{"id":615070,"date":"2026-07-05T05:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T05:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/615070\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T05:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T05:30:10","slug":"gustafson-shares-thrill-from-1st-hometown-goal-what-he-wants-to-add-to-his-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/615070\/","title":{"rendered":"Gustafson\u00a0Shares Thrill From\u00a01st\u00a0Hometown Goal,\u00a0What He Wants\u00a0To\u00a0Add to His Game\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When Jake Gustafson was a kid, Danny Miller\u2019s\u00a0goal\u00a0announcements\u00a0were\u00a0the accompanying soundtrack\u00a0for every\u00a0San Jose Sharks\u00a0home goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now,\u00a0he\u00a0has\u00a0a goal\u00a0of his own,\u00a0announced by the iconic SAP Center public address announcer, at the Sharks Prospect Scrimmage\u00a0on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0a\u00a0pretty\u00a0cool moment, pretty cool to hear it,\u201d\u00a0the 2026 San Jose Sharks\u2019 sixth-round pick\u00a0said. \u201cI\u2019ve\u00a0heard it so many times, and then\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0hearing it for me. It was\u00a0really cool.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gustafson, a San Jose native and son of\u00a0SAP Center vice president Jon Gustafson, scored the opening goal of the Prospects\u00a0Scrimmage.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Of course! <\/p>\n<p>San Jose native Jake Gustafson gets the scoring started at <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/SJSharks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">#SJSharks<\/a> Prospects Scrimmage. Gotta be a thrill to hear his name announced by Danny Miller too.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m sure <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SHARKSICEGM?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">@SHARKSICEGM<\/a> is watching proudly somewhere in Tech CU Arena! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/XDhCNROBkI\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/XDhCNROBkI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Sheng_Peng\/status\/2072745195779797234?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">July 2, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">San Jose Barracuda coach John McCarthy said it was\u00a0pretty cool\u00a0to see a former Jr. Shark get the first goal of the day.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou can tell\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0smart,\u00a0you\u00a0can tell he takes coaching, applies it right away,\u201d McCarthy said\u00a0of the 6-foot-4 center,\u00a0who\u2019s\u00a0headed back to the Portland Winterhawks next year. \u201cHe\u2019s been good. For him to score,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0cool,\u00a0his family gets to watch it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gustafson spoke about\u00a0his Santana Row\u00a0expertise, Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau, and his dad\u2019s advice.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the advice his dad has given him\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just\u00a0play,\u00a0have fun.\u00a0Game\u2019s\u00a0supposed to be fun. If\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0not fun, stop playing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On what it has been like getting to know the other\u00a0San Jose Sharks\u00a0prospects\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Super cool. We got a bunch of great guys, all our\u00a0first-rounders,\u00a0all of\u00a0our picks this year, picks in the previous years, all bunch of great guys, and\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a\u00a0really good\u00a0core group here.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On scouts complimenting his defensive game and wanting to improve his offensive game\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m\u00a0a forward, I love to score goals,\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0what\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0supposed to do.\u00a0So\u00a0I take pride in my defensive game, but next year\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0going to hopefully\u00a0ramp\u00a0up on\u00a0the\u00a0offensive\u00a0side as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On what it was like to\u00a0hear\u00a0his hometown team\u00a0San Jose Sharks\u00a0had drafted him\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was really cool.\u00a0When I got the call, I\u00a0kind of blacked\u00a0out a little bit, and\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0coming back to me now, which is good. It was\u00a0probably the\u00a0coolest moment of my life, getting\u00a0the\u00a0call from Mike\u00a0[Grier], and\u00a0being a part of the organization\u00a0I grew up loving is just\u00a0a\u00a0dream\u00a0come true.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On his favorite local spots\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since Eataly came in, I love Eataly.\u00a0Pizza Antica is really good.\u00a0Din Tai Fung in the mall is really good.\u00a0Those are my three tops\u00a0at\u00a0the mall in the\u00a0Santana\u00a0Row area.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On\u00a0fellow Sharks\u00a0prospect\u00a0Colton Roberts who plays for Colorado College, where Gustafson is committed\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Me and him had a couple chats, I got to know him really well this week, and he\u2019s a really good guy, and hopefully will be playing with him soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On skating with Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau at Development Camp\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dream\u00a0come\u00a0true. Those two are my idols. I grew up loving them, watching them, modeling my game after them.\u00a0So\u00a0it\u2019s really just\u00a0a dream\u00a0come true.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>                                                    <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Jake Gustafson was a kid, Danny Miller\u2019s\u00a0goal\u00a0announcements\u00a0were\u00a0the accompanying soundtrack\u00a0for every\u00a0San Jose Sharks\u00a0home goal.\u00a0 Now,\u00a0he\u00a0has\u00a0a goal\u00a0of his own,\u00a0announced&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5127],"tags":[14472,2239,67837,17219,5,67419,1781,165,67420,4,1696,1836,519,168,5306,5305,67838,1780],"class_list":["post-615070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose-sharks","tag-colorado-college","tag-colton-roberts","tag-danny-miller","tag-development-camp","tag-hockey","tag-jake-gustafson","tag-joe-thornton","tag-john-mccarthy","tag-jon-gustafson","tag-nhl","tag-patrick-marleau","tag-portland-winterhawks","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-sanjose","tag-sanjosesharks","tag-santana-row","tag-sharks"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116865730065841158","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615070","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=615070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}