2025 NHL Draft: Lose a ton for Porter Martone

[Pinkfloyd]

If the Sharks have a choice between Hagens, Misa, and Schaefer, I sort of expect them to pick one of the forwards. If they have any sort of belief in just one or two of Cagnoni, Dickinson, and Mukhamadullin, they may not prioritize Schaefer as a selection as much as another quality young forward can help this team in their rebuild. Another guy with a good shot at being 2C would be beneficial.

I can’t even imagine what the mental state of the franchise would be had we not gotten first overall

I'd imagine we would've done a lot of things differently and some guys would've had a more difficult path forward including Eklund and Smith.

 

[Juxtaposer]

If the Sharks have a choice between Hagens, Misa, and Schaefer, I sort of expect them to pick one of the forwards. If they have any sort of belief in just one or two of Cagnoni, Dickinson, and Mukhamadullin, they may not prioritize Schaefer as a selection as much as another quality young forward can help this team in their rebuild. Another guy with a good shot at being 2C would be beneficial.


I'd imagine we would've done a lot of things differently and some guys would've had a more difficult path forward including Eklund and Smith.

Smith is much, much, much, much, much more likely to become a good 2C than Dickinson is going to become even an adequate 1D. There aren't enough "much"es in the world to describe the difference in likelihood of those two potential outcomes.

Taking anyone but Schaefer if he's on the board would be gross negligence for this franchise.

 

[Star Platinum]

If the Sharks have a choice between Hagens, Misa, and Schaefer, I sort of expect them to pick one of the forwards. If they have any sort of belief in just one or two of Cagnoni, Dickinson, and Mukhamadullin, they may not prioritize Schaefer as a selection as much as another quality young forward can help this team in their rebuild. Another guy with a good shot at being 2C would be beneficial.

I'd imagine we would've done a lot of things differently and some guys would've had a more difficult path forward including Eklund and Smith.

No matter how much they believe in Cagnoni, I don't think there's any way they pass on Schaefer if they have a chance to pick him. I don't think Mukhamadullin factors into that calculus at all. I think they view him as a Ferraro/Thrun upgrade if he works out, but not somebody they ever envision being better than a middle pairing guy at best.

 

[TheBeard]

I'd imagine we would've done a lot of things differently and some guys would've had a more difficult path forward including Eklund and Smith.

I wonder if they make any of the moves they do. Do they trade for Askarov? Does Toffoli sign? Does Smith go back to school?

 

[Pinkfloyd]

Smith is much, much, much, much, much more likely to become a good 2C than Dickinson is going to become even an adequate 1D. There aren't enough "much"es in the world to describe the difference in likelihood of those two potential outcomes.

Taking anyone but Schaefer if he's on the board would be gross negligence for this franchise.

Maybe so but I tend to side on the pessimistic side of things when it comes to projecting any of these players to these important roles and that includes Schaefer.

No matter how much they believe in Cagnoni, I don't think there's any way they pass on Schaefer if they have a chance to pick him. I don't think Mukhamadullin factors into that calculus at all. I think they view him as a Ferraro/Thrun upgrade if he works out, but not somebody they ever envision being better than a middle pairing guy at best.

Depends on how they think of Hagens and Misa as well. If they think either of them can become elite and think Schaefer isn't a 1D guy, they may go in a different direction.

I wonder if they make any of the moves they do. Do they trade for Askarov? Does Toffoli sign? Does Smith go back to school?

My guess is yes on Askarov. Toffoli may still sign as he had other reasons to be here. Smith might go back to school. He may not but they may not have been so dug in on keeping him in the NHL if he had the struggles he had thus far.

 

[Juxtaposer]

Maybe so but I tend to side on the pessimistic side of things when it comes to projecting any of these players to these important roles and that includes Schaefer.

Forgive me if I'm missing some context, but wouldn't that put you equally pessimistic on Misa/Hagens and land us back in the same place, which is taking BPA, which is Matthew Schaefer and also happens to be our greatest need as well?

Obviously if you think one of the forwards is going to be a super star and you don't think that Schaefer is going to be a legit #1D, then that changes things. But as it stands, that's not the case, and we simply don't need to prioritize a forward. Celebrini has already shown that he doesn't need elite linemates to produce at an elite level. You can always, reliably, acquire great wingers via trade and FA. You can't acquire legitimate #1D via trade or FA unless you get insanely lucky.

 

[Pinkfloyd]

Forgive me if I'm missing some context, but wouldn't that put you equally pessimistic on Misa/Hagens and land us back in the same place, which is taking BPA, which is Matthew Schaefer and also happens to be our greatest need as well?

Obviously if you think one of the forwards is going to be a super star and you don't think that Schaefer is going to be a legit #1D, then that changes things. But as it stands, that's not the case, and we simply don't need to prioritize a forward. Celebrini has already shown that he doesn't need elite linemates to produce at an elite level. You can always, reliably, acquire great wingers via trade and FA. You can't acquire legitimate #1D via trade or FA unless you get insanely lucky.

Possibly. I think Schaefer is the most sensible pick in any situation that he is available to us but I'm not confident enough to think that teams all more or less feel the same way. There are always pretty funky team rankings after certain consensus mocks where teams occasionally prioritize need over BPA. I do think Hagens has elite potential in him. I think that of Schaefer as well but I'm not certain of how I view their odds of being elite.

 

[BaileyMacTavish]

Since we're hellbent on turning Smitty into a 4th line grinder, suddenly Hagens doesn't sound like a bad idea anymore. Still would rather nab Schaefer though

 

[Zarzh]

You don't think not making the playoffs for fifteen years consecutively has had a negative effect on the culture in Buffalo? You don't think something is rotten in Anaheim? Both of those teams have way too much talent to be languishing in the standings with the Sharks this year. There's absolutely no excuse for them to be this bad, and yet. If not for Dostal, Anaheim is probably in last place. Buffalo is just the most depressing team in the league. And yeah, I firmly believe that losing constantly enables that.

Sure, bad management is absolutely part of it. It's letting bad teams fester and not doing anything to improve them that's why those teams are where they are.

I expect Grier to make a trade this summer to improve the team, something more than taking on Walman and Ceci as cap dumps and throwing mid-round picks at Liljegren and Dellandrea. He made a lot of moves this summer (the aforementioned trades plus the Toffoli/Wennberg signings) to improve the team over the summer even while acknowledging that it's still a rebuilding year. What did Anaheim and Buffalo do this summer? Trade for washed-up Dumoulin/Fabbri, acquire Beck Malenstyn? Those teams should have taken a big step forward this offseason and they didn't. If Grier doesn't do something meaningful in the summer to take a significant step towards playoff contention, I will also be critical of him, because you have to give your young team something to work with.

Like I said, I'm not expecting to be a Cup contender on Celebrini's ELC. But I am expecting a legitimate attempt to be a playoff team in the next two years.

Anaheim is more questionable but they're incredibly young and only have one real potential franchise forward in Leo and they're at pretty much the floor.

Buffalo is pretty easy to explain. They don't have much forward talent and what they do have does an awful job of sheltering their other players to let them develop, and they still weren't terrible until Dahlin was injured. Tage is pretty much the antithesis to a guy that's easy to play with or behind in the lineup.