Confirmed with Link: Zetterlund, Robins, 4th to Ottawa for 2025 2nd, Zack Ostapchuk, Noah Gregor

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He frankly owes Ek. And then he can draft the 3rd and 4th Eklund brother. And 5th and 6th, I’m unclear how many there are but we must become the San Jose Eklunds.
I think it's plausible. Victor has a few factors working against him that often lead to falling in the draft.

-Generously listed 5'11"
-Winger
-October birthday
-Therefore can't play at the U18 this May (remember how Sharks scouts once hoped that other teams would forget about Tomas Hertl because his league season was done in March and he was too old to play the U18)
-Scouts can probably talk themselves into thinking his production was a product of Frondell

It wouldn't surprise me at all if he fell to around #11-14 like Jonathan Lekkerimaki. There's a whole list of guys I can see teams convincing themselves to take over Eklund. McQueen, Frondell, Desnoyers, O'Brien, Smith, Mrtka, Bear, Lakovic, Martin, etc. Guys with size, guys with more premium positions (C/D), guys who already play in North America.

If Eklund makes it out of the top-10, the Sharks need to do whatever it takes to get him.
 
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I think it's plausible. Victor has a few factors working against him that often lead to falling in the draft.

-Generously listed 5'11"
-Winger
-October birthday
-Therefore can't play at the U18 this May (remember how Sharks scouts once hoped that other teams would forget about Tomas Hertl because his league season was done in March and he was too old to play the U18)
-Scouts can probably talk themselves into thinking his production was a product of Frondell

It wouldn't surprise me at all if he fell to around #11-14 like Jonathan Lekkerimaki. There's a whole list of guys I can see teams convincing themselves to take over Eklund. McQueen, Frondell, Desnoyers, O'Brien, Smith, Mrtka, Bear, Lakovic, Martin, etc. Guys with size, guys with more premium positions (C/D), guys who already play in North America.

If Eklund makes it out of the top-10, the Sharks need to do whatever it takes to get him.

I do wonder if they’re going to go all defense and try to get like Hensler/Schaefer but who knows. If they can get Eklund with that 2nd pick it does seem like a huge get.
 
I do wonder if they’re going to go all defense and try to get like Hensler/Schaefer but who knows. If they can get Eklund with that 2nd pick it does seem like a huge get.
We may need Hensler more but Eklund is on another level as a hockey player. They may go in the same range because Eklund is a 5'11" European winger and Hensler is a 6'2" American RHD, but Eklund is so much better.
 
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Grier needs to prove that he can actually add impact players this offseason and improve the team quite noticeably. And I am not a fan of trading Zetterlund for scraps, myself. But people really need to chill with the whole, "How is he going to replace these guys???" thing. Walman, Sturm, Zetterlund etc are not irreplaceable. They are not the difference between an awful team and a bad team. Even when all of these guys were here and playing together, we were comfortably the worst team in the league in years.

Lets see what Grier does in the offseason. But I think we need to chill with the overreactions. You would think we just got rid of prime Dan Boyle and Patrick Marleau for scraps or something.
 
Grier needs to prove that he can actually add impact players this offseason and improve the team quite noticeably. And I am not a fan of trading Zetterlund for scraps, myself. But people really need to chill with the whole, "How is he going to replace these guys???" thing. Walman, Sturm, Zetterlund etc are not irreplaceable. They are not the difference between an awful team and a bad team. Even when all of these guys were here and playing together, we were comfortably the worst team in the league in years.

Lets see what Grier does in the offseason. But I think we need to chill with the overreactions. You would think we just got rid of prime Dan Boyle and Patrick Marleau for scraps or something.
They’re replaceable, but there’s also another 10-12 players on the roster that need to be prioritized to be replaced. The only one I had an issue with was Fabian simply because of his age and his bond with the future core, which does indeed matter during these tough times despite what some here seem to think.
 
He frankly owes Ek. And then he can draft the 3rd and 4th Eklund brother. And 5th and 6th, I’m unclear how many there are but we must become the San Jose Eklunds.
hes gonna repay him by shipping him to buffalo for Power. i know the board loves Byram but Powers 6'5 vs Byrams 6'1 so we should know who MG prefers.
 
You can truly tell the consensus of this trade by the amount of users commenting who I don’t recognize at all… it’s bringing all of us infrequent posters out in frustration and confusion. Life is pain…
 
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And there's the A3Z microstats that confirm my eye test. I wonder what changed in Zetterlund's game that tanked his transition game.

It's useful to see this; there are a lot of bad signs to Zetterlund's game, more than I expected, even after critiquing his defensive efforts yesterday.

I still think there's a question as to whether or not this was selling low on Zetterlund--you can't help but wonder what else Grier could have gotten elsewhere, though I like that this wasn't just for picks but for a pick and a guy with 50 NHL games.

It also makes me think that maybe Grier and his staff are paying attention to advanced metrics and microstats. That certainly could've informed this move--and simply the choice to move Zetterlund instead of giving him a substantial contract in the offseason.
 
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It's useful to see this; there are a lot of bad signs to Zetterlund's game, more than I expected, even after critiquing his defensive efforts yesterday.

I still think there's a question as to whether or not this was selling low on Zetterlund--you can't help but wonder what else Grier could have gotten elsewhere, though I like that this wasn't just for picks but for a pick and a guy with 50 NHL games.

It also makes me think that maybe Grier and his staff are paying attention to advanced metrics and microstats. That certainly could've informed this move--and simply the choice to move Zetterlund instead of giving him a substantial contract in the offseason.
If MG didn't see him as an ideal middle 6er of the future, and his salary going up. That's all totally fine but I think MG could have got more value outta trading him? But maybe im wrong. I dont hate trading him, just thought the trade was weak value coming back. All my Ottawa friends sending me WTF's and laughing you know haha
 
I keep seeing Sharks fans claim Zetterlund "fits our timeline" when that's just utterly false.

He actually fits Ottawa's timeline - they're almost exclusively built around players drafted from 2015-2020 (Tkachuk, Stutzle, Sanderson, Chabot, Batherson, Cozens, Pinto, Greig and now Zetts all fall within this range).

When the Sharks are competitive again we will need to largely be built around players drafted from 2020-2025. Sens started their rebuild with the Karlsson trade in 2018 and we started ours with the Timo trade in 2023.
 
I keep seeing Sharks fans claim Zetterlund "fits our timeline" when that's just utterly false.

He actually fits Ottawa's timeline - they're almost exclusively built around players drafted from 2015-2020 (Tkachuk, Stutzle, Sanderson, Chabot, Batherson, Cozens, Pinto, Greig and now Zetts all fall within this range).

When the Sharks are competitive again we will need to largely be built around players drafted from 2020-2025. Sens started their rebuild with the Karlsson trade in 2018 and we started ours with the Timo trade in 2023.
So Zetterlund doesn’t fit our timeline due to him being 25 but you were just advocating trading the 2OA pick in this years draft for a 25 year old Dobson who is only about 3 months younger than Zetts? Strictly from a timeline standpoint, you’re contradicting yourself (again).
 
So Zetterlund doesn’t fit our timeline due to him being 25 but you were just advocating trading the 2OA pick in this years draft for a 25 year old Dobson who is only about 3 months younger than Zetts? Strictly from a timeline standpoint, you’re contradicting yourself (again).
Dobson is not an ideal fit for our timeline either but if we can get him for that price I think we have to do it given the dearth of top pairing RDs in our org and around the league. You can have 1 or 2 exceptions who fall slightly outside the target age range as long as they're high-end players at premium positions like Kadri on the Avs or Bobrovsky on the Panthers. Zetterlund is not anywhere close to that level of player. That said, I'm less keen on acquiring Dobson after seeing Grier's trade deadline moves. We're better off trying to draft and develop our future #1D, or failing that, trading for a younger defenseman who fits the timeline and has yet to break out.
 
It's useful to see this; there are a lot of bad signs to Zetterlund's game, more than I expected, even after critiquing his defensive efforts yesterday.

I still think there's a question as to whether or not this was selling low on Zetterlund--you can't help but wonder what else Grier could have gotten elsewhere, though I like that this wasn't just for picks but for a pick and a guy with 50 NHL games.

It also makes me think that maybe Grier and his staff are paying attention to advanced metrics and microstats. That certainly could've informed this move--and simply the choice to move Zetterlund instead of giving him a substantial contract in the offseason.
I still think this was Grier deciding to take value for Zetterlund immediately, being confident that he can replace Zetterlund in the offseason (possibly even internally), rather than waiting and trying to maximize his value later on (or overpaying him).
 
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I stand by my original thought that the negative reaction has less to do with the actual ability/value of the players involved but more to do with hurting the "bad but fun" vibe in the immediate term.

It probably has a marginal impact on the long term success of the rebuild, but that doesn't mean there aren't some second order effects.
 
I stand by my original thought that the negative reaction has less to do with the actual ability/value of the players involved but more to do with hurting the "bad but fun" vibe in the immediate term.

It probably has a marginal impact on the long term success of the rebuild, but that doesn't mean there aren't some second order effects.

I think that’s a very fair assessment. Zetterlund and Eklund were the bright spots last year and they worked hard to keep getting better this year, he was infinitely watchable and their friendship was adorable and was a thing to cheer for when the on ice product sucked.

But objectively, Graf or even Kovalenko can likely take Zetterlund’s spot and I would argue that Graf actually might end up being a better player.

It’s a bummer because I loved cheering for him and Eklund and I do wish if we traded him we got a better return (a defenseman for example) but… yeah, objectively it’s not some kind of horrific, team-destroying mistake.
 

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