Rebuild Review: The San Jose Sharks

Rebuild Review: The San Jose Sharks

Yo, what is going on, guys? Welcome back to another video. And it’s Sunday, which means it’s time for our weekly rebuild review. And considering the fact that I’ve only done Eastern Conference teams for this series thus far, we are heading out west. And today we are doing the rebuild review for the San Jose Sharks. The San Jose Sharks had their inaugural season back in 1992. And boy, did they absolutely stink to start out having 39 points in their first season, then all the way down to 24. But quickly after, they found a lot of success. And from 1998 to 2019, they missed the playoffs just three seasons, including one trip to the Stanley Cup final in 2016, as well as four other conference finals led by both team and NHL legends like Patrick Marlo, Agenei Nebachov, Mark Edward Vlic, Joe Thoron, Joe Pavvelski, Brett Burns, and Logan Couture. However, after making the conference finals in 2019, they had three straight below average seasons. It was clear that Father Time was finally catching up to this core and general manager Doug Wilson was making some pretty wild moves in terms of the contracts. It was clear that they needed a reset and they needed a fresh face to do it. And a matter of fact, when I was doing the research for this video, I was very curious what I thought of the San Jose Sharks around this time. And I actually found the video from April of 2022, right after it was announced that Doug Wilson was stepping down. So, I’m going to let 2022 Mike kind of paint the picture, set the tone of how kind of screwed the San Jose Sharks were at the time. Okay, it was announced on Thursday, longtime Sharks GM Doug Wilson was stepping down, and I got to say, looking at this team, their future is pretty brutal. Putting down the contracts, Logan Couture still has 5 years after the season at $8 million. I don’t even think he’s worth that right now. Eric Olson is definitely at a bounceback season, but he is still not remotely close to being worth 11.5 million, and he’s going to be 32 to start next season. Prince and Blask are in the same boat. both well past their prime, yet they’re making number one defenseman money. Last but not least, Thomas Hurdle. And while I don’t hate this contract nearly as much as the ones above it, he is going to be 29 to start next season, so it’s probably going to age pretty poorly. So, if you’re the Sharks, you have a core of five guys making a combined $42 million the next three seasons, and only one of them’s in their prime. The Sharks have their aging core locked up, and they’re not even a good team. They’re like an 80 point team. They’re not good enough to make the playoffs, and they’re too good not to be bottom five. They’re in like the perfect no man’s land of mediocrity. So yeah, I think the Sharks are absolutely screwed. And I honestly feel bad for the next GM of this team that he’s going to have to deal with all these horrible contracts. It seems like a sitting duck job and the guy’s going to get fired after two to three years. And as for who ended up getting this job that I thought was literally an impossible task and they’d get fired in two to three years, it was Mike Greer, former San Jose Sharks player in 2007 and 2008 and he became the first black general manager in NHL history. So yeah, for this rebuild review, we’re only going to be looking at his tenure starting in the spring of 2022 and then going up until now. And when looking at it, we’re actually going to start with trades just because he had to do so many trades. I think that’s like the most interesting part of his tenure. So we’re going to grade the trades, drafting and developing, signing extensions, and then the actual on ice results. And then that’s going to bring us to our overall grade. So, his first big player trade was in that summer of 2022 when he traded longtime San Jose Shark, former Norris winner Brett Burns to the Carolina Hurricanes, retaining 33% of his salary and basically only getting a third round pick in value back. Greer did get some push back on this trade considering the name value of Brett Burns, but at that point he was 36 years old, already starting to regress in terms of his actual production in analytically and was still making $8 million the next three seasons. So, he was just a straightup negative asset. and Mike Greer wanted him off the books. So yeah, this was by no means some kind of slam dunk trade by the San Jose Sharks, but it was definitely necessary at the time to move off Brett Burns considering the fact he was still a good player and kind of hurting their tank. So although they didn’t get anything for him, it was okay. And they also did right by Brett Burns by trading him to an actual contender. The next deal, however, is kind of an objectively bad deal as they traded Aiden Hill for a fourthround pick in 2024. Aiden Hill at the time was a 25-year-old 6’4 goalender who had shown pretty decent flashes having a 911 in the last three seasons as a backup. As we know, Aiden Hill would absolutely kill it in the 2022 2023 season for the Vegas Golden Knights putting up a 913 in 27 regular season games and then after Vegas had some goalie injuries, came in during the playoffs, put up a 932 in 16 playoff games and won the Stanley Cup and recently this season signed a six-year deal at $6.25 million. The 2024 fourthround pick became Christian Kersh, another goalie who struggled a decent amount at the USHL level and most recently played in the NHL. So yeah, San Jose definitely lost this deal. I don’t think that they’re kicking themselves over it considering the fact Aiden Hill is not some bonafide no doubt top 10 goalender. And if anything, he would have like hurt the tank the last two to three years. They maybe should have kept him into that that next season and then when he played good trade him when his value was higher, but not the end of the world in terms of a deal. At the 2023 deadline, he trades a huge piece. The only like under the age of 28 piece that they had in Team Omire to the New Jersey Devils. There’s a lot of different pieces with this deal. The only ones that really matter is Teemo Meer to the New Jersey Devils and then Shakir Muka Madulan, Fabian Zetterland, a 2023 first and a 2024 second to the San Jose Sharks. Up first for team Omire. It is very clear the San Jose Sharks were correct to trade him at that deadline as he was a pending free agent that would have wanted some eight-year deal at around $9ish million from the San Jose Sharks. Eventually got 8.8 from the New Jersey Devils. Considering the fact that in the prior two seasons with the San Jose Sharks, he had 66 goals, 62 assists, 128 points in 134 games, which was 15th in goals during that stretch in the NHL. He also had 581 shots on goal during that stretch, tied with McDavid for the second most in the NHL, 4.34 per game. He was the focal point. They were just feeding him non-stop on the San Jose Sharks because they had nobody else that could finish. Meanwhile, New Jersey, he’s still been a good player, don’t get me wrong, but only 63 goals, 56 assists, 119 points, and 170 games. good for 30 goal, 27 assists, 57 point pace across 82 games and only shooting 3.04 shots on goal, and he’s making 8.8 million now. So, yeah, the Sharks were smart to get off him. It was clear that he was just having a great two-year stretch where he was getting so much of the opportunity both on the top line, both on the top power play, getting fed nonstop by guys, and it would just not be the same on an actual competitive team where he’s not the focal point. As for who they got in return, Fabian Zetterland for a season and a half was a solid 20 and 20 guy for the San Jose Sharks. Basically putting up 66% of Team Omire’s New Jersey production on the San Jose Sharks for much, much cheaper. As for Shakir Mukuman, he was the 20th overall pick in the 2020 NHL draft and was an AHL All-Star last year with 34 points in 55 games. this year did play 30 games in the NHL, putting up nine points, was very solid defensively, and looks like he can be a solid third pair guy that can be costcont controlled for the foreseeable future. First round pick that they got ended up being 26th overall where they took Quinn and Musty, who we’re going to talk about more when we do the drafting and developing, but he’s looking pretty solid for a 26th overall pick. In that second, they eventually packaged another pick that they acquired down the line to trade up to 11th overall in the 2024 draft and get Sam Dickinson. for team O Meer who they had no intentions of keeping considering the fact he was already 26 years old and was not going to be part of this new core was going to get paid some kind of eight-year $9 million contract. They got a solid middle sixer who still gave you like twothirds of his production compared to what he put up on the Devils. Uh a solid AHL defenseman prospect who looks like he can potentially be an NHLer, a first round pick where you got a guy that has a lot of high-end skill and a second round pick that you later moved up to potentially get your franchise defenseman. pretty damn decent job by Mike Greer. Before the 2023 draft, he made another deal with the New Jersey Devils where he kind of fleeced them, getting McKenzie Blackwood for a sixthround pick. The San Jose Sharks needed somebody to play goalie for them next season considering James Rhymer, Capo Kakinan were just so so bad for the team. So, they got Mackenzie Blackwood who was really good at the start of his career for the New Jersey Devils. Did fall in some tough times, but still was only like 26 years old and you’re only giving up a sixth round pick. Blackwood in his first season with the San Jose Sharks put up an 8.99 on a 47point team. Pretty damn decent there. And then the following season put up a 911 before eventually getting traded to the Colorado Avalanche. We’ll talk about that shortly. So he got he got traded for way more than he was acquired for. In the summer of 2023, fresh off his Norris win, Eric Carlson was now somewhat tradable. And they retained 1.5 million on him, as well as giving up a 2026 third round pick and got Muel Granland in a 2024 first round pick that was top 10 protected, as well as two other players. At the time, Kyle Dubis thought that maybe he could assemble one last dance kind of run for Sydney Crosby and Genny Malin in Pittsburgh and thought Eric Carlson was the missing piece to that. He was not, obviously. They missed the playoffs in 2024 by three points with 88 points, losing out to the Washington Capitals on the final wild card spot. That pick ended up being 14th overall and went to the San Jose Sharks. Eric Carlson’s been okay for them, but not what they kind of expected, just a 50-ish point top pair offensive defenseman. The San Jose Sharks used that 14th overall pick as well as the Teim Omire second round pick was 42nd overall to move up to 11th overall and select Sam Dickinson. And of course, that first wasn’t the only important asset that they got as Muel Granland at the time was a negative asset considering he had two years left at $5 million and had only five points in 21 games with the Pittsburgh Penguins after getting traded there at the deadline. Well, he had 105 points in 121 games played and then of course was traded to the Dallas Stars. So yeah, for Eric Carlson, who a year ago was just an absolute untradeable asset, they got the 14th overall pick in another first round pick and only had to eat $1.5 million on his contract. Fast forward to the 2024 trade deadline and the Vegas Golden Knights strike up a deal with the San Jose Sharks involving Tomas Hurdle. It was Hurdle $1.38 million retained, a 2025 third round pick, a 2027 third round pick. into San Jose, they got David Entrum in a 2025 first round pick, which although Hurdle was still a very good player and worth his $8.1 million capit, considering the fact that he was already 30 years old and still had six years left on his contract, it did not make a lot of sense to keep Tomas Hurdle. Considering the fact that by the time the San Jose Sharks were a serious contender, he’d be 35, 36 years old and probably not be worth that contract. So, it was smart to sell now. Yes, they are going to have to use their retention spot for a long time on this deal, but they are weaponizing their cap space. It’s not a lot of their cap space, only $1.38 million. And as a result, they got a first round pick. And Enram was a former 2023 first round pick. That’s damn good value. And although this is not the next trade chronologically, you just have to jump to it because they used Enstrom in that 2025 first round pick to then acquire Yoruslav Ascarov in the summer of 2024. Ascarov, of course, was the former 11th overall pick in the 2020 draft to the Nashville Predators. And after the Predators extended Jussi Sorrowos, he became very disgruntled. He did not see a path to him becoming the starter in the next three to four years. So, he wanted a trade and he was still one of the best goalie prospects in the NHL, posting a 911 in back-to-back seasons in the AHL. As for Ascarov in the season since that trade, he had a 923 in the AHL and even had an 896 in 13 games at the NHL level with plus 1.7 goals they have expected. He’s expected to be a good starter, maybe even a franchise kind of guy. But getting back to chronological order, the Jake Walman deal is up next. And I would just love to been on the phone call with those two general managers, Steve Eerman and Mike Greer, when Eisermanman just offered him a second round pick in Jake Wman for future considerations. Like Detroit, for some reason decided to just completely give up on a 28-year-old defenseman who was awesome in 2023. He did have a down year in 2024, but was only making $3.4 million the next two seasons. You’re attaching a second round pick just to dump that? That is insane value. And of course, Wman even exceeded the expectations as he started out amazing with 26 points in his first 31 games in San Jose playing 23 minutes a night and he finished with 32 points in 50 games and eventually got traded to the Edmonton Oilers for a first round pick. The second round pick was Leo Salin Winius who I was very high in the 2024 draft on and he was pretty solid this year both playing at the SHL and Liga level and putting up some decent points. He could potentially be something. Also that summer they decided to take on Cody Cece getting a third round pick but also did ship out Ty Emerson in that deal. Obviously did not love this as much as the Jake Walman one but that was a masterclass. It was fine. Weaponiz your cap space. Cody CC they also did eventually trade to the Dallas Stars alongside Muel Granland. Didn’t love giving up on Emerson but he’s not some kind of super differencemaker. They selected Teddy Murden with the 95th overall pick from this deal who was an okay player this year for the Chicago steel of the USHL. At the start of the 2024 2025 season, the Toronto Maple Leafs had basically given up on Timothy Lilligrren. So, as a result, the Sharks traded for him, giving up only a third round pick, a sixth, and Matt Benning. Lilligren has always been a very solid analytical darling, handling his 18 to 19 minutes a night, very solid. Come playoff time, he would always lose his spot due to physicality, but he was pretty solid this year for the San Jose Sharks and should play a role in their top four the next two to three years. He’ll probably eventually slide down to that third pair. not some kind of huge differencemaker, but they needed bodies for that defense score, and he has definitely exceeded the expected value of a third and sixth round pick. Then about a month and a half later, he traded away McKenzie Blackwood to the Colorado Avalanche for the key pieces being Alexander Gorgv, Nikolai Kovaleeno, and a 2026 second round pick. Blackwood, as we talked about before, started the season amazing on a bad San Jose Sharks team with the 9/11 save percentage. So, the Colorado Avalanche, who had completely given up on Alexander Gorgv, decided to swoop in. That was a very good move by the Colorado Avalanche as Blackwood continued his very good play, got a 5-year deal at $5.25 million and finished with Colorado having a 913 save percentage. For the San Jose Sharks, Blackwood was almost just like a little bit too good for their team. So, they brought in Gyorgv, who’s kind of like the tank general, and as a result, they finished last in the NHL. And as for Kovaleeno, he had very good KHL numbers. Had 19 points in 29 games with the San Jose Sharks. He’s 25 years old. And as for that second round pick, it’s a 2026 second round pick and they still have it next year. Then with about a month to go before the trade deadline, they packaged Cody CC and Muel Granland for a first and a fourth round pick. This deal was kind of a perfect situation considering the Dallas Stars had $9.85 million of LTI or money and the San Jose Sharks had no retention spots due to Burns, Hurdle, and Carlson. And those two guys were making $8.25 million. So Dallas was the one team that could fit them in. They get that first, they get that fourth. Granland was good for them in the regular season and in the playoffs. Cody Cece actively hurt the team though. San Jose with that first round pick selected Joshua Rafensburgen who is regarded as the top prospect in the 2025 draft. And as for that fourth round pick, it ended up being Zack Sharp who’s a very unexpected pick in the fourth round from Western Michigan who won the national title this year is an overager who’s 20 years old and was more so of a defense defenseman. Then to finish off the busy 2025 trade season for the San Jose Sharks, they traded away Jake Walman for a 2026 first round pick. Awesome deal for both parties, the Oilers. Wman was basically their pseudo number two defenseman for the rest of the season and in the playoffs because Ekkome was hurt and he still has one more year left at only $3.4 million. Meanwhile, for the Sharks, you would have liked to have Wman the following season to kind of mentor some of the young guys, but you weren’t going to give him some kind of seven by seven that he’s probably going to ask next off season for. So, you get a first round pick next year and you allow Dickinson, uh, Kagnani, Shakira to really get run next year. I forgot that wasn’t off at the 2025 trade deadline as they traded away Fabian Zetterland in a fourth round pick to the San Jose Sharks for Zack Ospuk, Noah Greor in a 2025 second. This one I wasn’t like overly high on just considering the fact that Zetherland is a better player than Ospacchuk. They only moved up from the 97 to the 54th overall pick. Zetterland still is only 26 years old. I thought he’d be a factor for their bottom six going forward, but he’s not some kind of huge differencemaker. And they did move up in the draft and got Cole McKenna 54th overall. Then this off season, they needed a backup goalender. So they called up Pittsburgh, got Ned, and his one year left at $2.5 million, giving up a 2028 third round pick. They probably overpaid a little bit, but by 2028, they should hopefully be a playoff team. Great deal for Pittsburgh just selling him. And then they went off and got Shillovs. But yeah, they needed a backup. They didn’t want to give someone on the open market like serious term. It’s an okay deal. And then lastly, a deal that people really did overreact to. Henry Thrun for Ryan Reeves. This was a win-win for both parties. Ryan Reeves veteran locker room presence. One year at $1.35 million. They can help. He can help them get to the salary cap floor. Meanwhile, for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Theron makes less than Ryan Reeves is much younger than Ryan Reeves. You can bury him in the AHL. Win-win for both parties. People People lost their minds. Acted like San Jose got fleece. So, yeah. I think overall for the trades, I think I’m going to go with an A. I didn’t love how it started out with the Brett Burns. That was just okay. And then Aiden Hill was kind of a bad move and I don’t love the Zetterland one of late. But outside of that, it’s basically all hits. And he especially killed it with Carlson. Killed it with Meyer. His two core pieces that at the time that they were traded actually had some value. He got massive value in return. and especially hindsight now like two years later he completely uh fleeced those teams as well as the fact of buying low on McKenzie Blackwood uh Jake Walman taking him on for a second then trading him for a first round pick. Muel Granland rehabbing his game and getting a first round pick for him. It has been an awesome weaponizing his cast space guys like Tomas Hurdle uh getting Ascarov using leverage there to scoop him up. It has been an awesome job by Mike Greer and the San Jose Sharks for the most part and as a result they get an A. Okay, so now we have the San Jose Sharks draft picks. And when looking at this, much like the other rebuild reviews that we’ve done, we’re also going to look at some of the guys that he inherited and how that development went for the overall organization. The main of course being William Mecklan, who I was very high in in the 2021 draft. I am third on my board. And yeah, he it’s crazy that he even fell to seventh considering just how good he was in his draft year in the SHL. the SHL. He put up 23 points in 40 games and has quickly become one of the best U24 wingers in the NHL. 58 points, 77 games this year. So, that’s awesome. Also, go watch the movie Centers. It’s on HBO Max. It’s very good. Now, not a plug, not a paid paid ad. Besides that, there really wasn’t much in the system. They had like around the 20th like prospect pool, but that was heavily influenced by Ekkund. Uh Azie Wisblat sadly didn’t turn anything. I was very high on him in his draft year. Uh Thomas Bolo, I don’t even know. Is he even with the franchise anymore? He still is with the franchise and was decent decently good in the AHL, but as a 2020 drafty probably not going to be much. Yeah. Besides that, obviously Josh Norris was traded and the Eric Carlson deal. That was a disaster. Again, that’s what he inherited in terms of turning this team around. Mario Ferraro, we’ll talk about him in the signings, but yeah, has not really progressed past that. So, back to 2022. I I didn’t I didn’t mention it, but this pick this pick this pick they got by trading the 11th overall pick, which was Connor Geeky. So I I don’t really factor draft pick trades into into the trades that much because they’re kind of like magical beans. But yeah, Beaststead this year okay in the AHL for his draft year plus three. If he turns into a third line center, you take that every day of the week at this point, but nothing special. Cam Lund at the college level has been pretty good. Progressed pretty damn good from 23 to 30 to 40. Similarly to Beastad, if he ends up being a third liner, you take that. Havland on the other hand, Hav not quite progressing into anything, a defenseman in the second tier Swedish league. Won it alongside Victor Ecklund and Anton Fondell and Drew Gardens. But yeah, in his draft year plus three, not making an impact at the SHL, probably nothing in 2023 though, the first year that Greer had it. We of course start with Will Smith who wasn’t some kind of like bold pick by the San Jose Sharks at fourth overall and you could argue that they maybe should have went Matt Fay Mitchov instead. But yeah, this guy was pretty damn good in his rookie season after an amazing freshman season at Boston College. I think the stat is that he had like 28 points in his final 34 games or something this year. Well on his way to being a very very good first liner. Damn good pick at fourth overall. Uh Quinn and Musty we talked about with the team omire deal what he has done in the uh OHL the last three seasons has been extremely impressive almost two points per game dealt with an injury I believe he broke his wrist this season but the skill is definitely there to be a very good middles fixer for them Tuten probably mispronouncing that 41 points in 38 games 6’3 210 lbs maybe could be something in terms of a third liner this guy probably nothing. Center Boston University, nine points in 33 games. Kagnani looks like something pretty damn good though. 52 points, 64 games. He is a damn good offensive defenseman at 123rd. That’s awesome value. Pamp has been pretty good for the Denver U Denver. And this was even with uh Ze Boyam on that team. 35 points in 44 games. That looks like another really good and a right-handed defenseman with San Jose badly badly needs. So yeah, this 2023 draft is pretty damn good. 2024 Celibbriny. I’m not going to give them any points for drafting the consensus first overall pick. But uh yeah, still this guy is even in his rookie year exceeded expectations in my opinion and looks like a true future top five to seven player in the NHL. Sam Dickinson. We talked about how they got this pick a lot. Now let’s actually talk about Sam Dickinson. 91 points in 55 games this year for the absolutely loaded London Knights. Didn’t have the best World Juniors. Two points in five games and some costly turnovers. But yeah, 6’3, 210bs has all the makings of being very, very good top pair of defenseman. Chernov, my god, this guy killed it this season. 55 points in 23 games. Guess who he played with on the Sagenov Spirit? Mr. Michael Misa. So, they’re going to be the second lad of the future for the San Jose Sharks. He was good in the NHL as well. 28 points in 22 games in his draft year. Got some decent uh KHL burn. Chernave is going to be on my top 50 prospects. Leo Salin Wallinius, who I talked about before with the Walman trade. Again, 16 games in the SHL, five points. Lia, three points, seven games in his draft year plus one. Pretty encouraging for a late second round pick. Carson Wetch probably nothing given the lackluster progression from draft year plus one to draft year plus two. Let’s check out Let’s check out Yoruslav. I’m not even going to pronounce how to pronounce that name. Okay, I’m blocking it off right now, but in the MHL this season, he had a 936 in 27 games. Maybe could be something. Then let’s go to 2025. Mr. Michael Miso, one of the best drafts in the OHL of recent memory with 134 points. Some people had him as their number one prospect. You would have loved to get a defenseman in the 2025 draft, but Schaefer was the only the only clear number one uh defenseman versus Misa was so much better than the next defenseman. Joshua Ravensburgen didn’t have the I don’t know why it’s double repeating there, but uh I didn’t have the most impressive draft year, but still 6’5, widely viewed as a top eightish goalie prospect in hockey right now. It was a number one prospect. Hi Wang, I believe I’m pronouncing that correct. Not the best numbers at the O level this year, but has the physical tools at 6’6. 250 pounds to maybe be something. I don’t hate them just taking a swing on a guy like that, especially considering they’re already like loaded at left-handed defense. If he hits, if he hits, great. If not, whatever. You have a million second round picks. Cole McKenna, who we talked about before, above a point per game for the US National Team Development Program. Solid two-way guy. Teddy Murden. This was from the Cody CC deal. 30 points, 47 games. Probably nothing. Zack Sharp. I want to show this guy. This was kind of the shocking one. Nine points in 42 games as a 20-year-old. I’m sure he’s awesome defensively. Maybe he turns into an awesome defensive defenseman. And yeah, that is their overall drafting and developing in for this regard as well. I think I’m also going to go with an A. They’ve knocked out their top four picks of the rebuild in terms of Will Smith who’s looking like either the fourth or fifth best player right now. Probably fifth best player from that 2023 draft. Celebrini first overall, consensus first overall, but getting Sam Dickinson at 11th overall, having the balls to trade up. They traded up like a day or two before the draft. It wasn’t even like at 11th overall. They’re like, “We’d like Sam Dickinson.” Uh they they just thought, “Oh, maybe he’ll be available there. Took a risk. Looks like it’s working out.” It’s tough because a lot of these guys have not even made it to the NHL level. But still, Igor Chernesev, awesome value. Salinius, awesome value. Uh Ravensburg, best goalie in the draft at 30th. A lot of people thought that he was going to be going like 18th to 23rd. Kagnani looks awesome and the one guy that they inherited they’ve developed fantastically in William Ecklund. Uh considering the fact that he’s already almost a 60 point guy at 22 years old. So I think that their drafting and developing has been very good. Maybe that 2022 draft that’s why it’s definitely not an A+ just considering that. But even who they eventually traded, the pick that they traded, Connor Geek is not killing it by any stretch. So uh yeah, the 2022 draft just overall wasn’t that good. I think I’m going to go with an A for the San Jose Sharks drafting and developing. Now we got to signings and extensions. And I’m going be honest, there’s not a lot to talk about with the San Jose Sharks the last three years in this regard. Up first, Mario Ferraro, a four-year deal at $3.25 million. He had been pretty solid alongside Brett Burns in that 2022 season, playing 23 minutes a night. And since then, he has played really tough minutes in a decent amount of minutes. He’s probably been worth $3.25 million, but going forward, I think Dickinson and Kagnani are going to pass him relatively soon. So, this deal was fine. Uh maybe they end up trading him at next year’s deadline and getting some value for him. It’s like a perfectly okay deal for a guy who had not really proven it and has not really developed that much offensively through the deal. On July 1st, 2023, after acquiring Mackenzie Blackwood, they signed him to a 2-year deal at 2.375 million. And this was a pretty damn good contract. Uh he had been struggling, but they bet on him that first season, $8.99 save percentage on a bad bad team. And then the following year killed it. and as a result they were able to trade him in part because the salary cap hit was so low they were able to get a decent offer for him. Fast forward to April 2024 and they were able to land arguably the top college free agent that cycle as Colin Graph signs with the San Jose Sharks who was amazing at Quinnipic the two prior years won a national championship and this year in his first full season of pro hockey had 35 points in 40 games in the AHL as well as 11 and 33. So just awesome to be able to convince him to come play for the San Jose Sharks, believe in this young core, and pick him up for absolutely nothing. On July 1st of that year, they decided they need to start bringing in some talent considering they just drafted Minella, Breeny, Will Smith, who’s going to be making his debut, and they signed Tyler to Fully to a four-year deal at $6 million. To Fully the prior four seasons, had put up 33 goal, 63 point pace, just a very effective scoring second liner. And he comes in for the San Jose Sharks in his first year as 30 goals, 54 points. was a great role model as well as just linemate with guys like Celabbrini, Ecklund, and Smith. It might be a bad deal come like the final year of this when they’re trying to compete for the playoffs, but for the next two, probably three years, it’s a pretty damn good deal. They also brought in Alex Wenberg on a two-year deal at $5 million to be that third line center and teach guys like Celibbrini and Will Smith the defensive side of the game because Wenberg has been one of the best defensive centers. Uh recently, he had 35 points in 77 games, playing almost 19 minutes a night. And again, he’s out of here probably after next season or he’ll resign for like a year or two at $2 to3 million. Solid just veteran presence. It’s a little bit of an overpayment, but again, they have all the salary cap in the world. They just need to get to the cap floor. After trading for Yarlav, Ascarov, they signed him to a two-year deal at $2 million. Again, he hadn’t proved enough to really like bet on him long term. Two years, $2 million, go for it. Fast forward a year to July 1st to 2025 and the first core piece, first young core piece gets a contract extension with William Ecklund getting three years, $5.6 million. And I it’s understandable if this was just the agent in Ekan wanting some guaranteed money now, lock up $16 million, basically be set for the rest of his life and saying like we’re going to bet on ourselves in two to three years once we really break out then we can demand some kind of 8year 1 million contract and the salary cap continues to rise. It’s fine if it was just the agent saying that we’re not signing for more than five years. If that wasn’t the case, then I’m very skeptical on this. I’m a big believer of once your young guys show some promise, pay him a bag, the salary cap’s going to rise. We saw it in other rebuild reviews like Sanderson and Stutsla who weren’t fully proven commodities, but they bet on them and it really worked out. So, I tend to believe that it was more so the agent not wanting to go long-term. But still, this this deal is going to be amazing value. Ekan’s already a $5.6 million player. It’s just the definitely the first year of this, maybe even the second year, I don’t think San Jose is gonna be that relevant of a team. Yes, that final year they should be entering their contention, but you would have wanted a lot more term on this contract. It’s good contract, but you wanted more. Also, that off season, they signed Adam Goddet to a two-year deal at $3 million, who shot 21% this year and had 19 goals. Not sure how sustainable that is, but he should be like an effective bottom sixer for them. And again, it’s only two years. And then at that point they were still not at the cap floor. So they had to give John Clingberg one year at $4 million. Orlov two years at 6.25 and Skinner one year at 3 mil. Again the these do kind of stink that Clingberg and Orv one. Skinner maybe can bounce back and be worth it. But it’s shortterm to get to the cat floor. They could always just deal them at the deadline. I think Skinner maybe could fetch you a third round pick next season. So yeah, this doesn’t actually impact the long-term future of this rebuild. Just got to get to the cap floor. So overall for these signings, I think I’m just going to go with like a B. He definitely just overpaid some guys to kind of bring in veterans on a short-term basis. No like objectively massive steals of a deal when looking at Eklund. If he signed Ecklland to an eight-year deal at $8 million, then this grade would probably be like an A minus A because he’s the only real guy of note that they’ve had to give a contract to, or at least they didn’t really have to give him a contract on July 1st, but still gave a contract. So I think a B is fair. Again, when you apply the context to some of these deals that they needed to get to the cap floor, it’s just okay. But it definitely, especially with Eklland, you wanted a little bit more. Now, it’s time for us to do the results. And I feel like I I kind of can’t give a grade for the San Jose Sharks results considering it’s been their goal to absolutely suck basically the last three years. In the summer of 2022, they trade Brett Burns. They trade team Omire during the 2023 season, and they’re a 60point team by design. The following year, they trade Eric Carlson. That offseason, they go down to 47. But that’s intentional. It gets them back and celebrate team. So I think we can kind of just throw out the actual on ice results. All that matter in terms of like wins and losses. All that matters is that William Ecklund has progressed very well his first two years. Will Smith had a great rookie year. Cellrini had a great rookie year. So that’s all I really care about at the on ice stuff. basically like 80% of this team is not going to be there in four to five years when they’re actually contending at a high level. So I I it’s just a non not applicable it’s just a not applicable grade. I hate to say it this year they need to take a sizable step. If we were doing this video this time next year and they’re still a 50 point team and still kind of suck then yeah I’d probably give them like a a C for the on ice results. They need to take a step this year but for the last three years they have been subtracting from this team in terms of actual veterans and good players. But now a lot of the young core pieces are at the NHL level where they need to take a sizable step to 65 to 70 points and they might still be the worst team in the NHL at those numbers. But yeah, this this is the first season where there’s actually expectations to improve significantly. So for the on ice results, I feel like we just you can’t really apply that to a rebuild because it’s just coming out. It’s been going down. I guess you could say 2024 was the bottom, but even 2025 they were expected to be the worst team in the NHL. Where does this leave us for the San Jose Sharks rebuild? I think an Agrade is about fair, especially considering with signings extensions, they don’t have the same impact. Like they’re a bunch of just getting to the cap floor or the Eklund deal. I don’t weigh that as much as the drafting and developing as the trades. Considering this has been a pretty deep rebuild that still is multiple years away based on the stage that they’re at, there’s not much else better that they could have done. I guess they could have won the draft lottery in 2023 as well, but yeah, they they’ve been awesome and there hasn’t been any expectations in terms of them being an actual good team in terms of wins and losses. Their young guys have progressed well. They have that franchise true superstar. It appeals it appears in Melbourne. They have Will Smith who looks like an elite first liner. Eklland Dawson looks like an elite first liner. They got another potential superstar in Michael Misa. Guess maybe the one thing holding this rebuild back is they don’t have a bonafide young proven NHL defenseman, but again, I still think Sam Dickinson is like a top five defenseman prospect and could end up being a very, very good defenseman in the NHL. Top 20 to 25 guy. Uh goalending looks like they’re covered. Again, they’re not proven at the NHL level, but they’re still so early in the rebuild with Ascarov, with Ravensburg. Looks like goenders figured out they’re just in a really good spot. In terms of salary cap, they have no bad deals on the books. Uh, in fact, Tofole and Ekkund are the only guys that have a contract in the 2027 and 2028 season. So, they’re just in a very good spot. They they have the number one prospect pool in the NHL. They have three proven young NHL forwards. And next year, although again, they should take a sizable step. They’re probably going to get another top five pick. They have not rushed it like we’ve seen maybe with some other rebuilds. Maybe next I think next off season is when they really start going for it, but they didn’t this year. And I think smartly so, especially with a player like Gavin McKenna available at first. Overall, they’re just in an awesome spot, man. They’ve made some really good trades utilizing their cap space. And as a result, they’re in arguably the best them and the Montreal Canadians probably had the best 15-year outlook in the NHL in my opinion. It has just been a really, really impressive uh rebuild right now. And again, a lot of that has to do with getting that first overall pick in 2025. Even if they had Demod compared to Celebrity, I think Demod is also awesome. they would not be in as good of a spot, especially if they had like if they selected like Leanoff or something like that. Not to on him, but the ping pong balls did fall in their order. But yeah, they’re just in an amazing spot and as a result, they get an A. But yeah, let me know in the comments what do you think about the San Jose Sharks. Do you think this grade is fine? We now have the San Jose Sharks at an A. We have the Senators in the Wings at a B minus and then we have the Buffalo Sabres all the way down at a D+. Let me know in the comments what team do you want to see next week. I think I’m probably going to stay in the Western Conference, whether that’s Utah Mammoth or the Anaheim Ducks or the Chicago Blackhawks. I’ll be seeing you in the next one.

We are back with another rebuild review and heading to San Jose for the Sharks!