Speculation: 2023-24-25 Sharks Roster Discussion

[Gecklund]

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

Thrun hasn’t even played 60 NHL games and we are already writing him off?

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.

Cause he has very very slow decision making and it takes him 30 seconds to get the play from behind the net out of his zone. Basically I’m not impressed by the shiny piece of garbage in the trash heap.

I say give Thrun a chance cause he might be more than the shiny piece of garbage. Mukhammadullin is hopefully our saving grace but f*** this entire defense should just be dumped.

 

[Hodge]

Thrun hasn’t even played 60 NHL games and we are already writing him off?


Cause he has very very slow decision making and it takes him 30 seconds to get the play from behind the net out of his zone. Basically I’m not impressed by the shiny piece of garbage in the trash heap.

I say give Thrun a chance cause he might be more than the shiny piece of garbage. Mukhammadullin is hopefully our saving grace but f*** this entire defense should just be dumped.

I've seen enough to write Thrun off as a potential top 4 defenseman. Watching Jackson LaCombe play, you can really tell why Anaheim chose him over Thrun. Maybe he could develop into a #6/#7 at some point but we're not exactly starved for those. We also have enough interesting young LDs that it makes sense to cycle through them relatively quickly until we find one who can stick. Especially since they're all still waiver-exempt, including Thrun.

 

[Star Platinum]

Thrun hasn’t even played 60 NHL games and we are already writing him off?

Technically he's played 64.

Thrun to me looks like one of those guys that's going to be a guy who you move between the NHL and AHL right up until the time you have to expose him to waivers and then you end up waiving when you get someone better than him on the roster. I don't think of him as a major liability like Rutta or Benning, but he's just not all that good at anything. As someone else said, he's the very definition of a replacement level player.

 

[weastern bias]

Thrun hasn’t even played 60 NHL games and we are already writing him off?

I am completely comfortable writing off Thrun because he doesn't have an NHL skillset

When a young D man comes into the league, even if they have struggles, you can see some glimpse of what high level skill he will provide as he rounds out his game

example: he's a smart decision maker/he has a great first pass/he's an incredible skater/he breaks up plays in the neutral zone/he's an imposing physical presence

Thrun doesn't show ANY of that, he's a warm body who exists to play on the bottom pair of a bad team while we try to find someone who is actually useful to fill a real role in the future, he's a filler player

Henry Thrun is like the episode where Goku and Piccolo learned to drive, he's here to fill time while we figure out what the next step is behind the scenes