do these renovations. But again, like if you look at that memorandum, it says very clearly that like the at least at this point that in this agreement, the Sharks and the city agree that it’s not feasible to be at SAP Center as it is beyond 2015. So, it’s kind of like kicking the can down the road a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And to your point, I think there was some uh let me see if I pull up the numbers, but there were some also contingencies of like if the city bails out, you know, you have to pay out some liquidation fees of like two Well, the sharks too. The sharks and the reverse way. Yeah. Yeah. Then they have to pay. It was both ways. Yeah. Um obviously the Sharks have to pay a penalty if if they bail. Uh which was higher from what I read too. So yeah. No, it’s all good news, right? Like I think this is a lot of positive stuff and we’ll see if city council, you know, greenlights this on the 26th, but like you said, I’m pretty confident they will and that’ll be good for Sharks fans. Sharks are staying in San Jose. The next big long-term agreement Sharks have to worry about is whether or not they can sign Mlin to seven years. Yeah. Um, does the new like sevenyear versus eightyear thing kick in before Mlin has to be? Yeah, it kicks in uh next year. So that would be Mlin. Yeah. Damn. Okay. No, you can’t you can’t sign for eight years. So, damn it. Yeah. Eklan was the last I think is going to be the last major sharks sharks kind of that could have signed that. So, yeah, this is like reminding me of a freconomics episode I listened to where they discussed um uh the amenities at various NFL facilities and player attractiveness. And so also like you know this is great stuff for attracting better players and you know having good facilities. And one of the things they always actually talk about is how good that is like ranked in the NFL from what I remember was um how well is the room for friends and families of players significantly important of like how they like a are they taken care of? Are they in the pit? Do they have like a nice room to watch? And players actually really value that. So I I wonder in this new rebuild sort of as the plans sort of unfold, you know, what they prioritize with, you know, all this new research that we have on facility development. There were complaints about this with the barracuda that Keegan and I talked about a couple years ago, just how the families were being treated. Uh, fair or not, but that is really, really important. Yeah, super important. So, all right. Well, good good stuff all around. Um, and so this this brings us to uh Alinka. Uh Keegan, let’s uh let’s hear your thoughts. I’m excited. Yeah. So, um first of all, the Olympic is over. Uh it it ended yesterday. Sadly, I could not watch any of the medal games um as I I was at work. Um but I do have many thoughts about um the upcoming draft eligibles. Couple more notes about the Helica that people may not know. It’s typically like Canada’s tournament, right? It’s kind of like the Canada is always in the final. It seems like they’re always, you know, gunning for gold. Uh most of the reason is because the USA doesn’t bring their UN TDP gits. So they leave the generally the best um prospects uh at home from their uh group of draft eligibles. They play the World Junior Summer Showcase um or they use some of them in that in that tournament in the summer instead. Um, so Candid really goes hard and brings like the best of the best except for your highest echelon guys like Gavin McKenna wasn’t there because he played in last year’s Holinka. Um, and he’s going to go first overall and there was just not really a point for Gavin McKenna to be there. Um, this is kind of the step down in terms of for him. So that’s a couple things. Gavin Kenna wasn’t there. He’s still going first overall. There’s no real change in that probably. Um things may change throughout the year, but um the real interesting thing for the Sharks perspective is a if we get obviously the first overall pick, grab Gab McKenna with both hands. But if we don’t, there’s like a ton of good defenseman this year. Um actual top end, well seemingly, right, this is August. Um top end defenseman that I’m super excited about. Um, we can start with Katon Verhoff if you guys want. Yeah. So, Katon Verhoff, six foot four right shot defenseman, which if you’re familiar with the NHL, NHL GMs love 6’4 right shot defenseman that have good skating and good physicality. He’s like your they Canada used him in this tournament as like the workhorse, right? Like he’s over the boards every shift. PK, power play, uh, first line, he’s the workhorse, right? and he owns that role and he um he fulfills it really really well. He reminds me of um like an Alex Petrangelo type number one defenseman where you’re never upset that he’s on the ice. You’re happy with a lot of stuff he does. He gets you 50 60 points, 40, 60 points a year. He’s physical. He owns his minutes. That’s the kind of guy that I think NHL teams are going to see with Katon Verhoff. I He’s not like Kell Mar. He’s not like Quinn Hughes, that kind of thing. He’s not going to be he might you never know things change but I think they’re going to see more of that traditional stopping number one where he’s good at both ends um and has tons of tons of talent, tons of skill, but um obviously isn’t like generational or anything like that. Like a Victor Hedman if everything works out. Yeah, that’d be a that’s a good comp. I think’s probably still like a tier above, but like yeah, um you’re never mad that Victor Hedmond’s on the ice. You’re just like that’s the kind of guy that um Pete Verhoff seems to be um this year as well as in the U8s for he was a 16-year-old playing in the U8s that he was amazing in that tournament in May. So like he’s going to have a monster year. Um, and yeah, he kind of I think they they honestly overused him a little bit in this tournament. If you guys weren’t aware that Canada didn’t win, USA won the tournament, which is mind-blowing. USA. Yeah, that was um I wish you could have watched it, but they um just a really gutsy USA squad for sure without a lot of their top talent. Um, and looking at Canada’s defense, it it has Katon Verhoff, who’s probably going to go number two or number three in this year’s draft. Um, Daxon Rudolph, who’s probably going to go top 15. Ryan Lynn, who’s probably going to go top 15. These are all defensemen we’re talking about. These are all defenseman. Are they all right-handed or? Uh, Ryan Lynn, D Yeah, I think Dax Rudolph is right-handed as well, if I remember right. Yes, he is. Um, they’re all right-handed. Uh Ryan Lynn is smaller though. Ryan Lynn’s like six foot tall. Uh I’ll talk about him in a second. Uh and then they also have uh they also had Landon DuPont who’s been in like the mix for the 2027 draft in the top five as well. So they had like a very stacked defense and they still lost which is interesting. Uh people blame goending and all sorts of stuff but anyway if you’re a Sharks fan you’re looking out for these like big names. Daxon Rudolph, Katon Verhoff or Ryan Lynn I think. Uh Ryan Lynn. I really like this player. He’s not big, right? He’s sixfooter or so, maybe like 5’11, six foot. Um but he is extremely good skater. Very smart, super sound defensively. He reminds me of like we just talked about him. He reminds me of classic. Like he just reminds me of a very good two-way defenseman. Again, you’re not really bad that uh he’s on the ice. Get you an amazing, you know, breakout. um has a bit of offensive talent um but there’s like room to grow with that too. I really like him. He had um a great tournament. I think he’s going to have a great year too. Um who else? Uh Ethan Belchetts. This is not a not a defenseman, but he was one of my like standouts from this tournament. He’s a monster. He’s like probably 6’5. Let me see what they have list on. Yeah, he’s 6’5, 227 pounds listed on Elite Prospects. He’s a left winger. Um just a netfront like animal with amazing hands that like watching him at this tournament was like a man amongst boys. It felt like in a in a way that I think he’s going top five as well. So wow. Um really liked his play for sure. If the Sharks wanted to take a like a power forward netfront kind of guy. Oh yeah. You know, Mike Mike has been looking for that forever. Yeah. Yeah. Is he uh is he physical at all? Yeah, for sure. Very physical. Um boxes out. He’s like, but he has great hands, too. And he’s a good skater. And yeah, it’s it’s rare to find that kind of um like complete player. I think he does it he he’s very netfront focused. He’s not he doesn’t seem to be um really a threat from like range at all, but he um yeah, I like the way that he plays a lot. So, he sounds a little bit like this draft’s Porter Porter Martone. Good hands, good size. Yeah, I think like a little less of a playmaker, more of a uh like I said, like not front physical guy, but um more of a power forward. Um, but I do and Marto was obviously heralded as like this power forward, but I think even he’s not like that physical. Like he’s physical, but like he’s more inconsistent. Yeah. Inconsistent. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I really liked his play. Um, Daxon Rudolph is a offensive defenseman that’s um gotten some like top 15 accolades or so. And um I thought he was okay. I think there’s still a lot of inconsistencies with his play defensively. He reminds me of for like a throwback name of like Sammy Votman. If you ever watching Sammy Votin play, like you’re frustrated sometimes, but he does some stuff that you’re like, “Yeah, all right, that’s good.” I’m just trying to figure out what a Daxon is. A Daxon Rudolph. I don’t know. But he has a lot of skill. A lot of skill. Great wrist shot. Um it’s like I said the if we’re looking for a defenseman, this might be the year to grab that right side defenseman. Um because you’ve got three really good um defenseman and Ryan Lynn, Daxon Rudolph, and Katon Verhoff for sure. Just depends on what you like, right? Like right Lynn probably goes last out of those three just because he’s like five foot 5’11 six foot whereas Dax Rudolph 6’2 Keen Verhoff is a monster. So yeah, but that’s my initial read on just a few of the guys from this upcoming draft class. Yeah, it sounds like it’s shaping up a little bit like the 2024 draft and all that those defenseman that went there except that you have more righties here which is nice. Yeah. Yeah. It’s kind of it’s rare to have this many like righties up at the top. Um, like you were saying, it’s one of those things where probably like everybody knows that like if you want to make the NHL, like you you teach your kids to play right-handed, like, hey, this is the way just like teaching your kids to throw a baseball left-handed or pitch left-handed. So, that’s like everyone everyone knows. Yeah, that’s a that’s Yeah, we’re getting the downstream effects of that, right? Maybe. But all right, Keegan, I want to put you on the spot then. So, uh, Post Alinka, who is your top five 2026 draft right now? obviously including McKenna even though he wasn’t an attorney but who uh this is really early but who is your top five at the moment super early Kevin McKenna Katon Verhoff um one two yeah one two I would put Ivar Stenberg three he was in the world junior sum summer showcase and he looked amazing he’s tell us more about him he’s a if you pictured like smooth good puck handling, good playmaker, Swede. That’s him. Like kind of your William Mecklland, but a little bit. He’s like six footish. He’s not big big. His brother Otto Sunberg was drafted I think the end of the first round. Yes. LA a couple years ago, 23 maybe. Um he’s maybe Nashville. Yeah, I think. I don’t know. Or St. Louis back. Yeah. I think you’re right actually. Yeah. Um I think he’s going to be in the consideration top five. I’d put Belchs at four. He was a monster. Um and then Matis Preston probably five. And Preston was a another forward for um um Canada that that definitely stood out. Great hands. Um super creative playmaker. Um he’s also got um he’s got a great shot as well. He’s he’s kind of like a dual threat guy. Um good player. the I’m only talking about Canadians because the like I said the Canadians brought like their A team it seemed like. Um but a couple guys from USA stood out too. Jack Hexl which it’s like a great last name. Turns out he’s not related to the Hextoalls but really it’s like yeah I thought he was like you know Hexall and he’s a great hockey player. Like yeah he’s definitely related to them but elite prospect says no. So okay they they typically know these things too. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Um he stood out uh as well. Just a 200 foot player. Noticed him most uh most of the times that he was on the ice. Good playmaker. Lots of um uh defensive habits that were really good. So I liked his game. Interesting. Your top your top five. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. I was just saying your your top five is even though you like a lot of defenseman in this draft that it’s still very forward heavy. You have four of your five top five right now. other forwards. How many of them are centers? Uh, like none. Yeah, that’s what I thought I was. Preston plays center. McKenna is a left wing. Um, Stenberg is a winger. So, there probably will be a center that like comes out into this uh into this crop. Um, Rub is another one that’s that wasn’t there for this tournament, but um is a frequently listed in the top five. six foot four center that’s um always wanted in the NHL. So, I haven’t watched much of him yet, though. So, I’ve got to get uh I gotta get some tape on him. But, uh I think I think Ryan Lynn and Jackson Rudolph end up going right in that like five to 10 range right after that. So, but we’ll see. Maybe Ryan Lynn like even though he’s tiny, there’s just so much NHL qualities to his game that he could sneak in there, too. There’s just he’s just a very solid hockey player. super um advanced defensively for somebody so young. You you look at him and you’re like, you understand it, you get it. Um and in a way that’s kind of rare for defenseman these days. Most of the time they do not get it defensively. They get the offense, but they do not get defense. Yeah. But uh do you have a comp for Ryan Lynn? Yeah, that was the one I was like Vlic would be the He’s He’s not a lefty like Vassic is, but that would be the just a solid two-way defenseman. Good. Like obviously Blic’s like the the creme de la creme of defensive defenseman, right? Or defense from a two-way defenseman, but yeah, that’s who I would say is like the the ceiling for him. Any comp like his closer to his size like 5’11? Yeah, that’s tough, right? Um I’m like, who’s a really good smaller defense? Yeah, I’m not sure. I think with the Taves kind of tiny. Yeah, that that Taves is. Yeah. Yeah. So maybe Dante is a good one too. But I was thinking back to Vic’s rookie season and he’s 19 and he’s he’s unusually strong for a 19 year old and that’s that was kind of a separating factor for Vic that to have really one of the great rookie seasons in recent AHL history. Very underrated. Here’s a guy that’s 19 second round pick playing 22 plus minutes a night on a Stanley Cup contender. That just 19 year olds rarely do that. That doesn’t happen right for a cup contender. So anyway, yeah. So need to be he’s like and he’s very mobile defenseman too. Ryan Lynn is he’s got great uh great edges, got great mobility. So I think that stands out the um for his game as well. Does he have an unusual strength for his for his kind of his size though? That that’s would be I’m not sure. um like he’s definitely not getting bodied for sure, but uh I I’ll have to see if that’s a that’s a good thing to try and single out and see if he um yeah can stand out in that way. I like this draft. I really do. I think it gives me a little bit more excitement than last year’s draft. Not that it was like a bad draft, but like watching these guys, you just there’s these like things fit a little bit more, right? Like you’ve got your Katon Verhoff, you’ve got your Gavin McKenna, Stenberg looks great. Like things like the guys that are at the very top just fit a little bit more and there’s less questions I think with them than than last year’s. Whereas like last year, you know, you’re you’re wondering is Porter Marone going to pick his feet up a little bit more and get more physical? Um that kind of thing. There’s more questions with those guys in the top five. and Marshon didn’t go top five, but that’s the It just seemed like there’s a lot more question marks at the top end of the draft. So, I’m uh super pumped. I’m going to be uh hopefully getting into some scouting work this season to uh let you all know and have some updates for you this uh this upcoming season. That’s exciting. That’s really exciting. Hopefully another high pick. Yeah. Or not, right? Like if we’re You know what? If we’re good enough and this none of this matters, we’ll just take somebody in the Yeah, we’ll see. We’ll see. We trade we trade the first for some playoff push help, you know, like we gota that’s the that will be the day. So that’s the day, right? That’s pie in the sky thinking. Yeah. Jeff Skinner put puts in 40 goals, 30 goals. Carrick Kersev is a 50point player. Yeah. down the line. Demetri Orof is Demetri from 2018. Muka Madulan’s Mark Edward Blassic. Yeah. Power play specialist. Yeah. John Clingberg has got 85 points. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well, that’s a good transition to the big conversation for today. Oh, yeah. All right. Let’s see what uh you know sort of the three of the core pieces for the Sharks have been working on with Celbrini, Smith, and Ekkan. So uh Shang, let’s start on what you were able to find starting with Celibbrini. Yeah. And we’re also going to do kind of a rapid fire points predictions for next year. I actually did already did an article on it kind of expectations for the Young Sharks, but we also will get to hear what Keegan and Zubar think of of of that part of it. Anyway, with Mlin, what I’ve heard is that there’s a focus on, and we saw this last year, puck and shift management. You know, Mlin shifts were a little long last year. And granted, that’s Mlin has always been relied on to be the number one kingpin guy at Beu with the Chicago Steel and he could get away with it there because he was so much better than everybody else. Obviously in the NHL the Mlin is still a special player but the players are a lot better and so he’s got to take shorter shifts probably and also the puck management that we saw Zubar you mentioned that a lot too that just the puck management it especially early in the season was careless at times and that’s something that he definitely has to improve on if he is serious about taking a leap as a player and also serious about taking the Sharks to the next level because you can’t be giving away the puck in the neutral zone blind passes in the in the defensive zone, things like that. Even blind passes in in the offensive zone to uh that that put your defense in a bad position when it’s turned over. Mlin was doing that too much last year. In Mlin’s defense, Mlin was charged with so much of the offense that obviously he felt like he had to try things to try to get the Sharks within the goal to get the Sharks offense going, things like that. But as he evolves into a playoff caliber Stanley Cup caliber player, he’s going to do less of that. Kind of like a Barov and guys like that, Nathan McKinnon, that there’s a little more there’s a there’s a little more carefulness with the puck management. The second part, uh, I think with Mlin that I heard that was interesting is that like most young players, he has a problem with trying to be too fine with his shot, always trying to pick the corners. And so he’s just got to think about hitting the net sometimes. He’s not he doesn’t always have to pick the corner and go for the kind of the highlight reel shot. And so I think that part of that’s interesting because he should be learning that from a Tyler TFoley. Last year I did a really story that I really enjoyed about Tyler Tofoley. I called it actually something like Tyler Tofo’s old man game. And basically what it was was just how Tyler Foley with he’s not the fastest guy but how has a guy like that been so successful in his AHL career. And actually it was Nico Sturm in that story that provided really great insight. And Nico told me that in one of his first kind of skates with Tyler, uh, whatever I think the the captain skates or whatever, Nico observed that Tyler Tfoi rarely like rarely shoots rarely shoots shoots for like the top of the net. Yep. And what Nico said was then Nico asked Mike Reachi who was on ice with him like what’s you know what’s going on there? And I asked Tyler about that a little more and Tyler said that he learned from Luke Robbitai and of course Tyler Foley was on the Kings and Luke Robboai one of the greatest goal scorers of all time 668 goals and actually Tyler and Luke are actually very very similar. If you remember Luke Robbitai not a great skater either but he just always managed to be in the right scoring position. Uh his nickname was Lucky Luke. And anyway, uh, what Luke taught Tyler was you just shoot for the edges. You don’t go for the top corners. You don’t have the time to oftent times. And so you just have to get it on net because if you don’t get it on net, then the goalie doesn’t have to make a save. So that’s what Mlin’s got to learn to kind of get to that. And this this person thinks that Mlin’s going to be a 40 goal scorer one day, but for him to get to that level, he’s probably got to be a little less little less fine with his shot. because they’re not always going to have time to kind of unleash the laser, right? Unleash the one-time. So sometimes just get it toward the net, surprise the goalie, maybe even if it that your shot, Mlin shot doesn’t score. Obviously there’s re you make the goalie make a save, there’s rebounds, then that goes in. So that’s a big part with with Mlin and the way this this source sees it that you combine this improve puck shift management be uh be a less fine shooter, better finisher, less fine shooter. And you add that with what Mlin already has so much of as a teenager, his compete, his puck protection that his puck battle, it just this is just going to be a off off the charts kind of player. Yeah. And he’s already like he’s Michael’s still 18, right? Like No, he just turned 19. He just turned 19. Yeah. Um, so yeah, like there’s just so much more room for improvement. And that’s something that we forget about prospects is like that first like three years are really when you get the biggest like jumps in play after you’re drafted. And he started out like here. There’s just more hopefully to come, right? Like the sophomore slump is very real in the NHL, so you never know. Um, but it I don’t know. Mlin doesn’t seem like he’s going to to succumb to the sophomore slump, but you never know. What’s your points prediction then? 77 points going with 77. Well, very 77 going with like 32 goals, 45 assists. Is that 77? Yeah, that’s 77. I I agree. I think um he’s got to get a little less fine with a shot. The the puck banishment stuff, I wonder how like much of that is is easy to train in the offseason or do you really need to be in the games to really see it? like video review of, oh, this is the this is the choice you made here when you could have prolonged the play, chipped it down, that kind of thing. So, I wonder what um how you really get better at that. That’d be interesting to talk with uh somebody about. But um hitting the net, right? Like we saw that from Ekkund a few years ago. That was a huge focus of one of his off seasonasons was just um improve your shot. And that’s not easy to do, but you can definitely do it. It’s definitely possible with the right training. So, he already has an amazing shot. It’s just going to get even better hopefully. Yeah. And I think that’s a really good point, too. I think if if those are things that he’s working on, I think it’s I mean pretty clear that that’s going to benefit significantly. And I think that with also the improved Sharks roster and particularly on the blue line for moving the puck up. Yeah. I think I think if obviously playing full season, I think he hits 80 points this year. Nice. um passes 30 goals. Um but I think he’ll still have more helpers. I think he’ll sit in that, you know, 30 goal, 30 maybe 32, but I think he’s going to, you know, he’s going to get 50 assists. Nice. Um I think he’s getting some apples. And if he’s shooting the puck on the net and not looking for those perfect scoring chances, you know, a lot of coaches in the NHL talk about this that breaks down the defense of the other team. um you know because it’s chaos ensues and and if you’re retrieving those pucks um and and and if he has players to to help him retrieve those pucks I think yeah he hits 80 points this year and my prediction in my article was about where Zoo Bears was really Keegan is close enough too but I’m thinking point per game which he was close to last year he had 63 in what 70 games but I’m thinking that he he bust past that I don’t know if he breaks out this year into superstardom it may not be quite this here. Wouldn’t surprise me if he did. I I mean, Mlin is just a remarkable player. Like I I have no just all good things to say about his game really overall. But anyway though, that I think that he he passes 80 plus if he’s healthy. 30 50 in that kind of range, right? 35 50 something like that, right? I forgot to mention my prediction was in 40 games he’s going to be injured for years. 77 points in 40 games. Do you want to offend your prediction? No, I I think 77’s fine. I will I will uh constantly just, you know, undervalue him and then just be pleasantly surprised when he puts up 120 points next year, like would not be would not be surprised. Like kid’s amazing. So, but like you never know like Nathan McKinnon, one of the best players in the world. Second season, he had like 50 60 points or something. No, Nathan McKinnon really dropped off. Like it’s actually in my article where Nathan had 63 points to win the Cer and then it was like 53 38 and 47 something like that. There might have been a shortened season mixed in there to so it’s a little bit skewed but like he basically had three seasons where it’s kind of like is he really the guy that we thought he was? And then in his fifth year he had 97 points and he was I remember those really bad Colorado teams too, right? Like I think uh I’m trying to think uh maybe his first year was really bad and they were starting to get better but uh that might be part of it too though. No, that’s a fair point too. I don’t remember that part of it. So yeah, I can’t remember either. I actually do. I’m gonna take a quick look because I think that is very relevant. Yeah. Right. Like if you know depends on how bad your team is, but and his game is a lot different than Mlin’s. his game relies on that uh speedy transition, high octane offense that like takes time to or can take time to really develop. Let me take a quick quick look at I mean Mlin too though off the rush is fantastic player. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, no. Actually, the in terms of the quality of the team, um, so McKinnon’s a rookie year, they made the playoffs. That was Patrick W’s playoff team with Colorado. The next two years, they were average teams. They weren’t great, but 90 points as a team, 82 points as a team. And it wasn’t until the 2016 17, that’s when the bottom dropped out. And the then the ABS were terrible. and they were the worst team in the league, but they lost the lottery, but they drafted Kale Mar. Oh, yeah. So, it was that that year. So, anyway, just just to just Maybe he was just like trying to be reli I don’t know because I don’t really remember what was going on with McKinnon at the time, but maybe they were I love McKinnon, but he’s a pretty Yeah, because it could have been just too much on his shoulders, right? Like they’re they’re a borderline playoff team already. Like you’re a superstar kid. They’re trying to do too much for, you know, like it could have been that. I don’t know. Yeah. I remember one little tidbit that I’m that he’s talked about during those years was he had to learn how to slow down his hands and feet because he was like too quick. Yeah. Mlin has that issue too, I would say. Yeah. Yeah. where it’s like, wait, I need to actually maybe I’m overstick handing or you know and and and he had to learn that pace of timing it and yeah, just like must be a good problem to have like I’m too good the game down too fast trying I’m too quick for this too fast. Yeah, but to that point though with Mlin, that’s not mentioned by my source, but I I felt like Mlin was his pace was sometimes just too fast for his teammates and that’s not a negative of of Mlin because Mlin’s pace, his ability to do that as 18-year-old was incredible, but like yeah, sometimes he maybe has to like make a just like like McKinnon, you just kind of slow it down a little bit. Um and and that will help him too. Yeah, absolutely. How about his dash 31 from last season? You guys, what do you guys see about that improvements here? I mean, I think that he he tries, right? And like any player, like he has to be more refined defensively, too. But I don’t see that as a big problem because everything I understand about him, he really wants to be good at it. And from the time the Shark strapped him, right, that’s what everyone said that this guy like he thinks defensively and he does, right? even with his puck management mistakes. Oftentimes you see him with a puck and he’ll he’ll make the he’ll make the kind of the the play that there’s going to be where he can back it up, right? Where he’s going to be the last man when he tries something. And so I I don’t think that’s too much of a of an issue. I’m not too worried about that. The the minus 31 part of it is how much weight is on his shoulders uh on this team. And so I don’t I don’t think that’s I don’t think the long term I’m worried about that with him. I was saying more so like this season where do how much of an improvement will you you guys project out? Oh well that’s hard to say. Yeah because I’m not sure how much better the team will be. So yeah I mean yeah I credit I see a lot of that too is just being able to get the puck out of your zone and getting more competent NHL puck moving defenseman obviously Klingberg’s health you know pending or love like I see a big improvement there um this season but he’s also playing a lot more first time minutes with Granlin out so that’s going to be position big improvement. Yeah. So, all right. Let’s go up next then to uh Will Smith. Shane, what’d you find there? So, a talked with a couple people and uh one person mentioned that focused on kind of the aerobic capacity to outlast people at the end of shifts and all just trying to add more strength in general, which is obvious thing with the with the Will Smith. And one thing that I thought was interesting that was said too was that trying to shorten his release to try to get less shots deflected, less shots blocked, which I can kind of see that was the issue with Will last year. And I think that’s the issue for any teenage player a lot of times. You just don’t know how much time you have. It’s such a big step from for Mlin or for both Mlin and Will from NCAA to the NHL. So, that’s specifically something that that he’s been he’s been doing and also working on his one-time. And I think other things I mentioned or I’m sorry other things I’ve heard about Will is playing in traffic more, getting to the inside ice more, which is something I think obvious too for a guy, you know, Will’s development track is a more typical teenage development track where Will is clearly a little like undersized sort of like uh smaller than than a lot of angel players like the trees of the defenseman that he has to deal with there, right? He doesn’t have that that that strength, right, that that M kind of man strength that Mlin had from the beginning there. And so Will in the beginning of the season when he was struggling, he was clearly avoiding some of these areas that he didn’t feel comfortable in yet. And it’s clear that he he benefited uh from uh uh from uh just just that that that the the pace that the Sharks took with him last season, his development, right? And you can see him get better throughout the the season. And so yeah, um so I think that that’s that’s that’s a big part of it just is overall just like gota got to play in traffic more, get inside more and then kind of work on some of those like those those small things that that uh that that that we’re talking about. Yeah, I find that really interesting about aerobic capacity actually in terms of athletic development. So a lot of it’s like V2 max and stuff. Do you know did you get any insight on like what sort of exercises or training he’s doing? No, I didn’t get specifics on that. But I just think how that matters for hockey or just your cardiovascular, right? Yeah. And that’s young players, right? They don’t have that stamina either. They don’t have that that that NHL that professional that men’s stamina yet. Most teenage players don’t. Again, I think the Mlin is the exception to this. But like for for Will as like in terms of hands and skills as skilled as the Mlin celebrini but the body stuff though that that will take will a little more time. Yeah. The um when you guys were kids did your parents ever say go play in traffic. No my mother used to say like if you were bothering my mom like as a kid u like if she’s like doing dishes or something and you’re just like nagging her or something she like go play in traffic. I feel like we need to have address concern of your of your life. But anyway, every time you mentioned go play in traffic, all I can think about is my mother telling me to go play in traffic. Stop bothering me kind of thing. That’s all I can think about. So Bob, if you’re listening anyway, uh yeah, that all makes sense for for Smith. Like you said, like he wasn’t as physically developed as Mlin coming in, and there’s more to come for that. Um, he’s a great wrist shot, but maybe one-time could use some improvement, quick hitting, his release, because he does have a great powerful wrist shot and he’s very accurate with it, but yes, he needs time to get it off. Um, so that’s something that, you know, we saw a lot of and it improved throughout the season, but there’s there’s definitely a scorer there. Even though we think of Will as a playmaker, there’s definitely like his wrist shot is high quality. High high quality. It’s been that way for a long time. Um, so go play in traffic, Will. I What I think is kind of interesting here, though, is if you look at some of the things that you were able to find that sort of he’s working on in player development, uh, outside of getting to the middle, a lot of this looks like he’s staying on wing. Just like if you extrapolate out a little bit, like if he was going to move back to center, I feel like he’d be developing in some other areas, but like working on his shot and this is like a scoring winger. Yeah. Kind of looks like he’s developing in the same role. Battle. Yeah. Yeah. I think that’s very fair to to uh to suggest. Um Mike Greer said at the end of last season that we’re going to put W back on center and I asked him from day one and Mike said yes, but that doesn’t mean that’s actually going to happen, right? And so we still have the Michael Misa question in terms of uh will will will Michael Misa be with the Sharks this season? I expect him to start the season with the Sharks. I expect him to sign his ELC. I know that hasn’t happened yet, but that’s still my expectation. Um in this case then like our projections have been for Smith to play center and then Misa to go on the wing because it’s al also Misa’s first year and Misa has played a lot of left wing with Sagenov. But most people kind of think that Misa is a more natural center. So, could it be that Misa starts at center and they just put Smith back at wing? And it’s a very real thing. I I’ve joked about this before, but the more I talk to people, and we’ve seen it, like Mac and Will, they they love each other. And literally Will’s only chance to play on the line with Mac is to play on his wing because we know Mlin’s not going to wing. So, it’s a real thing. It’s a real kill. I’m envisioning a Mlin Celebrrini center, Will Smith right wing, Ethan Belchhat’s left wing or or McKenna. McKenna is obviously McKenna, so it would be amazing that way. But like the 6’5 monster netfront power winger with them, too. Like that’s a lot. I mean, netfront presence. Yeah, that’s a line right there. Just put uh Akan and Mlin and Will. And you won’t have the Netfront there, but it’s going to be a devastating line off the rush though. That’s going to be a lot of fun. Lots of offensive talent there. Yeah. So, you might you might have a good point there. I I think that I think that there is a chance just kind of digging at it that there’s a chance that that what Mike says there it doesn’t doesn’t doesn’t uh happen at the beginning of the season. They may conclude that maybe it’s just better to leave Will on the wing. He was doing so well there and try him on center one day again if you need to. But like yeah um and I know people have asked me this like oh is Will gonna be unhappy playing uh playing wing? He wants to be a center. He grew up as a center but I get the sense that last year may have changed that a bit because again he balanced a lot of success on the wing. He gets to play with Mlin on the wing. So combination those kind of things that I think a lot of it’s just you’re having success, right? Like you’re you’re putting up points uh at a different position. No one like at that point you’re just happy to be having success. You’re not worried about if Will was producing at that level on defense. Will be like I I want to play defense now. You know, obviously that works for me. You know, if Will was was was killing it as a goalender in practice, he would change to be a goalender. You know, wherever you’re finding your success, you’re just kind of happy with that, too. I think that’s a part of it, too. So, I think that’s a good intuition on your part. And I think that I actually do really think that that is I I’m still kind of in my projection still thinking that hey, Mike said it, they’re going to try it. But I could see what you’re saying. I could see that from actually day one that maybe maybe they kind of reverse it. you just kind of see like, well, his game still does fit a wing more at this point and why not why not uh why why not just just make him comfortable from day one of camp. I can also see that they do start him at center on day one, but they really pull the experiment really quickly if it’s just not not showing really quickly that they don’t they don’t go through like a couple months of this or whatever. So, that could be part of it too that they just amend their sort of thinking a little bit. Yeah, and I think Misa changes everything. I mean, I think he projects out from my perspective as a as a more natural center. Um, just looking at what he’s able to do on both sides of the puck and I think if they plan on him signing, I I can see where they start with Visa at center, I could see that happening. I think another argument to it too is that you ask about or you might think about the comfort level of the players, right? And so if you conclude that Misa based on last season, his breakout kind of his yeah his breakout season that this guy is really more comfortable at center even at a higher level that that’s what you want him to learn. And you know that Will can already play the wing. And you know now that there’s a willingness from Smith that he’s now he’s happy to play at the wing which maybe he wasn’t happy maybe would not have been h as happy with last summer when he didn’t know he could do it and he didn’t that playing with M had nothing to do with it that kind of thing right but so you know that Will’s going to be happy on the wing. you know that Misa is going to be happy at center that maybe you just do that because everybody’s in kind of a more comfortable place from day one and you could switch. Misa doesn’t do well, you can switch it up. If Misa gets hurt, puts put Will back at center. All kinds of things you can do later on as the season kind of develops. So again, I think that’s a really excellent thing that you you intuited from from what was said here. Uh, I actually will say that like I don’t think you’re wrong again from based on on on Yeah. people I talked to. So, uh, but you didn’t hear he was working on face sauce, did you? I’m sure he is. Again, I don’t this is not Yeah, this isn’t a closed list of what these guys are working on. I didn’t mention that for Mlin. I’m sure Mlin’s working on base, too. But there’s just a couple things that kind of stood out that we can kind of uh include in just sort of the thinking of what these guys will do next year and that actually gets to it. So in my article I had Will taking a jump to that into the 60 point range which I think is a pretty good from 45 and kind of speaks to his progress last year because he was a night and day player right from the first half to the second half. So I think that’s that’s a jump I see from him. I don’t know about you guys. I see 55. Okay. I’m a little more conservative. Um with it. I think he’s going to crack 20 goals and uh and you know um 17 last year. Yeah. Yeah. So I think he’ll crack that and then uh you know about 30 assists, but give or take a couple points there, but I think like 22 33 assists, somewhere in that range. I’m going high. I’m going 65. All right. All right. Well, I gotta be different. You’re the moon. I gotta go. I got to be different. Um, no, I think I think he’s um his play at the end of the season, he was already like not point per game, but he was like 20 points in 25 games kind of pace or so in the last part of the year. Point per game player really the last really good point after January with a ton more like dedicated first power play time with him and Celebrini. I think 65. Let’s do it. Okay. Okay. And we’re actually not being very bold here like No, I know. said 55, I said 60, and Keegan said 65. So, we’re actually being very, very safe in 32 games is what I Okay, there you go. There you go. That’s bold. That’s bold. So, yeah, it’s a long season though. The you may start out off the gate that they’re like point per game guys and then yeah, things kind of trail off especially if the Sharks get worse, they sell off guys at the deadline, that kind of thing. Yeah, but actually that maybe helped Wash just got him more playing time, right? So, yeah, that’s true. That’s a good point. Yeah. All right. William Ecklund, what’s he been working on this off seasonason? Our Lord and Savior, William Ecklund. Obviously with William, it’s been affected by his wrist injury, so he can’t work on quite as much stuff. My understanding though is he is 100%. So he so I think he’s back to kind of do, you know, what he wants to work on. Granted, we’re like a month away from from training camp. So the basic stuff of working on his finishing, continuing to get stronger, strength on the puck. We did see I think improvement in both areas last year for a guy that of his size, but still just his quickness and ability to evade people. And when he do get a little bit of a body on him that it doesn’t, you know, he doesn’t fall over like like a leaf. So there definitely is improvement there. Um and like I said, Ekkan also told Ekkan told JD on the interview with the locked on charts that he’s 100%. That’s what I hear too independently of of of William that he is 100%. U Ekan was also like we mentioned on the John Scott show and Ekan actually has something different in terms of John asked them what what what he’s working on what he’s trying to improve and Ekkan talked about oh I got to pick partners better which is a little better than a little different than Mlin um but I would say though that I think generally though what Ekan Ekan has talked about this uh actually a lot over the last year year or two that everyone knows him as a pass player and so he wants to be more shoot first to player the defenseman guess more of what he’ll do on on the attack. So that also includes obviously yeah maybe maybe picking a corner every once in a while just so people know that he can do it and whereas I think maybe with a Mlin we know Mlin can pick corners already with more consistency and so then Mlin now needs to go down to just just get it on net whereas maybe Ekan he needs a little bit more of that threat that he needs to do that a little bit more so there’s a little more respect for his shot. I guess that’s that’s kind of what we’re getting at with that Clinton that there I don’t think there’s a there it hasn’t developed yet leaguewide as much respect for his shot and so I think that’s what he’s trying to get at. So um so I think that’s kind of the general thing with uh with Wian. Yeah, I forgot about the rest um to be honest. Kind of sure kind of delayed things like he said. Yeah. Um he’s already Yeah, he’s already had like a little bit of a refining of his shot. We mentioned that and getting that improved and I want to see a little bit more physical play even though that’s also improved I think. Um a little stronger on the puck because is always going to be good for William. Um I think uh he cracks the 60 point barrier. That would be my prediction is 60 points. Okay. Yeah. 58 last year. 58 last year. I think 60 is Oh, good. I think that’s honestly where William lands is in this like 60ish point category in his career. Like he’s going to be a good two-way forward um that uh gives you a lot of creativity and and and everything, but isn’t like point per game superstar level. I think that’s just like what William is and we should be happy about. Just my opinion. Yeah, I agree. Uh, I I think I’m a little I I can really make a point for for for that or I can also see a good really strong jump in Ekkan’s game. To me, it depends on exactly what he says he’s working on and how he’s able to really execute that. Particularly at the end of last season when when he was at his best was when he would get to the middle of the ice. And he does have this tendency to go wide with speed and then set up behind the net which he’s really good at with puck protection. But, you know, he talked about maybe what Shane, what you said was being less predictable. I think he was able to do that and just create a little more chaos and not wait for that perfect reverse from behind the net. Um, I think that I could see a pretty big jump from Williams game. I think, you know, even talking to uh Todd Diamond, Ekkan’s agent on the last episode, I you know, he he said something that I thought was interesting, which like when we asked him about what does Ekkan need and and he was like honestly just to to relax and feel like he doesn’t need to prove himself every game. And I think once he sits into the comfort of himself, which I think he’s getting to, but also he’s always just expressed this desire to be a leader. Um, and you know, he’s Todd Diamond also said he he doesn’t want he does that doesn’t necessarily mean he he wants to put up the points, but every time you see him like he’s he’s just such a hard worker. I can see a lot of things clicking for him this season. That balance of let me not hold on to the puck for too long, but let me hold on to it here. Um, and you know, something I’ve also heard said uh by Ekkan like years ago was like Braden Point was a comp of someone that he looks at and and and and I see that potential in him still. Um, I can also see Keegan where he’s just like a solid 2-way, but I can see like, you know, obviously Braden pointed like the absolute best, right? I don’t see it hitting there, but like a jump where he’s closer into that range this season. So, I’m going to be a little bit more bold and and say I could see like 68 points. I thought you were going to say the big 70. I thought you were going to be bold. you you you uh you couched your bet there with uh Yeah, I think that’s a good solid but like I like good solid two-way, you know, like to me that’s that’s a significant job cracking 20 goals, right? Yeah. Right. I think that’s a solid I mean that’s a really good player if and if he’s reliable like he is defensively. Um I think that’s solid. I just want someone to say the big seven 70 bees. I think I’m going to be a little more conservative as I typically am. So I’m thinking like 65. Okay. So we’re actually really late. We’re like no 68. But yeah. Um I of course Yeah, I’ve always liked Eklan the player. I do wonder if he has that kind of like we’re talking like eliteish rated point. I don’t know. Um, does he kind of settle more into like the 6070 like Nikolai Elers like really really good player but I don’t know if you consider him quite elite you know borderlineish right but not quite in the grade and point Nathan McKinnon Mlin Celbrini kind of kind of conversation right so yeah but I I think I but I think that’s interesting though that you talked about taking the middle more which he did do more last year I actually have an article about that I wrote over the summer I spent a bit of time on and the article was titled I think like a hard look at where Ekkan got better last year but also what he needs to improve on. I think I worked on I think I put it out in May. I was working on it all year. Took a while with that article but a lot of good stats to show that he was indeed doing a little bit more of what you’re talking about. Um and I think maybe more will come as he gets stronger and that sort of thing, right? So maybe Yeah, may maybe. Yeah, I was just looking at some of Braden Point’s numbers, too, and it’s, you know, obviously hit 95 and 22. I don’t know if we got that, but but more consistently like, yeah, I I I I can see it. I can see him pushing. Not obviously, I don’t see it as hitting Braden Boy, but close to it. I could see him a point a player point per game. Okay. Point per game. Yeah. Uh at some point in his career. Yeah. Yeah. So, all right. Well, great great little projection, Shane. Great research on on finding what, you know, these three were up to and and and digging deep into into some of those details. Uh really good research there and um Yeah. All right. So, we got some pretty bullish, I guess, progress in all three. Yeah, for sure. I think it’s any negatives. Yeah, for sure. No, I don’t think they’re I think that just their growth along with um an improve I guess the defense has improved. we’ve had like it could be said that maybe it’s not improved but um I don’t know I think natural growth from CBrine and Smith is going to carry a lot of this team anyway so yeah I I I I see a better Sharks team this year it’s some some improved point production from all three yeah in my article people uh did not like though my expectation article that I so my negative and it’s not really negative I I just think it’s a normal course of development really is that I don’t know if Dickinson is on a team the whole year, on an AHL team the whole year. And so that’s that’s sort of my prediction. Uh coupled with our conversation a couple weeks ago, great conversation with Will Scouch and with Brock Uten who have watched Sam really closely the last two, three years and whatnot. So yeah. So I don’t know. I think I think I think uh just to really touch on the the other guys that I didn’t ask about but the other kind of young gun types. I think Misa has a pretty strong rookie season and not necessarily he wins the CER but I think he has he just kind of shows that he’s going to be he’s going to be a guy in this league show all the kind of the the the tools and then Ascrooft’s other big one. I don’t think Ascrooft’s gonna have a great year just because I don’t think the team’s gonna be great. Um, and I don’t think he’s he’s going to be good, but I don’t know if he’s going to be good enough to like drag the team like to the doorstep of the playoffs like Dustin Wolf did. And keep in mind, Dustin Wolf has had, I think, a better team in Calgary, like Cadrey and Hubardo and Weaguer. Better players in general than the Sharks have up and down the lineups. Absolutely. the uh predictions from the lineup experts um of the uh fantasy website. Mlin 81 points with 36 goals, 45 assists. That’s kind of our range. And then Will Smith 52 points, 21 goals, 31 assists. A little lower. Okay, a little low on that. Let me see what is uh I don’t know why I’m plugging lineup experts. It’s like I’ve got like a bit of sponsorship. Yeah. Did they Are they paying you on the side? Maybe. No. Um they have 56 points for Ekkund. 215. Well, they’re they are definitely not bullish on except for Mlin. They’re like 81 point per game pretty much. You guys have any any thoughts to close out on Misa and Asparof and Dickinson? Um yeah, it’s really tough like with Dickinson specifically what they’re going to do. I Yeah, I think last time we I was on I said that he’s gonna stay the whole year. Um but I maybe they do the Shane Ray thing where he stays nine games, he plays however many weeks in the AHL that he can play conditioning. Yeah. And then he goes back to London for I think there’s a very real chance of that with him and Misa. So, um, Misa, I think, he has a real chance to to make it based on what I saw at his draft year. I didn’t think he was amazing at the World Junior Summer Showcase, but it’s also July hockey and I think he was injured, so it’s really going to be training camp for me. So, I don’t think he’s injured, though. That’s one Oh, actually, I did want to bring that up. Thank you for bringing that up that I suggested it the last episode. But, I mean, I I just saw I just saw uh Instagram. Misa is still training with a coach in Toron. So he’s not hurt. The Sharks wouldn’t let him train if he wasn’t hurt. So he meant he just had a whatever iffy summer showcase. Yeah. Well, and he sat out a game with like they said, “Okay, but a ding though, but it’s not major.” That’s what I meant. It’s like he wasn’t like majorly injured. He just was I want to be clear about that though because a lot of fans are sort of like, “Oh, he has a back injury. His old back injury from Sagenol. Why are you doing this to him? Why are you playing him?” So yeah, we don’t make those decisions. But yeah. Yeah, we don’t. But I’m sure though that if he is training at a regular basis that he’s fully healthy. What I meant by that is I don’t think he was like pushing and pushing it because it’s July hockey and he might had a a ding. So anyway, so I I do think that he just based on the numbers has a higher chance of sticking the whole year that there’s it’s easier for him to get into a a bottom six role when there’s not a lot of high octane offense outside of the three we’ve mentioned. Jeff Skinner, Tyler, Wenberg are going to be like your top six like scorers probably. And then after that, you’ve got a lot of guys that are definitely like fourth line forwards in the NHL. So, yeah, I agree. I think I think Misa plays the season and I I I actually see Misa as the number two seed by the by the end of next season. I I I can really see that. I mean, if they were willing to put Smith in that position last year and start it off and and work with him in that development and then move him to wing, I think they do the same with Misa, but he holds the position. Um, and he gets better and and I I love Misa’s game. I I mean, I just he has that compete. He’s got he’s got that ability. He did well so well at center. Um, he’s creative. He’s he’s got he’s got quickness to him. Um, uh, I think that his frame needs to come out a little bit. It’s something that that Brock Otton mentioned as well a couple episodes ago and um and yeah, so I think that development is going to be the only question mark, but I don’t think I have question in his ability to play center and like learn the game and develop over the course of the season and and hold second se and I think he’s smart and quick enough to survive, right? That’s what Brock mentioned. Yeah, of course his body needs development. I mean, all these guys are 18. Even Mlin needs to, you know, get stronger or whatever. But and even Will Smith’s case, right, where he was clearly short on that, but he got strong. He got strong enough to survive in the second half of the season, not perfect, right? It’s not he’s not at NHL strength yet. And so Misa won’t be there yet. But yeah, I think I think he’s got enough of those other things to to survive. And to your point, yeah, exceptional status like the guys, you know, the guy’s always been playing above his his his grades. I think I think the one I I disagree with you the most on show is Ascarov. I think he’s going to have like a really really good year. I know that they’re a crappy team in front of them, but I just like I think this is the time. He knows it. Like this is the the breakout for him. Last year he was an excellent he’s been an excellent AHL goalie for years and years and years. He was good in the NHL. One of our better goalies that got a and you know competing against guys like Garv and Vanichek and and whatever, but was already one of our better goalies. I think this is the time. I think he’s like gonna be playing like 40 50 games and I think he’s going to be above a 900 which is fantastic for a real rookie for the Sharks. For the Sharks. Well, I would say that what is your definition of a good season? Like it playing 40 50 games. Then then then we basically agree then because the like in my article for each of the the players that I wrote about Mlin and and Smith and Ekkin and Dickinson, Misa and Ascaroth, I laid out kind of three three paths for each player, just three comps, right? And so for like Mlin for example, the three comps for sophomore year were um go backwards like McKinnon did, kind of plateau, stay kind of the same like Bedar. Doesn’t mean that’s going to be that way for his career, but just the sophomore season, right? Or Stamos. Stamco took a huge jump. Stamco had like 46 points his rookie season. His sophomore season, Stamco jumped up and became the player we basically know he scored like 40 plus goals, maybe 46, had 95 points. So that’s like a huge that’s like he’s a star. He’s a superstar. Um, and so, uh, for Asparov, my three paths were Dustin Wolf, which is like Cer uh, Calder Contender, and and obviously if he’s a caller contender, then the stats are going to reflect it, right? Um, so and the wins are going to be there, too, which is that’s why I mean, it’s going to be hard for the Sharks to to match that because they’re not as good as the Flames. I don’t think they’re as good as the Flames last year. Yeah, for sure. And then the second path was uh Mark Andre Flurry. And Flurry in his uh in his uh kind of he had like a trial season 200304 about 20 games uh kind of similar to Ascarov last year but then there was a lockout 2005 06 though Mark Andre Florida takes the net for the Penguins and he plays 50 games his save percentage is 898 but it’s not that bad for it was a bad Penguins team it was actually a terrible Penguins team I think they were the worst team in the league that year or second worst or something like that and anyway it was Crosby’s rookie year but it was clear it was his net it was he was good enough that it was clear That was his net, but the record was like 1327 and 13. You’re not going to win. You’re not going to be in CER contention for that. But was it a good year for Mark Andre Flory? I would say that for the team he was on. That’s a successful year. And then the third path for Ascarov was um this is a very far back example. It was tough to find like a guy that was sort of like anointed as the guy and then had kind of a rough season. So, I use Mark Deni, which is a old really an old school reference, but I wouldn’t even get into that, but basically didn’t he didn’t have a great rookie season. The other guy there, Ron Tugnut, had a much better season, the veteran guy there, Ron Tugnut. And so, those are sort of the three paths for Ascarov. And I thought that he would have a flurry like season where he’s good enough where you play him and he’s he goes he suffers the ups and downs of of playing behind a bad team and the mental stresses of that. But I think he’s good enough that he lasts he plays those games as opposed to like a Mark Deni where clearly Ron Tug Ron Tug save percentage that year just really quickly was like 920. was a different time in the NHL, more defensive time and I think the knees might have been just barely clear 900. It’s a huge difference there, right? So in that kind of like Ascaroth comparison, that means like Njokovic is like putting up like a Nadulkovich. Sorry, I keep saying his name wrong. I keep thinking of the tennis player. Nadulkovich is like clearing Ascar’s play so much that the Sharks have to play Nad Nadelovich. Like it’s a it’s a crime against their team basically. It’s not a crime, but you know what I mean. It’s it’s a what do they call it for for a doctor, right? If it’s a malpractice. Yeah, malpractice. It’s malpractice against your team if you’re not playing Adelovic over Ascarov. That’s basically what happened in Columbus. Actually, that’s probably how I should have phrased it in that article, but we’re in like this like Yeah. Dustin Wolf 9 10 25 30 wins that Yeah, I don’t think so. Or like 20 wins, 900 save percentage or like Yeah. underneath 900 if he’s like 8 890 88 and you know 12 wins or something like that. I don’t think he clears 900. I’m sorry. I don’t think he clears Ascro clears 20 wins. Yeah, that’d be amazing. So, I don’t think it’ll be Yeah, because I think the Sharks team should be better than the 2005 06 Penguins. That’s a team out of the lockout. But, um, you know, if if what was our record last year? Uh, the Sharks? Yeah. 22 wins, 54 points. I 22 wins. Was it the rest of the details? Yeah. ASGR had four wins in 13 games. Nice. Okay. So, so yeah, if you extrapolate that to 52 games, that’s 16 wins. So, yeah. Anyway, if like if ASR goes like 17, 23 and 10, that’s a success probably, but that’s not going to win you the CER most like or be a Calder finalist most likely. So, that’s that that’s on Well, I’m glad you clarified it because I had not seen that part on your your article because I was Yeah. No, I Yeah, that we’re in agreement. It’s I think he has a good year though. Yeah, I I’m kind of I agree with both of you, but I think if I if I were to zoom into like the actual games of the season, I think we’re going to see some swings for Mascarov. I think we’re going to see some great games. Uh and then you’re going to see some adjustments of, you know, to your point earlier, uh Keegan, of of him being so great in the NHL. Absolutely. But also that jump now might even feel pretty severe. I think just like playing in the obviously have some injuries um and not really a lot of NHL experience over the last three seasons. So, um I think that jump I think we’re going to see some some some mistakes like egregious mistakes made because he’s confident. He’s he’s going to go out and try those things. And I think it’s the same question with even Dickinson where it’s like what’s that mental ability and mental fortitude to to to go on. But I think over the course of the season, we’re going to see some swings with Ascarov and that’s going to be fun. I mean, you’re going to see him definitely steal some games, I think, this season. And uh yeah, I I think he’ll be right under 900 save percentage. Yeah, I I think that this comes part and parcel with a 4550 game. No one’s expecting a smooth 4550 with this team and with a goalie that is, you know, up and down to some degree as talented as he is. So, yeah. Yeah, he’s definitely got just his play style is he’s not the blocking relaxed goalender. Like he’s he’s aggressive. He’s acrobatic. He’s like he knows he can make these saves. He just has to do it and and but he’s not going to be like that steadying force at all times like um at least not in the beginning of his career for sure. Yeah. All right. Points predictions. Ask is he scoring an empty netter this year? 45 points. I I I predict at least two shot attempts to two shot attempts. I I don’t know if he’s gonna It’s not going to be an actual shot attempt. Oh, it will be shot attemp. He’ll miss the net. So, yeah. All right. That’s pretty good. All right. Yeah. All right. I don’t I don’t think they’re going to have enough empty net opportunity. Yeah. It’ll probably be one goal, one goal lead, too, that when he tries it, the coach is going, “What the what the Yeah. No, I’m going to go with two assists. There we go. Two. Actually, I don’t even honestly to be I don’t know how many assists goalies typically get in a season. I I’m not sure. Well, the Sharks, I don’t know if you if you remember this, Keegan, but the in Zubar, but the in the Delgovich, I think they’re bringing the the goalie, the first goalie who ever had a goal and an assist in a game in Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. So, got some competition shooter on our hands here. Yeah. The highest point scorer tandem in the NHL. Oh, right. Yeah. For goalies. Amongst goalies. Finally. Number one at I’m super excited. Um especially when we get into training camp and we’re going to start getting like roster talk and all that kind of stuff. It’s going to be great. Well, we’re got we’re already started, but yes, rosteration for sure. All right. Looking forward to it. All right, guys. Good good chats as usual and um great time. Let’s uh let’s wrap around in a week. All right, guys. We’ll do it again soon. See you everyone. Bye, guys. Bye.

The San Jose Hockey Now Podcast dives into everything San Jose Sharks fans are buzzing about — with deep insights, debate, and a little heat.

The San Jose Hockey Now Podcast is brought to you by Bring Hockey Back!

🦈 Marc-Édouard Vlasic buyout — was the Sharks’ front office disrespectful to Vlasic?
🎖️ Joe Pavelski’s legacy — should his jersey be retired next to Thornton & Marleau?
🏟️ SAP Center renovations + future arena plans — is a brand-new Sharks arena coming?
🧠 Hlinka Gretzky Cup breakdown — Top 2026 NHL Draft prospects you need to know
🚀 Young Sharks’ development — What Celebrini, Smith, and Eklund are working on this summer
🧤 Askarov vs Nedeljkovic — Goalie battle incoming?

Hosted by Sheng Peng, Keegan McNally & Zubair Jeewanjee.

00:00 Intro: Meet the Hosts + Sponsor Shoutouts
02:31 Sharks Buy Out Marc-Édouard Vlasic – Was It Disrespectful?
08:00 Did San Jose Sharks Management Fumble the Vlasic Situation?
16:00 Should Joe Pavelski’s Jersey Be Retired?
20:45 Comparing Pavelski to Thornton, Marleau, and Other Sharks Legends
29:30 SAP Center Renovation & Arena Plans Through 2050-51
40:00 Where Will the New Sharks Arena Be Built?
45:00 Hlinka Recap – Top Draft-Eligible Prospects Analysis
52:00 Verhoeff, Rudolph, Ryan Lin: Defensemen to Watch in 2026 Draft
59:00 Top 5 NHL Draft Prospects for 2026 (Post-Hlinka)
1:04:00 What Sharks’ Young Guns Are Working On This Summer
1:10:20 Celebrini’s Sophomore Leap? Projected Goals + Shot Selection Fix
1:17:00 Will Smith: From Center to Winger? Offseason Adjustments & Ceiling
1:24:30 William Eklund: Shooting More, Confidence Gains, and Point Prediction
1:33:30 Michael Misa’s Likely Role + Dickinson & Askarov Forecasts
1:42:00 Goalie Showdown: Askarov vs Nedeljkovic – Who Takes the Net?
1:49:30 Wrap-up: Sharks Youth Movement Outlook

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