2025 NHL Draft: Lose a ton for Porter Martone

[timorous me]

There’s verheoff and Lin next year as top RHDs in case we miss, so it’s not a big deal if we miss out on Matt

It's not the worst thing, but with the way in which non-prodigy defensemen take some time to develop, it's not ideal for our timeline to be pushing "our young stud d-man" out further. It may not seem like a lot, but if you think of it as "When Macklin is in his 6th season post-draft, one of those guys will be in the 4th season" and honestly, it's pretty rare that a d-man is ready to be a legit #1 guy at that age.

Obviously, we don't have any control over how things go and who we end up with, so we have to be ready to pivot to crossing our fingers for all sorts of different scenarios, but I'd feel a lot better about things if we get someone who I see as a legit high-probability future top-pairing d-man this year rather than waiting a year to get someone who might well not be on that same level.

 

[The McMafia]

Defenseman, and especially offensively minded RHD, take a while to develop. I would much rather someone with experience who has shown they can handle the challenges of creating offense while being responsible. In terms of timeline I think our forwards are well ahead of our defense. We need a good, stable, proven guy for that right side.

Schaefer is a solid defenseman - but if there was ever a year to trade down from 1OA this would be it. The entire top-5 this year has pros and cons. Shaeffer is more RNH than he is McDavid.

There isn't a reason to trade out of #1 or #2 this year if the Sharks end up there. Schaefer or Misa are both long term potential superstar players. If the Sharks are #3 and you're not into Martone or Hagens, maybe you can swing a deal with Buffalo for one of their surplus D-men.

The odds of drafting Schaefer are higher than the 25.5% probability of getting the first pick. Chicago (13.5%), Buffalo (6.5%), the Islanders (3%), and Boston (9.5%) would probably take Misa at #1. Maybe Philly (7.5%) too.

 

[Star Platinum]

God I hope this is the last year we are trying to clinch last. Been a brutal like 7 years for SJ.

Some years we tried, but we dominated the last two years at being worst.

 

[dmcccdmn]

Congratulations Sharks. We are guaranteed Schaefer, Misa or Hagens. When we got Celebrini a year ago, if you told me we would be getting Hagens as well, I would have gone nuts. If you say we could get 2 players that are even better than Hagens this year, I wouldn't even believe it. How are we so lucky to start our rebuild with 2 blue chip prospects 2 years in a row? This incredible successful tank job was the wonderful work of Grier. Thank you good sir.

 

[Saskatoon]

Also by finishing last we can pick 1st overall and win some draft lotteries in future years

 

[Bizz]

Congratulations Sharks. We are guaranteed Schaefer, Misa or Hagens. When we got Celebrini a year ago, if you told me we would be getting Hagens as well, I would have gone nuts. If you say we could get 2 players that are even better than Hagens this year, I wouldn't even believe it. How are we so lucky to start our rebuild with 2 blue chip prospects 2 years in a row? This incredible successful tank job was the wonderful work of Grier. Thank you good sir.

I'm not gonna congratulate Grier on accomplishing nothing. It takes zero management skill to build a losing team and place dead last 2 years in a row.

 

[Roasted Nuts]

Also by finishing last we can pick 1st overall and win some draft lotteries in future years

This is huge. We’re actually at eligible for winning the McKenna and DuPont lotteries

 

[Roasted Nuts]

I'm not gonna congratulate Grier on accomplishing nothing. It takes zero management skill to build a losing team and place dead last 2 years in a row.

It’s actually pretty impressive to finish dead last out of 32 teams for 2 years in a row. It’s like that student who manages to get every question on the test wrong, except for 2 tests instead of 1.

 

[Cas]

If Schaefer is a RNH-level 1st overall, what does that make Miss, Hagens, Martone, etc (assuming you see them below Schaefer)?

What's the defensive equivent of RNH? Someone like Reilly or Morrissey? Sure, I'd rather have Hedman or Makar, but that's not exactly a problem.

Just pick whoever is available and don't worry about it.

 

[The McMafia]

One bonus for finishing last... we are certain to have the first pick in round 2. Not to mention the Stars pick which hopefully is mid-20s.

Any particular players in the 20s and 30s that stand out to the group here?

 

[DG93]

Good shit, let's go get Schaefer

 

[Skeksis25]

Sure, every year there are going to be draft prospects that look good, but there aren't going to be generational prospects each year. Next year is a Sidney Crosby type year. I won't be too mad if we're near the bottom. I feel like all the bottom teams should get a bit better and some of the 5-10 teams could get worse. There should be more parity among the bottom dwellers next year, IMO.

Finishing bottom 5 is pretty much a guarantee for us next year anyway. But chasing last overall year after year is never going to lead to anything good I feel. We need to show that acquiring these prized pieces actually leads to being a better team and we are not just a franchise that collects high picks and prospects, but it doesn't lead to any on ice success.

Also, isn't DuPont in 2027 considered generational too? Are we going to then tank again for him?

 

[TheBeard]

I’d pay anyone a thousand dollars for anyone to go up to any sharks player and “congratulate them” for being so lucky to finish dead last in consecutive years.

Better yet, we should petition to have a banner risen to the rafters commemorating such a momentous feat.

It is what it is, but throwing a parade for doing something so terrible few teams have done isn’t exactly what I would do.

Grier, you better make it worth it.

 

[Pinkfloyd]

The team should be doing its best to take a step towards being playoff competitive but with so many holes to fill and historically slim pickings of players wanting to play in San Jose, we may be in for another season like this one. Our best player is in his 2nd year. Our likely starter next year will be a rookie. Our defense likely still has mediocre defensemen like Ferraro and Liljegren playing top four with an inexperienced player like Mukhamadullin, Schaefer, and/or Dickinson. Some of our depth up front will also be inexperienced between Graf, Kovalenko, and Ostapchuk. Smith and Eklund look really good but are only going into their 2nd and 3rd years respectively. There's likely to be consistency issues as a team while a lot players continue their development. Getting to 30 wins next year would be a significant improvement and still put us in roughly the 2-4 draft slot by standings. A team like that can still easily bottom out and finish last again.

 

[TheBeard]

The team should be doing its best to take a step towards being playoff competitive but with so many holes to fill and historically slim pickings of players wanting to play in San Jose, we may be in for another season like this one. Our best player is in his 2nd year. Our likely starter next year will be a rookie. Our defense likely still has mediocre defensemen like Ferraro and Liljegren playing top four with an inexperienced player like Mukhamadullin, Schaefer, and/or Dickinson. Some of our depth up front will also be inexperienced between Graf, Kovalenko, and Ostapchuk. Smith and Eklund look really good but are only going into their 2nd and 3rd years respectively. There's likely to be consistency issues as a team while a lot players continue their development. Getting to 30 wins next year would be a significant improvement and still put us in roughly the 2-4 draft slot by standings. A team like that can still easily bottom out and finish last again.

If these guys we’ve tanked for are so highly touted and you can’t get, like 6 of them to improve the team to 30 wins then perhaps they’re not the guys. Coming in at 18-19 isn’t the drawback it used to be and from what we saw from Mack and smith and Mukh and Graf, I expect they’ll all have a much greater impact on the bottom line. For chrissake, we got 31 wins in 21-22 with a team consisting of a basically three forwards and an aging burns (and half a season of Karlsson) and with James Reimer leading the charge.

 

[StrawHatEklund]

Canucks have nothing left to play for besides their home fans and they blew it last night. Oilers have nothing to play for next week on the 16th. Those two could be wins. Flames will be playing like their life depends on it tomorrow. 2 wins would be huge for morale and a positive to end the season.

 

[Yummyshark]

Which teams are we even likely to surpass next season? There are some teams that should blow it up and tank but they don't seem to want to (Nashville, both NY teams, Pens). Meanwhile how will the Sharks significantly improve over this years team? Don't forget, just to get back to the bottom 3 caliber team we were at the start of the season, we would need to get someone worth a Granlund, Walman, Cici, etc. This is assuming Askarov is as good as Blackwood was (and he did a pretty good job on the Avs) in his first full season in the show.

Yeah we'll get some growth from Smith, Celebrini, and Eklund, and Muk will develop more, but Dickinson will probably be another year at the OHL, and all the rest of the premium prospects will most likely be on the Cuda for most of the year. Maybe GMMG can pull a solid trade for a U25 stud but it's hard to count on that. And what highly touted FA wants to sign here? So many teams will have cap space and are much closer to contention (Boston for one) than we are. Like why would 30 year old Ekblad (who I see many ppl want) sign here? If his wife was from the area then sure but that's not the case.

I think it's possible Chicago is the only team we'll leapfrog, and that's only if they don't manage to hunt down Marner like everyone is predicting. Maybe another team or two will tank it up (Nash?) but then we are still bottom 4. Philly, Sabres, Ducks and Utah are still all on an upward trajectory with their high picks coming online soon, and the downward trajectory teams like the Nucks and Seattle aren't so bad that they will be flirting with the 70 point mark.

Sharks can make a massive improvement to 70 points, and still be a bottom 2 team, depending on what the should-blow-it-up teams decide to do. There were only three teams this season under 70, with the Preds being one of the weirdest disappointments in recent history. I know a lot of ppl here want this to be faster but like, it's simply not physically possible unless GMMG puts a gun on Lou's head and demands Dobson for a 2nd rounder, or blackmails Ehlers and Ekblad to sign with us.

We definitely shouldn't shamelessly tank like the past 2 seasons but expecting to be outside the bottom 4 or 5 is definitely expecting way too much.

 

[Grinner]

Seems the season went pretty much as expected
Not a big difference in the W-L columns, but on the Sharks night to night competitiveness.
We weren't blown out on a regular basis.
There were obviously reasons we all saw, to be positive heading into the future.
Losing sucks. Now hopefully the front office can take advantage of it

 

[Barrie22]

A 20 point improvement next year would bring us to 3rd worst. A 30 point improvement brings us to the islanders range of 23rd in the league. A 40 point improveent brings us to a bubble team.

 

[Hodge]

If Schaefer is a RNH-level 1st overall, what does that make Miss, Hagens, Martone, etc (assuming you see them below Schaefer)?

What's the defensive equivent of RNH? Someone like Reilly or Morrissey? Sure, I'd rather have Hedman or Makar, but that's not exactly a problem.

Just pick whoever is available and don't worry about it.

Schaefer only turning into Rielly or Morrissey would be a huge problem. You can't build a Cup winning defense around that.

 

[BaybayShark]

Any particular players in the 20s and 30s that stand out to the group here?

I’m hoping to trade both those picks to get back into the top 16-20….maybe take someone who starts to slide a little.

 

[Star Platinum]

I’d pay anyone a thousand dollars for anyone to go up to any sharks player and “congratulate them” for being so lucky to finish dead last in consecutive years.

Better yet, we should petition to have a banner risen to the rafters commemorating such a momentous feat.

It is what it is, but throwing a parade for doing something so terrible few teams have done isn’t exactly what I would do.

Grier, you better make it worth it.

I want some salt from you when we make our first round pick this year. I want you to take all those negative feelings about Georgiev and how he led us to the "promised land" and have a real Missouri "Show Me" attitude towards our eventual pick. Otherwise, I won't feel like you really meant it when you grumbled the whole way towards getting another high-end player on this bad squad.

 

[Star Platinum]

The team should be doing its best to take a step towards being playoff competitive but with so many holes to fill and historically slim pickings of players wanting to play in San Jose, we may be in for another season like this one. Our best player is in his 2nd year. Our likely starter next year will be a rookie. Our defense likely still has mediocre defensemen like Ferraro and Liljegren playing top four with an inexperienced player like Mukhamadullin, Schaefer, and/or Dickinson. Some of our depth up front will also be inexperienced between Graf, Kovalenko, and Ostapchuk. Smith and Eklund look really good but are only going into their 2nd and 3rd years respectively. There's likely to be consistency issues as a team while a lot players continue their development. Getting to 30 wins next year would be a significant improvement and still put us in roughly the 2-4 draft slot by standings. A team like that can still easily bottom out and finish last again.

Regardless of how next year turns out (because we very well could strike out in free agency), we are so far ahead of where we were at the end of last season having no idea whether we would win the lottery or not. This team has had six years of futility and five of them where there was ZERO hope.

This year was almost a perfect year for a team looking to dig itself out of irrelevance. Both our young forwards had as good a year as we possibly could have hoped. Our young defenseman had a dominant year. Our last first round pick dominated the cooks and cleaners of the CHL. Our fourth round pick defenseman had a better first year in the AHL than we had a right to hope for. We have our young goalie of the future for fifty cents on the dollar. The only real bummers were Musty and Mukhamadullin missing so much time due to injury.

Help is on the way and that's something you couldn't say about the Sharks for the longest time.

I want to watch a more competitive team next year as much as any of you far more long suffering fans who have stuck it through all of the last six years. Watching a half season of Georgiev and our defense sucked the fun out of watching a lot of times. But things should start getting better each successive season moving on from here.

 

[weastern bias]

*whispers*we're still gonna be really bad next year as our top-3 pick likely won't play on the Sharks for the vast majority of the season*stops whispering*

 

[CHALUPA]

*whispers*we're still gonna be really bad next year as our top-3 pick likely won't play on the Sharks for the vast majority of the season*stops whispering*

Why stop whispering when you weren’t even saying anything else afterwards?