San Jose Sharks Draft Michael Misa and Joshua Ravensbergen in First Round of the 2025 NHL Draft

San Jose Sharks Draft Michael Misa and Joshua Ravensbergen in First Round of the 2025 NHL Draft

class is now in session I’m Professor Hockey and today I’ll be discussing the first round of the 2025 NHL entry draft for the San Jose Sharks For the third straight year the Sharks had two picks in the first round The first of which being their own the second overall selection which they earned when they lost out actually on both draft lotteryies One to the New York Islanders who would leaprog them and grab the first overall pick which they would use on Matthew Schaefer but another to the Utah Mammoth Thankfully however for the Sharks the Mammoth were 14th in the draft rankings and you can only move up a maximum of 10 spots So Utah would end up picking fourth overall and the Sharks would retain the second overall selection by default This was the benefit of finishing dead last in the standings the previous season On top of this the Sharks also had the 30th overall pick acquired from the Dallas Stars in the Male Granland trade this past season So a pick early on in the first round and another one late in the first round We’ll start off with that second overall selection Back at the time when the Sharks got it at the lottery it seemed very obvious who San Jose would end up drafting it was basically going to be Matthew Schaefer if the Islanders went with a forward at number one or they’d pick up the best forward available which at the time the consensus was quite clearly Michael Misa And indeed in the weeks postdraft lottery it still continued to be pretty obvious that the Sharks would try to take Misa There were the small possibilities of like a trade occurring or maybe they’d go completely off the board and grab Porter Martone But these were also very low percentage chances It felt as though Michael Miso was the Sharks player That was until the few days leading up to the draft just recently a rumor began to pop up that instead at number two the Sharks were looking to take Anton Fondell And if this was just a completely unsubstantiated rumor I really wouldn’t have paid it much attention However it began to get picked up by a lot of bigname insiders and public scouts to the point where in some of the mock drafts right before the draft occurred many people did indeed have Anton Fondell going at number two to San Jose which was in stark contrast to the previous season where there was absolutely no drama no hesitation Even Mike Greer himself was very open about the fact that the Sharks were going to be taking Mlin CBrini at number one This time around there were some very real nerves about who the Sharks would end up selecting with that second pick And it was further exacerbated by the fact that the NHL decided to go for a decentralized draft this season None of the executives or general managers were in attendance And it was supposed to create like this smoother draft that would move along much faster but instead it went the exact opposite direction with it This was one of the longest first rounds we have had in a while And one of the first big pauses was after the Islanders picked Matthew Schaefer at number one There were multiple minutes before finally the Shark selection was announced But indeed after many nerve-wracking moments they decide to go with who many people thought would be the obvious choice for so so long Michael Misa at number two And this was just an absolute home run slam dunk whatever sport analogy you would want to use Michael Misa indeed was the best forward in the draft just absurd numbers put up in the OHL this season Over two points per game over 60 goals being scored He has success in every possible area He’s a great goal scorer He’s a great playmaker He moves across the ice exceptionally well Great skater Can take faceoffs He plays the penalty kill He plays the power play He can drive plays He can drive the middle of the ice He can be that two-way guy as well basically a lot of the qualities that Mlin Cabrini has as well just maybe at a bit of a lower type of level But Michael Misa was viewed as just such an easy selection because he perhaps has the highest floor out of any player in this year’s draft Maybe there’s a chance he doesn’t become the next superstar in the NHL but you’re likely getting at the very least a very good NHL player And this further adds to an already extremely deep forward prospect pool that the Sharks have It’s not an optimal situation which is why the Sharks were likely would have taken Matthew Schaefer if they had the number one overall pick but you got to go with best player available And indeed Michael Misa seemed to be that guy Now the Sharks they’ve got before Celibbrin and Will Smith as their one-two punch at center Now Michael Misa is added to that Obviously you’re not going to have any of these three players play the third line center position So one of them will have to flex to the wing that seems most likely to end up being Will Smith simply because he played the wing the majority of this past season But of course you never know you But at the end of the day you can never have too many centers It is a premium position in the NHL Some of the best teams in the league have exceptionally good center depth Just take a look at the Florida Panthers who won the Stanley Cup in each of these past couple of seasons They have one of the best number one centers in the league at Alexander Barov Great two-way player an elite second line center as well at least in the playoffs when it comes to Sam Bennett and one of the best third line centers as well when it comes to Anton Lundell The Sharks as I said probably not any of those players are going to end up playing 3C but they can kind of mirror that aspect that the Panthers have managed to dominate teams thanks to that type of depth that they have So a great pick at number two There were definitely some hesitations here but it’s nice to see that the Sharks go with that consensus choice Then we had a significant gap before the Sharks would end up picking again at 30 Like I said this was not a smooth draft at all Many hours ended up passing between the first and the second pick that the Sharks would make But what was interesting actually was that there was a small story line that began to develop in these middle picks which is that Victor Ecklund was of course on the board here and there is a connection there to the San Jose Sharks because the Sharks have his brother his older brother William Ecklund who they took at seventh overall back in 2021 And there was always that kind of pipe dream here that the Sharks would be able to grab his brother and and try to reunite that type of duo However it seemed as though at the time that Victor Ecklund might be like a top 10 selection and it is not easy especially in this draft to be able to trade into that top 10 But was actually falling down the draft board He was available at 11 He was available at 12 And in particular when it comes to that 12th overall pick there was actually a trade announced And I even had for a second thinking that perhaps the Sharks had traded up for that 12th pick to grab Victor Ecklan It didn’t end up being the case I believe it was the Philadelphia Flyers who went in that direction instead but Ekkan would go all the way down to 16th before being drafted by the Islanders But every single moment it felt as though perhaps the Sharks could trade up It would have been very cool very fun to see that actually happen But I definitely don’t really blame Mike Greer for not pulling the trigger As I already mentioned earlier on the Sharks had great forward depth before adding Misa and now with him there it is just probably the best forward prospect group in the entire NHL by a decent margin You don’t also now have to add Victor Ecklan to it Instead the Sharks trying to focus in other areas that they could improve in So they hold on to all of their draft capital all of their players No trade ends up getting made And that brings us to that 30th overall selection At the time here I had predicted that the Sharks would try to pick up a right-handed defenseman or perhaps even a couple of right-handed defenseman because this is the biggest need that the Sharks have in their prospect pool And interestingly enough at number 30 there was one still on the board Henry Brusvich This was a player who I expected to be there But another who was also still on the board was actually Blake Fiddler I thought he’d probably end up going in the mid to high 20s that there would be no chance that the Sharks could pick him up at that 30th overall pick but he was still there And so the Sharks seemed to have a choice between two solid right-handed defenseman but did not pick either of them Instead they surprised everybody by grabbing a goalender Joshua Ravensburgen ended up being the selection for themselves And this was seemingly quite crazy because the Sharks you know they don’t really need forwards but you can never have too many But they definitely didn’t really seem to need a goalender because right now leaning the way within the Sharks prospect pool is of course Yaroslav Ascarov who’s only 23 years of age It seems as though he is the future starter for this franchise for many many years at this point And so adding another young goalender to the prospect pool it didn’t necessarily like fit in exceptionally well But I imagine the idea here from Mike Greer is to have simply drafted best player available This is not a goalender who was just viewed as like a third round pick that the Sharks have reached incredibly deeply to try and pick up This was a player who many people believe to be perhaps the best goalender in the draft Definitely a first round selection and perhaps could have gone much earlier on in the early 20s maybe even the late teens So it is a possibility here that Mike Greer had Ravensburgen very high up on his draft list and felt the need to pick him up at the 30th overall pick Just because you try to pick up the most amount of talent Just because you draft a player doesn’t mean they need to stick around and remain with your team for the next 20 years There is always the possibility of a trade occurring Just look at what the National Predators did with Yaros Lab Ascro They took him even though they had Jussi Saros as clearly their future starter And indeed that’s exactly what happened So they traded away Ascrov and they got for themselves a firstround pick and a former for first round pick as well That is some pretty good value So if the Sharks have a ton of faith in Ravensburg to become a great goalender and solid goalending prospect right now This is always a player who the Sharks could look to move out within the next couple of years to bring in some maybe NHL ready talent or some futures or whatever the case may be So I don’t necessarily blame Mike Greer for going for this player if he truly believed he was that best player on the board still On top of that the Sharks also still had the 33rd overall pick the first pick of the second round And as I mentioned both Brevich and Fiddler were still on the board One of these two right-handed defensemen Technically both of them could have gotten picked before the Sharks had the chance at number 33 if the Kings at 31 took one and then the Calgary Flames at 32 took the other But while Brevich did end up getting drafted by the Kings with that 30th 31st overall selection it was Fiddler who got passed on in the first round here and surprisingly is still available in the second round which makes me believe this is a pretty no-brainer selection for the Sharks Last year they were able to get Igor Chernishov with their early second round pick which seemed like a huge steal because he was projected to go mid first round And it seems as though history is playing itself out yet again with another mid to sort of early 20s first round pick still being available at number 33 that the Sharks could be able to grab Now of course Mike Greer could surprise us yet again by going in a completely different direction but considering just how desperately the Sharks do need some right-handed defenseman help I cannot possibly imagine them yet again passing on this type of player So I would imagine Fiddler ends up being that selection We’ll see what ends up happening tomorrow But when it comes to their first round picks obviously Michael Miso was the obvious choice that we kind of strayed away from a little bit in the days leading up to it but nice to see it indeed end up happening he’s going to be fantastic for the San Jose Sharks And then Joshua Ravensburgen as well more of a project player being a goalender who usually takes longer to develop but if there’s a lot of faith in him to become something here in the NHL whether that ends up being with the Sharks or a completely different team that the Sharks could potentially trade him to it looks like there is a lot of value there I would say the what the thing that I should finish on here is whether or not Michael Misa when it goes back to that second overall pick could end up being a player playing with the Sharks as soon as next season cuz I mentioned he perhaps has the highest floor out of any player drafted this season I would also say he probably has the highest odds of actually making it to the NHL which is strange because usually you would expect the first overall pick to have the highest odds but Matthew Schaeer’s in this weird situation where he didn’t really play a lot of games this past season He is also a defenseman which take a little bit longer to develop and he’s also one of the youngest players of this draft So it seems very possible that he ends up heading back to juniors next year On the other hand here when it comes to Michael Misa because he is rather developed as I mentioned kind of like a Mlin CBrini type player There’s a chance he could make it to the NHL this next season However it is a bit of a complicated situation Michael Misa did play in the OHL this past season but the rumors are that he would be looking to play in college going into next year in the NCAA and the rules about playing in college hockey is you cannot have a professional contract And to play in let’s say preseason games and to get like your nineame stretch before your entry- level contract would cost a year you actually have to have an NHL contract So if Misa signs a deal he can’t go play in college and if he doesn’t sign a deal he maybe isn’t going to get as much of a look as he would have liked So it’s kind of a a strange situation going into these next couple of months We’ll at the very least have development cap uh camp which we expect Michael Misa to be a full participant in and that could give us a good glimpse of whether or not he is fully ready to make that jump to the NHL Not a great glimpse because development camp isn’t really high stakes but we we’ll see what ends up happening I would hope and maybe even suspect that he can make that jump to the NHL but as we know Mike Greer is rather patient when it comes to his prospects So I also wouldn’t be that surprised if he does take a year to cook maybe a bit in college with I believe it is Boston University or Boston College one of those two that he was theorized to end up joining And we’ll see him maybe as soon as next year Class dismissed

Discussing the recently concluded first round of the 2025 NHL entry draft, which saw the San Jose Sharks draft forward Michael Misa and goaltender Joshua Ravensbergen.