Pre NHL Draft Media Roundtable. Sharks Audio Network

Pre NHL Draft Media Roundtable. Sharks Audio Network

all right we are getting ready for the NHL draft coming up on June 27th of course the Sharks do have the number two overall pick and I thought I’d bring in some of our esteemed members in the media to discuss what’s going on with San Jose as we head towards the draft we’ve got Curtis Pashelka of Bay Area News Group Max Miller NHL.com and Shangping San Jose Hockey Now as well as NBC Sports California gentlemen I will start off with a 30,000 foot view of the Sharks heading into the draft uh Curtis let’s start with you just on where you think this team is and how that colors what they’re going to be doing in this draft well I I think they’re still in position we had we asked this of Mike Greer uh you know after the draft lottery about what the Sharks might be looking for um you know in the upcoming draft and he said they’re still they’re still in a spot where they’re they’re they’re they’re drafting just based on the best player available it’s not yet at a at a point where they’re strictly looking at need um so you know they’re they’ve always got a deep prospect pool much deeper than it was you know two or three years ago uh just considering where they’ve drafted obviously in the last couple of years that helps obviously but um you know I I think they’re still in a spot where they want to just add the best player possible and um you know who knows who that might be at number two if that’s indeed where they’d select this year but um I think that’s where where the Sharks are coming from for at least this draft right now max 30,000 foot view uh as the team enters the draft same same question yeah I mean go building off what what Curtis said right like over the season I think it was around the deadline right after the trade deadline you know Mike said they they would be active in the offseason so I I I personally expect maybe some moves i mean we’ve seen you know night before trades like last year the Sharks traded from 14 to 11 and drafted Sam Dickinson i think they’ll keep that second pick but I don’t I don’t see them being quiet and just making their picks and moving on i I I do you know I I agree with Curtis i think it’s just going to be whoever is best available that they view on their board at number two is who they’ll select i personally think it’ll be Michael Misa but we don’t know we’re not in the room but I I think they’re the position where they can maybe make some moves maybe acquire more NHL ready rather than maybe build some prospects uh you know that maybe need some more seasoning so they have the assets to move this draft and next draft to kind of play around and really kind of build their roster how they choose as well as the cap space but for the short term I think that first round best available at number two and go from there shen same question to you i would expect them to use the number two pick too but it is possibly their best trade ship to improve the team and not improve the team in a way that doesn’t make sense by acquiring some veteran who is like a 30some but maybe you can get a younger player that can grow with the team a little bit and there are some guys out there some interesting names out there that maybe the number two pick can be a piece for that you’re at the combine Shang what’s the chatter well it does sound like maybe it could be Misa that’s sort of the that’s sort of the cliche i mean you expect Islanders to go with Schaefer and then and then the Sharks to pick the best available player which is Misa probably Misa the number one and number two pick too they haven’t moved in a long time it’s been like 20 plus years since since uh that pick has moved at least during the draft or around the draft so um that would be kind of a bit a bit of a setting history again if the Sharks were to to move the pick so chances are they’re just going to to make that pick um I’m trying to kind of figure out if maybe something else happens maybe they might be interested in another player than Amisa i do know that they did have they did take Misa out for dinner for what it’s worth and he had a Sunday with the Sharks so but we’ll see if that means anything on draft day yeah I mean Max when you look at these players I know that people always talk about Martone fitting the mold of what Greer is looking for but I always think that’s kind of funny because who wouldn’t want a 6-3 athlete that’s a little bit mean and nasty out there on the ice like I always feel that’s a little bit of an oversimplification but I mean do you think there are legit arguments beyond Misa for some of the other guys i know Hagens is obviously one of the guys who’s there as well i know the knock on him has been size but you know even you know I can name a you know go till I’m blue in the face about smaller players that end up being pretty decent but I mean does does it feel like if they stay with that number two that that will be Misa and is there anything that you’ve heard that you know the Islanders will move on and not take Schaefer number one overall yeah no I mean I I think there’s a very small argument to make that he that that maybe if Misa or even Hagens to that extent you know isn’t Mike Greer’s style of player but as we’ve seen kind of in the past whether it’s Will Smith and even most recently Melabbrini size when it comes to talent Mike Greer is going to air on the sides of talent and those later picks whether it’s the 11s or or even like the later first rounders like with Beast that he’s going to go for maybe the mold of a player that he’s looking for um so I think you know there’s an argument for Martone and there’s an argument for for D noise I totally butchered that name or even Roger McQueen who had that injury field season because of that style of play that we’ve seen Mike Ger want to add in but I think when it comes to talent I think Misa’s talent is too undeniable for Mike Ger to maybe push that on i like this style of play i want to build around it because you do need that top talent regardless of anything else that you want on your team you need to build around that top talent as far as the Islanders moving it I mean Matthew Dar the new GM of the Islanders has doubled down i mean twice he said he expects to make the pick he said he needs to get his socks knocked off to to to move that first oral pick shang mentioned it’s been over almost 20 plus years since those first two picks have been traded so I don’t expect the Islanders to move it i mean we heard Mike tell us at the exit he he needed a Hershel Walker level deal to move the first overall pick for Minelbrini and he told us he also hung up within 30 seconds so I I I don’t see too much happening there other than picking the best available which I do think is going to be Michael Misa when we sorry when we look Curtis at what the Sharks are going to be looking at from this draft versus the idea of them making a potential move and they do have options both in this draft and next draft how does that go up against what we’ve heard time and time again from what Mike Greer has said about not wanting to rush things because I do feel like in his draft lottery press conference he and even at the deadline this year after the trades he made a couple of comments that were more indicative of him not wanting to rush things but maybe his mindset had changed by the time that he had gotten to that deadline this year about where this team was and where it could be yeah I mean listen um the Sharks are going to be active to some degree this summer i mean they got to spend something like $20 million just to get to the floor I think if if I remember correctly so um so they’re going to be out they’re going to be out there in terms of signing players there’s you know there’s I think there’s a a feeling in the in the reorganization that um you know it’s it’s it’s the time to the tearing down time is over and it’s time to sort of rebuild this thing and you know put you know give some faith back to the fan base that this this thing is going in the in the right direction um so uh I don’t know if that’s impatience but at the point it’s like okay you’ve missed the playoffs for six years in a row mike Gur’s been here for three years now um you know when is sort of this team going to take the next step and go forward and I think this offseason is going to be pretty huge for that so um you know who knows if it’ll you know despite their best intentions where they’ll end up next season but I think definitely the plan is just to to to take a step forward this year and how that happens I’m not sure like Shank mentioned you know to use the second round ropic uh to get better immediately uh you have other draft capital and certainly other prospects to help with that as well too so um you know I I I don’t think it would just be a normal offseason for the Sharks i would expect them to to take steps and maybe not spend huge money on on some of the names that are out there like we all hear but uh this definitely you become a harder team to play against and build a certain identity and and take a step that way maybe not just maybe not a baby step but a step nonetheless curtis I’m not picking on you because we’ve all said it take steps that’s nebulous though i mean what what does that mean in your mind or what do you think that means to Mike Greer well I mean if if if we want to point to an example I think what what the Anaheim Ducks did this past season is probably a pretty good example of what maybe the Sharks are looking to do this upcoming year i mean let’s let’s face it i think the Sharks finished something like 40 45 points out of a playoff spot so that’s going to be very very difficult to make up in one year but can you get 20 points better this upcoming season and finish some you know 70 70 or so and maybe 28th or 29th the league in the overall standings i think I think that’s realistic and I think that’s enough progress to signal to the fan base that things are going in the right direction and then maybe in 2026 27 uh that’s when you make a bigger splash and really sort of put your uh minds towards being a playoff team but um that’s that’s that’s kind of how I would answer that is just how you know what’s what is improvement what is a step forward i would say that’s to me that’s that’s what kind of maybe makes the most sense for this organization and realistically to to what they what they might look to look to uh to do next season max what about you how do you view the timeline and where do you think this team should be when we reconvene a year from now yeah I think I think Curtis Excuse me curtis put it you know pretty pretty accurately to to what I would agree with where it’s the FM Ducks are a very good example excuse me I’m sorry um where you know they weren’t quite you know totally in the playoff push but they were there right you saw them you’re like okay if they if they stayed hot here there’s a chance maybe they fizzled out at the end but I think that’s the biggest thing is is in terms of being competitive right there’s they are competitive they were in more games this year but you need to be more competitive not just on the ice now but more in the standings I think is is the best way to put it and I’m with Curtis I agree it I think you’re a year away from really competing for a playoff spot but you want to be in and around the noise and the conversation you know I I guess is is how I would put it um the other the other step that I would I would focus on is making sure that players like Smith and Celibbrini and and uh Beastad and Graph and all these prospects that are looking to maybe take that next step especially Celibbrini and Smith do take that next step so that’s surrounding them and with with top players more than just one Tyler to Foley and and Eman for that matter too can we get them to fulfill their more potential their most potential and move them to that state because if they stay stagnant or don’t develop then every all the work you’ve done on the on the the building of the roster side kind of goes to waste because you need those guys to be your top players so I think competitive in the standings not just on the ice and continuing the better development of the quoteunquote core players of Smith Celibbrini Ecklund and Dickinson if he’s in the NHL shank to the points that Max and Curtis made do we look at a movement forward like Anaheim and seeing more from Mlin and Will is that enough for the fans to stay bought in i know last year watching the two young stars number four from two years ago number one from this past season emerge and look like they had star potential in the NHL was a lot for fans to glum on to but at the end of the year I mean we saw the Sharks were once again the worst team in the NHL i think the first team to do that two years in a row in the lottery era um you know they had been you know just they weren’t a good team they were better last year but they weren’t they weren’t good i mean we often said “Oh they’re very entertaining but fans want to see wins.” So I mean is can fans be satisfied with another growth year well I think the Anaheim Ducks are a bit of a lofty goal because I think they had 30 more points than the Sharks that’s a lot of points to to make up i think that if the Sharks just get out of being the worst team in the league that that could be a satisfactory step um to Max’s point I think it’s more about the individual players though specifically three key guys that I would focus on does Mlin bring take another step not just for stardom because he already is a star but superstardom because that’s what the Sharks need they need him to be that franchise lynchpin Nathan McKinnon Sydney Crosby type if they are going to take that step and for Will Smith the stardom can he be can he be a reliable kind of point per game player which is what they eventually need him to be and another guy too um just as important as those guys is the goalender Yuruslav Ascarov and is he uh the true number one answer for the Sharks and so if you can show if those three things happen for the Sharks it really doesn’t matter what happens elsewhere in a in a lot of ways because that means your core pieces are just fine not to say that it doesn’t matter at all but um those are the three main guys I’m looking at among the youngsters that they really need to take that step and then Willie Mecklin in there too um if those guys can take that step then whether the improvement is 60 points or 70 points or 80 like Anaheim it doesn’t that doesn’t matter so much the exact number of points it’s just more about the big big the lynchpin guys if they take huge steps toward assuring the fan base that they are the answer yeah no I mean I I agree to that point because I do think that you need to see those guys moving forward and I’ve made the lazy comparison very many times to where the Warriors were you know before they really got rolling but people could look at Steph Curry and Klay Thompson and Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes and think okay there’s something there’s something building here that’s positive i don’t think anybody saw it going to the heights that it did but I mean I think fans can be bought in um Curtis or excuse me uh Shane before I move on I know you had a report that was out about the Sharks talking to William Mikeland about a contract extension yeah uh so they I I saw uh Mike Greer and his agent Todd Diamond they were chatting and I learned that indeed they were talking about uh Willie Mecclin extension i think it is a good sign that both sides they seem to want something to get done before the start of this season because they could have just let it play out this season and if they had just let it play out this season and that’s might be indicative of the Sharks maybe they’re not sure about Eklund or maybe Eklland’s not so sure about the Sharks but if they want something done before his actual contract expires at the end of the 202526 season um they want something done when the extension extension is first eligible on July 1st then that’s a sign of kind of their commitment to each other and anyway it’s hard to say exactly what that commitment will be i think it’s still early stages of that conversation but it sounds like they both want to be married together for a little while which is a good thing max what’s your greatest concern about the team heading into next year i mean obviously we don’t know what free agency and the draft will yield but I guess if you were looking big picture I mean what what concerns you about where they are right now i I think it kind of goes along the lines of what the last you know couple questions have been about where it’s about player development right like can you continue this trend because that right now without that everything that the sharks are quote unquote building towards you it didn’t work you didn’t build the right core you didn’t develop the right core and you know I’m not saying that if all things go poorly and everything goes wrong next season they’re going to fall into a Buffalo Sabres perpetual rebuild situation I don’t think that’s going to happen even if everything does go wrong next year but that to me is the biggest worrisome can you continue to build a culture of being more competitive in games and start to win those games right one thing that Ryan Morski said all season is that yeah they’re building you know a culture of winning but they’re not winning yet like they need to start winning those games you need to understand that losing is not okay and building on that with whatever moves they make through the draft free agency trades whatever it might be need to be able to push that narrative forward where it’s not okay to lose and you don’t have that much losing while still keeping those player developments that’s the biggest thing for me even if everything goes poorly is you need to win a few more games with the development continuing to trend in the right direction and Curtis and by the way if any of you want to jump in you don’t have to wait for me to uh call on you i’m not the teacher here but Curtis I’m curious is there any concern that if the Sharks don’t have the off season that they’re hoping to that there could be frustrations for a Will Smith or a Mlin Celibbrini after their second years of their entry- level contracts potentially i mean I think we can see we saw you know some some rumblings out of Chicago this year that maybe Conor Bard was unhappy with the direction of the team and he wasn’t necessarily interested in signing an extension this off season yeah maybe there’s various reasons for that but um I mean potentially but you know I I think you know if if I mean do if if things aren’t going to be stagnant this year and they’re another 50 55 point team um certainly I can see that that happening and and people wondering about the direction of the franchise and whether or not um we’ll it’ll it’ll other you know it’ll ever turn a corner but um I don’t necessarily see that happening um but yeah certainly potential is is there for for that frustration to to pop up i mean you know we all know Melbourne is most competitive guy maybe um on the team and Will Smith isn’t far behind so they want to see progress they don’t want to be um in last place forever uh they understand there’s growth that needs to be had but uh at the same time um you know if just uh having some more success in showing that this thing is going in their right direction um you know I I think would keep that sort of frustration at bay but um you know we’ll see how this season plays out and and trust me if they get off to another horrible start like they have these last couple of years those questions are going to be asked once again about you know where is this team and is there enough how how much progress is actually being made so um so you know the proof is in the pudding we we’ll see what happens but you know I would tend to think those two uh would love to see some progress and obviously um you know see this team um you know uh continue to take steps forward and and and uh you know from their perspective show that uh they’re part of a franchise that’s going to be competitive sooner rather than later max and Shang I’ll throw this question at both of you and whoever wants to jump on it first but I was watching the game last night and I’m thinking to myself okay one team has two of the four greatest players on earth on their squad one being the best I would say maybe ever it’s like that’s a pretty good way to design a team if you have it the other team Florida I was like this is a mold that we have seen before they’re hard they’re heavy but they’re also fast they’re nasty they’ve got a great net minder but I when I look at the Sharks I’m still at a point where I can’t 100% identify what they are as a team i think it’s too early in the process i think they would lean more towards what Florida has built because I think we’ve seen versions of that over the years but at the same time I mean I I don’t know what Mlin Celbrini’s ceiling is he was not touted to be Conor McDavid only Conor McDavid the only other prospect in my lifetime that I’ve seen compared to those heights is LeBron James in all sports and the only one that’s even in that stratosphere is probably Andrew Luck so I mean I have to go to different sports to find comparisons but what are the Sharks specifically building or is it just too early to know dang you want to take it sure uh I think they want to build a big fast probably the Panthers are a more likely kind of comp because like you mentioned getting a McDavid is once a generation kind kind of player and Mlin as special as he is may end up and this is not um this is not an issue this is not a problem he may end up closer to Bararkov than McDavid that’s not a problem at all you can win a lot with a with a bar and so it’s probably safer too to kind of build a team that is more geared toward depth than toward two select players because you’re more you’re more likely to build a team that way like Florida has then to build it like Edmonton has where you get McDavid and then Dry Sidle comes along and Dry Sidle wasn’t a number one pick but Dry Sidle ends up being nearly as good and that there’s a little bit of sort of you can’t count on that as much as just sort of building the best possible team and then seeing what these guys become and then hoping that Smith Celibbrini uh let’s say it’s Amisa they become a player in the same breath as a dry cidle yeah and Max what’s what’s your thoughts on that in terms of what they are building towards yeah I I think it’s definitely more the Panthers way and the first thing that popped into my mind is like which one should they do i know it could change as soon as like two or three weeks whatever but one team of theirs is the Stanley Cup champion and one team isn’t when we’re making this right like I think Florida has become the standard in terms of what NHL teams want to build with their roster for the most part i’m not saying the Sharks need to be as nasty as like you know you have to Chuck Bennett and Amar Shan on the team right that’s a lot a lot of a lot of teams would kill to have those players on the team even just one they’ve got three but when it comes to what the Sharks have built with like Shang said like you can look at you know you can almost turn it into a video game style potential right um Conor McDavid is franchise altering generational whatever and Maxel brings a franchise center right he’s franchise center but he’s not you know once in a generation altering level prospect and and with that in mind right he very well could be we don’t know but he doesn’t project to be but with that in mind the work ethic that he has on both sides of the ice projects to be more of a Barov style player with maybe a little bit more offense um so when you when you have that player with who wants to work on both sides of the ice that much building a better quality team around him with better players could not only help you I guess short term in terms of development of that young player but also when you are competing for cups I think your window will be longer because you don’t have to have so much roster turn over because you have better depth pieces and yeah the teams like the McDavids and the Oilers they have better depth now but they’ve had to change their roster a ton um to to get to that point and there’s a lot of question marks that are asked at the end of every season which which can be good and bad depending on the situation but I think with where the Sharks are at building the better roster around players like Minel will bring success not only more for him but for the other young players like the Smith and and and Ekllins and whoever they pick it to Curtis is there any danger in emulation in the sense that you build towards one thing but when you’re three to four years into it you find out that you have something else cuz I you know I could point to a number of teams and a number of sports that had an idea But it ended up working out very differently not always negatively either it’s just you know there is an idea but sometimes it just it doesn’t end up being what you’re building towards i mean for sure and the league is always evolving so what was what was hot maybe 3 four five years ago may not be hot uh by the time you sort of get there kind of thing so uh so I mean yeah I mean there’s always a little bit of that danger but I think as long as you stay true to your kind of your core values and I think I think my career uh and this front office and and the coaching staff um kind of have a pretty good idea of what this team want what they want to look wanted they want it to look like kind of if you if you stay true to that you know win lose or draw i mean you can at least go out saying you know he did it if it doesn’t work out you can you know say well at least I I’d stay true to myself and I stay true to my values and and uh you know built the team how I felt it needed to be built and you kind of ride with that so it’s not something that kind of you know fluctuates from year to year you kind of have to stick with it over the course of time and and hope it works out uh in your favor kind of thing so we’ll see i mean I don’t uh I mean I think the Sharks still they they want to build that team from the first day of my career you know uh in first press conference where you say he wants to be be a team that’s hard to play against in your face that kind of thing i I think that’s sort of a what they continue to sort of strive towards that’s why you saw uh Fabian Zland go out the door for Zack Ostachchuk this year because you know those type he wants those those type of players around uh this year and you know um so you know that’s as they kind of continue to move forward here um I would expect them to sort of you know continue to their you know stay true to their vision and kind of let the chips fall where they may I guess I guess is a final one for you Curtis because we’re running out of time here When that number two pick is called who do you expect the Sharks are selecting assuming they don’t trade it i I’d be stunned if it wasn’t Michael Misa he’s a guy that could play forward at the wing uh you add him in the long side you you project him as maybe a top two maybe a second line center uh that allows you to keep well Will Smith up at the top line with Melbourne long term um you know I don’t know if Michael Mis is ready to be in the NHL right away uh the time will tell but I I would expect that to happen uh but you never know you know if uh the Sharks got some assets to dangle i know like like Max was saying about the Islanders GM need you need to knock his socks off but I don’t know if if uh if one thing about Mike Curve we learned over the past couple years if he wants something he’s going to go out and get it we saw that with the Ascarov trade you know we saw that last year moving up in the draft a little bit uh to get the guy he wanted uh so uh it’s a bit it’s not what something you’d say it’s a you know it’s a long shot that they move up to number one but uh if they do stay at number two I would expect fully expect them to draft Michael Mason same question to you Max where do you think the Sharks are drafting at number two assuming that they still have the pick yeah I I I’m you know if they have the pick which I’m guessing they do I I I don’t see any way you could deny picking Michael Misa that offensive talent is undeniable and you know Min Cabbrini is a great two-way player and we want him to be offensive as much as possible but adding somebody with that much offensive potential maybe takes a little bit of the offensive load off his back in the long run something that Curtis mentioned that that I’m pretty you know certain on is if if and you know if the Sharks take Michael Misa I don’t believe Will Smith and Michael Misa will both be centers for them i think one of them will play the wing um we saw the success that Curtis mentioned between Celibbrin and Smith with Smith on the wing i think if Michael Misa is the pick someone’s got to play wing to keep them in the top six and I think it would be Smith just because of his skating ability he’s a good skater not a great skater we know Misa’s got a good skater uh you know he’s not the biggest so he’s got to be a great skater and you’re not moving Mlin off off the center position unless you bring in a Sydney Crosby for him to say “Okay I’ll play the wing like he did with Canada.” But I I think it’ll be Misa and and I do think it’s interesting if that is the pick who who plays wing to stay in the top six shen assuming the Sharks have that number two pick who are they taking i think it’s Misa too and I think you just have to tell Will Smith that that’s the only chance that he gets to play with Mlin Celibbrini he’s got to be on his wing and once once you tell Will that and Mlin that you know those guys are inseparable and so I think that that will convince Will it’s interesting because so much of the talk had been moving Will to center eventually but and I can’t remember who I heard say it recently it may have been Cory Proman of the Athletic he said “Usually when guys go out they don’t often come back in.” But I mean even if you do have two guys in Misa and Smith maybe battling for that second line center position I it’s a good problem to have you know I I don’t I don’t have any qualms with that but gentlemen we are running out of time so I thank you so much for your uh time and your work as always and we will talk soon all right thanks Ted

As we get ready for the draft, our Ted Ramey sits down with Curtis Pashelka of Bay Area News Group, Max Miller of NHL.com, and Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now and NBCSCA to discuss a number of topics heading into one of the biggest days of the year, and one of the biggest off-seasons in Sharks history.

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