Speculation: 2023-24-25 Sharks Roster Discussion

Gecklund

Registered User
Jul 17, 2012
26,056
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California
Can't be that hard to find someone better than Thrun and Benning.
neither of them are that bad. Eh actually Benning I don’t know maybe. Thrun has shown potential but Benning has been terrible to start the year. The injury definitely affected him. I’d waive him for Shakir when he’s healthy.
 
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Juxtaposer

Outro: Divina Comedia
Dec 21, 2009
49,760
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Bay Area
neither of them are that bad. Eh actually Benning I don’t know maybe. Thrun has shown potential but Benning has been terrible to start the year. The injury definitely affected him. I’d waive him for Shakir when he’s healthy.
Benning is that bad. But I don't want to give up on Thrun before seeing him on a half-way decent team with a half-way decent partner.
 

Jargon

Registered User
Apr 12, 2011
6,247
11,140
Venice, California
Thrun looked pretty good in the first couple of games and had two pretty rough ones but yeah, I’d love to see him with Muhk or like, anyone other than Benning.

It’s really annoying that both years injuries to key guys stopped us from seeing what the full lineup might be like. I really hope we get Shakir and Celebrini (and Eklund obviously) back soon, it would make a world of difference.
 
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timorous me

Gristled Veteran
Apr 14, 2010
2,234
3,693
Thrun looked pretty good in the first couple of games and had two pretty rough ones but yeah, I’d love to see him with Muhk or like, anyone other than Benning.

It’s really annoying that both years injuries to key guys stopped us from seeing what the full lineup might be like. I really hope we get Shakir and Celebrini (and Eklund obviously) back soon, it would make a world of difference.
Thrun has certainly been struggling, which is frustrating, but you also see the glimmers of potential there: some good skating, the kind of tape-to-tape passes you see so rarely from other Sharks D, the pleasantly surprising offensive instincts on occasion when he's on the PP.

Benning's mobility has looked frustratingly poor (he is coming off of hip surgery) and I think Thrun has felt the urge to try to do too much, which leads to him ending up out of position and getting burned. He's got to improve his own reads, but at the same time it has to be challenging for him to play with Benning right now.

One thing about Warsofsky so far--with the caveat that he doesn't have a lot to work with--is that I'm not convinced by the way he's gone about putting some of his lines and D pairs together. For instance, Ferraro and Rutta together means you're going to have a horrible time ever exiting the zone cleanly. Splitting up Ceci and Walman would be tough to do but it might at least allow the maximization of the limited skills that this group of defensemen do possess.
 
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OrrNumber4

Registered User
Jul 25, 2002
16,572
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Last season, Thrun struggled to make plays with little time and space. His physical tools are unremarkable, and he doesn't have great vision.

I'd hoped to see some progression and improvement on this areas, but so far there's been nothing. I still think Thrun could carve out a career as a bottom-pairing guy, but he needs to improve considerably or make big changes to his game to go to the next step.
 
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Cas

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Jun 23, 2020
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Last season, Thrun struggled to make plays with little time and space. His physical tools are unremarkable, and he doesn't have great vision.

I'd hoped to see some progression and improvement on this areas, but so far there's been nothing. I still think Thrun could carve out a career as a bottom-pairing guy, but he needs to improve considerably or make big changes to his game to go to the next step.
This is exactly what I saw from Thrun last year - he just doesn't have a single plus skill, and you need something to succeed as anything save replacement-level filler. I think Thrun tops out as a #6, but more realistically as a #7 or AHL depth.

Benning was already extremely immobile before last year, so anytime he faced any real pressure, he collapsed because he just can't keep up with his opposition. Reducing his already-insufficient mobility means he's unplayably bad (which frankly is what I thought before the injury). I'd bench him in favor of Thompson (less because of any real hope in Thompson and more because we might as well give the guy who might have a future a shot, as opposed to the guy who is already done) and waive him as soon as Mukhammadullin comes back (or Vlasic, I guess - I'd happily waive Vlasic too, but that's not going to happen).
 
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weastern bias

worst team in the league
Feb 3, 2012
11,347
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SJ
I’ve been very unimpressed by Walman. If Thrun can find any sort of offensive game I’d take him over Walman
Walman is the best puck moving defenseman we've had in two years, he's also surprisingly adequate in an overmateched role while being deployed as our #1 shutdown D and paired with Cody Ceci when he shouldn't be any higher than a second pair

Henry Thrun is not an NHL player, that offensive game you're waiting for isn't coming, he's on the bottom pair in San Jose behind Mario Ferraro and Jan Rutta, he has no future

Thrun's greatest skill is that he isn't obviously terrible at anything, unfortunately he also doesn't bring any single ability at an actual NHL level, he's a nothing player
 

coooldude

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Jul 25, 2007
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How anyone can be unimpressed with Walman this year, I have no idea. He's been far and away our best defenseman pretty much every game. Ceci has been more variable, but definitely okay to sometimes good.

Thrun looks like a 2024 Douglas Murray out there... He's not as big and slightly faster, he's physical in the corners and behind the net, he can make a pass here and there, but he hasn't developed any spikes (Douglas at least had the hits). However he's still young and could be a playable 5/6.

I agree Benning has looked bad. The Ferraro/Rutta pair also looks terrible and seems to be unable to do much more than get hemmed in their zone for 2 minutes with repeated icings.

None of this is surprising and the only help on the way is Mukh, who we all have hopes for but is unproven.
 

GRANdSharks

Registered User
Mar 14, 2018
104
151
Walman has been great imo, he is an actual top 4 caliber player that we have sorely lacked the last couple of years. Should he be playing 25 mins? No but he has been capable of eating them from guys who are much worse.

Thrun just isn't it not much going for him in terms of upside and looks really green. He is most likely just a depth guy on a good team. Unfortunately we lack NHL caliber depth rn so not much better options are defense development is way behind our forward development which may slow the process down a bit unless we're extremely lucky.
 

TheBeard

He fixes the cable?
Jul 12, 2019
17,601
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I'm expect Grier at the deadline to prioritize bringing in D-prospects and older players on bloated contracts over getting more draft picks.
 
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