{"id":559848,"date":"2026-04-26T08:33:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T08:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/559848\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T08:33:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T08:33:20","slug":"former-sharks-forward-could-be-on-the-move-in-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/559848\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Sharks Forward Could Be on the Move in Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former San Jose Sharks forward Kevin Labanc could be on the move once again following his rookie season in the Russian Kontinental Hockey League with the Shanghai Dragons.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"caas-show-transcript\">View More<\/p>\n<p>Video Transcript<\/p>\n<p>Mike, looking at the teams that didn&#8217;t make the playoffs this year, who do you think is gonna be the most likely to bounce back and find their way into the mix next year, and why?<\/p>\n<p>Mike, looking at the teams that didn&#8217;t make the playoffs this year, who do you think is gonna be the most likely to bounce back and find their way into the mix next year, and why?<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll give you one for each conference, and to me this is low-hanging fruit, but as a friend has said, &#8220;Low-hanging fruit is still nutritious.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll give you one for each conference, and to me this is low-hanging fruit, but as a friend has said, &#8220;Low-hanging fruit is still nutritious.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>in the East, it&#8217;s the Florida Panthers.<\/p>\n<p>in the East, it&#8217;s the Florida Panthers.<\/p>\n<p>I think they&#8217;ll get Barkov back.<\/p>\n<p>I think they&#8217;ll get Barkov back.<\/p>\n<p>I think they&#8217;ll end up re-signing Bobrovsky.<\/p>\n<p>I think they&#8217;ll end up re-signing Bobrovsky.<\/p>\n<p>A lot of the injuries that have been incurred over the year, I think they&#8217;ll get them back.<\/p>\n<p>A lot of the injuries that have been incurred over the year, I think they&#8217;ll get them back.<\/p>\n<p>And I believe they c- are now able to keep their first-round pick from, the, the Spencer Knight deal, because they&#8217;re gonna be in the top 10.<\/p>\n<p>And I believe they c- are now able to keep their first-round pick from, the, the Spencer Knight deal, because they&#8217;re gonna be in the top 10.<\/p>\n<p>And if they do that, then they&#8217;ll get a, a good young player.<\/p>\n<p>And if they do that, then they&#8217;ll get a, a good young player.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe that player won&#8217;t make the NHL this year, but the, it&#8217;s a, a prospect that they haven&#8217;t had in a while.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe that player won&#8217;t make the NHL this year, but the, it&#8217;s a, a prospect that they haven&#8217;t had in a while.<\/p>\n<p>in the West, it&#8217;s the former President&#8217;s Trophy-winning Winnipeg Jets.<\/p>\n<p>in the West, it&#8217;s the former President&#8217;s Trophy-winning Winnipeg Jets.<\/p>\n<p>They had a bad year.<\/p>\n<p>They had a bad year.<\/p>\n<p>It got started off badly.<\/p>\n<p>It got started off badly.<\/p>\n<p>They never really recovered.<\/p>\n<p>They never really recovered.<\/p>\n<p>They played pretty good down the stretch.<\/p>\n<p>They played pretty good down the stretch.<\/p>\n<p>you&#8217;ve got Hellebuych, who&#8217;s the best, one of the best goaltenders in the league, and some really good players up front.<\/p>\n<p>you&#8217;ve got Hellebuych, who&#8217;s the best, one of the best goaltenders in the league, and some really good players up front.<\/p>\n<p>They had injuries on defense.<\/p>\n<p>They had injuries on defense.<\/p>\n<p>I think they&#8217;ll bounce back, and they&#8217;ll be in the mix for the playoffs next year.<\/p>\n<p>I think they&#8217;ll bounce back, and they&#8217;ll be in the mix for the playoffs next year.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, low-hanging fruit is right, I think, for both of those.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, low-hanging fruit is right, I think, for both of those.<\/p>\n<p>definitely down years for two of the best teams in the league last year, and obviously the reigning Stanley Cup champions in Florida.<\/p>\n<p>definitely down years for two of the best teams in the league last year, and obviously the reigning Stanley Cup champions in Florida.<\/p>\n<p>Corinne, do you have any picks for which non-playoff teams this year are gonna be the most likely to find their way back into the mix next year?<\/p>\n<p>Corinne, do you have any picks for which non-playoff teams this year are gonna be the most likely to find their way back into the mix next year?<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m gonna reach a bit higher in the tree, and I&#8217;m going to go for not a team that&#8217;s necessarily going to bounce back, but one that&#8217;s gonna keep on growing the right way.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m gonna reach a bit higher in the tree, and I&#8217;m going to go for not a team that&#8217;s necessarily going to bounce back, but one that&#8217;s gonna keep on growing the right way.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t think anyone could bet against, the Baby Sharks carrying on and growing up nicely with, Macklin Celebrini.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t think anyone could bet against, the Baby Sharks carrying on and growing up nicely with, Macklin Celebrini.<\/p>\n<p>I think he&#8217;s quite the leader, and, you know, the way they&#8217;ve been playing, I, I think they could quite possibly be in next season.<\/p>\n<p>I think he&#8217;s quite the leader, and, you know, the way they&#8217;ve been playing, I, I think they could quite possibly be in next season.<\/p>\n<p>And in the East, I think I would go perhaps with the Columbus Blue Jackets.<\/p>\n<p>And in the East, I think I would go perhaps with the Columbus Blue Jackets.<\/p>\n<p>They&#8217;ve only missed, you know, just missed for two years in a row.<\/p>\n<p>They&#8217;ve only missed, you know, just missed for two years in a row.<\/p>\n<p>And if Rick Bowness is brought back, I kind of get a sense that, you know, he might whip them back into shape.<\/p>\n<p>And if Rick Bowness is brought back, I kind of get a sense that, you know, he might whip them back into shape.<\/p>\n<p>But, yeah.<\/p>\n<p>But, yeah.<\/p>\n<p class=\"caas-hide-transcript\">Close<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former San Jose Sharks forward Kevin Labanc could be on the move once again following his rookie season&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5127],"tags":[5,7003,4,28664,519,168,5306,5305,26682,1780],"class_list":{"0":"post-559848","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose-sharks","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-kevin-labanc","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-rookie-season","12":"tag-san-jose","13":"tag-san-jose-sharks","14":"tag-sanjose","15":"tag-sanjosesharks","16":"tag-shanghai-dragons","17":"tag-sharks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116470087924622978","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}