2025 NHL Draft: Lose a ton for Porter Martone

[Juxtaposer]

So you’d rather move up than get more chances this year?

I think so. My philosophy is that the closer you are to the end of your rebuild, the more it makes sense to consolidate later picks into one higher pick to target a guy who really fits what you're building.

Sort of the anti-Bystedt trade. In 2022, it made sense to trade down to get a bunch of shots instead of being beholden to one guy to start your rebuild. We didn't pick the right guys, so it was a bad move, but if we had picked even two of the right guys it would have been a stroke of brilliance. Starting the rebuild with something like Maveric Lamoureux, Seamus Casey, and Lane Hutson would have been incredible, especially given that our prospect pool at the time consisted of William Eklund and nothing else.

Now, we have a deep prospect pool and don't need quantity. It makes sense to target a guy who fits what we need, and that's a steady defensive RHD with size.

 

[Grinner]

So you’d rather move up than get more chances this year?

Definitely

 

[Pinkfloyd]

Definitely

My expectations are that Granlund gets us a playoff 2nd as the highest piece we get for this next draft. I think that and our 2nd probably only gets the team into the 25 range. I’m not sure a targetable player needs us to get into there for them as they may just drop to 33 or 34. Then you can consider giving that extra 2nd for an established player that can help bolster the blue line. We’ll see.

 

[Star Platinum]

Definitely

The state of a team's rebuild shouldn't factor in as much on whether moving up or down in a draft makes sense. Regardless of whether the rebuild was starting this season or 5 seasons ago, taking Celebrini with the #1 pick instead of trading down always was the right decision because the dropoff from him to the #2 pick was significant.

In trying to decide whether to move up or not, I think you have to decide whether the guy you're moving up to get 1) addresses a critical need for your team 2) is significantly better than the guy you can pick by staying where you are. Last year, moving up to #11 to take a defenseman made sense because the Sharks desperately needed a high-level defensive prospect and the guys who were available if the Sharks stood pat at #14 weren't nearly as good.

I haven't really bothered studying this year's prospects outside of the top four guys because the Sharks are very likely to be in position to pick one of those players and their next pick won't be until the second round. The little bit I've read says that the quality of the prospects drops off quite a bit past the early part of the draft and if that's the case, I'd probably be more on the side of having more lottery tickets. The only two things I might be inclined to move up for is for a large forward or a right-handed defenseman that clearly distinguishes himself from the other guys available at his area of the draft, but I think we're gonna have to attach a player to a pick if we want to make that kind of a move (unless they somehow manage to get a first round pick from trading Granlund).