Prospect Info: Sharks Prospect Info & Discussion Megathread XXI: "New, improved, and wayyyy too much info" Edition

[Grinner]

Ferraro is chopped liver?

Minced.

 

[matt trick]

Some of these acquisitions highlight how adept Grier is getting/has become:

Celebrini showed Grier's ability to master a tank. Not a popular opinion, but getting Celebrini is a hidden return on the Burns, Karlsson, and Hertl trades.

Askarov showed Grier's ability to take advantage of a GM in a bad position, trading from a position of relative strength to acquire a blue-chip prospect

Dickinson felt like a repeat of DW's 2007 draft; it highlighted Grier's ability to read and predict a draft. No doubt the price to move up would have increased on draft day.

Graf tells us that Grier can attract undrafted free agents.

Musty and Halttunen indicate Grier's ability to find "sleepers" in the draft (though of course, it is still early).

Chernyshov showed Grier's ability to catch a falling knife and not overthink (like DW too frequently did).

Overall, there is no doubt that Grier has put thought into this rebuild; that isn't always a given (see Buffalo, Anaheim, Winnipeg, Edmonton, etc.)

Can't forget Tofolli, best UFA forward we've signed in what 20 years? Ever?

On Dickinson it was a great move because there seemed to be a consensus top 12, followed by a tier of Luchanko, Jiricek, Eiserman, Connelly, Stolberg, Helenius, Hage, and Nygard. I'd love to know where they had him rated. Could have him as high as three, could have been 10. I also wonder if Philly would have taken Dickinson (no college//agent threat like Buium had).

He also picked a really, really good window to tank. This is partially luck, but I remember in 2022 already hearing about the Bedard and Celebrini drafts, and you got to think it pushed Grier to dump assets- possibly even faster. This is part of why I don't begrudge Grier for icing such a shit team last year. Top odds were critical to get the franchise piece.

In a four year period the top picks have/had a lot of potential #1 centers/d-men/elite wingers. Bedard/Fantilli/Michkov/Carlsson/Smith, Celebrini/Levshunov, Hagens/Martone/Schaefer, McKenna/Bjork. It looks so much better than 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Think Sheng and Keegan (correct me if I'm wrong gents) recently mentioned on a podcast, that part of moving Burns, or certainly the new style was Grier and Quinn's plan to maximize Karlsson's value. He likely kept us out of the bottom three in the Bedard year, but I I'd rather have Smith+Dickinson than Fantilli or Carlsson.

Also, maybe with one of those two in the NHL last year, we'd have acquired pieces to insulate them, not traded Hertl, and potentially not had the pieces for Askarov. So maybe it's Fantilli, Hertl, Levshunov instead of Smith, Celebrini, Dickinson, and Askarov.

So, so excited about what we're building. Hope Hasso is patient and allows for two more years of steady growth, but I'd say we're officially on top 4 RHD watch.

 

[OrrNumber4]

How do you mean sleepers?

Both guys were very well regarded year before their draft season as potential top 10 picks but fell due to different things like mono and/or sloppy play.

Halttunen struggled in the men's league, which is understandable, but had he shown more of a complete game and even a decent amount of production (which he eventually did and then some going back to Finnish juniors), he was easily a 1st round selection. Musty just had a bad break catching mono at the start of the season and had consistency issues. He was a former 1st overall pick in the OHL draft though and very well thought of as a top pick for the 2023 draft.

If you are defining it as guys who had their draft stock fall, I can understand your point but they aren't guys I would define as sleepers.

Terminology is difficult; I just meant it looks like he got great value with those picks in the sense that Musty and Halttunen were predicted to go where he got them but would go higher in a redraft (as opposed to someone like Chernyshov who was drafted well below where he was expected).

Which is just multiple ways of saying that Grier's drafting strategy looks great...

Can't forget Tofolli, best UFA forward we've signed in what 20 years? Ever?

Perhaps, but after really thinking about it (and I posted about it elsewhere), DW's/SJ's inability to get free agents was largely overstated, a result of them having no money or cap to spend or opportunity to give. Grier has both in abundance, and getting free agents comes easy then.

He also picked a really, really good window to tank. This is partially luck, but I remember in 2022 already hearing about the Bedard and Celebrini drafts, and you got to think it pushed Grier to dump assets- possibly even faster. This is part of why I don't begrudge Grier for icing such a shit team last year. Top odds were critical to get the franchise piece.

I wanted to highlight this since it's such a great point. Sure, Bedard and Celebrini being available was luck. But remember that DW wanted to tank for McDavid in 2015 but couldn't bring himself to do it properly. He was given an opportunity; McDavid being draftable and the Sharks not being a contender; he even had the excuse with that miserable failure of a season in 2014. Had he traded Thornton, Marleau, Burns, Pavelski, Vlasic, and Braun, sure the Sharks don't make the finals in 2016, but they probably get one of McDavid/Eichel/Marner.

 

[bunker777]

Terminology is difficult; I just meant it looks like he got great value with those picks in the sense that Musty and Halttunen were predicted to go where he got them but would go higher in a redraft (as opposed to someone like Chernyshov who was drafted well below where he was expected).

Which is just multiple ways of saying that Grier's drafting strategy looks great...


Perhaps, but after really thinking about it (and I posted about it elsewhere), DW's/SJ's inability to get free agents was largely overstated, a result of them having no money or cap to spend or opportunity to give. Grier has both in abundance, and getting free agents comes easy then.


I wanted to highlight this since it's such a great point. Sure, Bedard and Celebrini being available was luck. But remember that DW wanted to tank for McDavid in 2015 but couldn't bring himself to do it properly. He was given an opportunity; McDavid being draftable and the Sharks not being a contender; he even had the excuse with that miserable failure of a season in 2014. Had he traded Thornton, Marleau, Burns, Pavelski, Vlasic, and Braun, sure the Sharks don't make the finals in 2016, but they probably get one of McDavid/Eichel/Marner.

Ehh. That would have been way too early to start tearing it down. That core continued to have great success for three years after the cup run. Remember 2019 when they were an EK65 injury away from making the finals? 2020 was when they really they needed to start tearing it down. But coming off a western conference finals appearance there’s no way they were going to do that.

 

[LadyStanley]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1835724326026494024

Paywall

 

[mogambomoroo]

Now that we've got Askarov, the other goalie prospects are probably not that much in the radar. Just saw at random that this year 7th round pick Korostelyov has had a nice start to the season. It's a very small sample size, but will be fun to see if in 3-5 years we've got something there.

Yaroslav Korostelyov (G)

SKA-1946 St. Petersburg

MHL

3

2.39

.922

0

2-1-0

150:47