State of the Sharks: Mike Grier Pre-Draft Part 2

State of the Sharks: Mike Grier Pre-Draft Part 2

so much focus on the second overall pick and you can understand that there’s some importance there but there’s a lot of early round picks There’s a lot of total picks for the Sharks How do you see the rest of the draft after that maybe the second pick is more predictable After the Islanders it’s your turn How do you start to deal with the twists and turns of where this draft might go
yeah I think we’re just at the end of the day trying to be as prepared as possible um you know our our kind of analytics group um Charlie Townsen and um AJ Bernstein and Dylan Feine and they’re they’ve done a lot of work of um running simulations and probabilities and stuff like that of you know collecting all the intel out there of mock drafts and rankings and stuff like that and and come up with some models that you know we’ll try and use to to kind of help us I guess navigate the how how it goes but it you know the draft never goes the way you think it’s going to go
what’s the mentality when like last year you moved up a couple spots to get Sam Dickinson what goes into the thought of moving up a couple picks or surrendering uh a higher pick making that that pick a trade how do you actually value a pick it’s not a human It’s not a it’s not a player yet How do you value the pick
um I mean that’s a good question I think for us when we were looking at it um it’s kind of almost tears of tears of players and where your cutoff is and and things like that last year getting to 11 we thought it would give us an opportunity to get you know a defenseman like Sam
just where where our board fell and where the cuto off was So um you know this year I think we’ll we’ll keep an eye out and
see if there’s an opportunity to move up or you know if if the draft goes and someone starts to slide I think you know we’ll have at least have the ammunition to maybe try and jump up and grab that player
The draft and free agency back to back I mean the one-two punch I don’t know how you do it from a front office standpoint like that That’s a lot to take on Does whatever you do in free agency is it impacted at all by how the draft goes or are those two separate things
um they’re two separate things I think for us it’s you know it’s a little different than the NFL or even the NBA where
you know a lot of times they’re drafting people to play now Yeah To play right away where you know our guys are
you know depending on the player they’re maybe a year away or maybe they’re five years away So it’s a little bit different feel and they’re a little bit separate
Not to get too far ahead of ourselves but when it is time for free agency uh I know where the team is at in terms of having more money to spend than ever before Uh and I think the common suggestion is well go out for some more Tyler to Foley types Great compliment for TOE by the way but I don’t know if there’s a lot of those out there Where do you start aiming in terms of the type of player what what you’d like to have for free agency where does it go yeah I mean it’s we I think the main thing is for us to just try and improve the team a little bit if we can Um you know TOE toe and Winnie I think both were
two really good ads and you know not only on the ice but off the ice So um you know a lot of it’s got to be the fit in the room I think
we have some young players here and things we’re trying to build So um we want to bring the right people around them and surround them with the right people But um so yeah I mean obviously if we if we could find you know someone who produces like TOE and is has the character that TOE toe is and it was a fit you know we’ll you know we’ll definitely try and add them to the group but um you know free agency is not it’s not an easy time of the year There’s 31 other teams who who have needs and and wants and so so we’ll have to see how it goes
Deep question here and I know Tyler is part of that culture uh group culture type player in in this room Do you feel like your team’s next culture is established yet or even defined yet or are we are we at the point where you can build on it or are you still working on defining it um I think it’s it’s more of a work in progress Um you know there’s been uh there’s been a lot of change There’s been a lot of different people in this room Um there’s been a lot of losing here
Yeah Um so you know I think we’re starting to turn the corner of some of the things that we we want and find is compete and work ethic It it definitely took a step in the right direction um this past year but I definitely think it’s a it’s a work in progress and it’s something that you know we’re still trying to improve
Two more things Going back to the draft once you pick some of these players they’ll instantly come out here to California Sharks Ice for development camp What’s the purpose of getting them right in here as quickly as possible getting them all together i think maybe it’s obvious but how do you see the the tangible goal of of having them here immediately
well I think it’s it’s great for them to be around each other Yeah
Um I think it’s it’s great for the staff to get to meet them and spend time with them individually Um get to know them a little bit Um you know out of the draft setting where they can maybe relax a little bit And then I think a big thing is is starting to make them feel a part of the Sharks culture and organization and starting to kind of feel that pride of putting that jersey on And this is uh you know the first step for them for it to start to feel real So um you know I think that’s a big part of you
whenever you get drafted I think
that’s the team you want to you want to kind of reward So um
so that’s kind of I think the biggest takeaways from Dev Camp
All right last question I’ll ask it very carefully without any names Theoretically you could go into the draft for your first pick your second overall pick and just have two options based on whatever the Islanders do and then what you might do next Do you really only have two options or two mindsets for that or internally does that group have does your group have multiple different ideas of what what might happen with that that second overall pick trying to get me in trouble Um
is it I mean I I guess it’s just how many how many like you can you can complicate this a bunch or you can simplify it a bunch How how do you want it to go or how how is it going i guess
um
I’ll try and be try and be try and be broad there I think we’ll be open-minded
Okay
Um open-minded to it I think um I think we have an idea of right now of who’s one and who’s two on on our board Um
okay and then but you know you never see you never know what’s going to happen as you get closer to Friday
It’s really fun and easy to talk about hypotheticals and things we have no clue how they’re actually going to play out Uh well obviously best of luck I know it’s going to be uh successful and I know you put a lot of hard work into it So I can’t wait for all that to pay off and thank you very much for all this time It’s not like you have any free time to waste right now anyway
No thanks Thanks for having me Appreciate it

Brodie Brazil checks in with Sharks General Manager Mike Grier ahead of the 2025 NHL Draft.