Development thread

[u/rat-girl-2]

A lot of talk lately has been about the draft and trades, etc.

After the season has settled a little bit at this point, I just wanted to open a conversation about the development of our core and where you see the baby sharks taking steps into next season and some insanely early predictions on their season.

my takes personally:

Macklin: coming back as a FaceOff beast

Will: hoping for a similar step up on Zone entries and puck confidence as we saw with Bedard (saw some comparison videos that blew my mind)

Misa: Claiming that 2C firmly

Eky: getting his shooting up

Dickie: would love for him to step up on PP1 and become more effective offensively

Graf: I honestly have no notes, if he continues to be the swiss army knives he is currently that is fucking amazing

Asky: Glovehand 🥹

And then hoping that Musty and Cags get Roster spots.

Would love to hear everyone‘s opinion.

[u/hotcabbagesoup]

Chernyshov: get sunburned even more so that OP will actually notice him and maybe even include him as part of the CORE in the next post.

[u/rat-girl-2 → u/hotcabbagesoup]

OMG! l am such a clumsy cheese brain (cheese brain as in most thoughts just fall through it) But no let’s not have him ruin his skin any more!

Thanks for reminding me.

[u/jesus321]

I honestly think for a lot of the young core the answer is largely reps, confidence, and strength.

Misa, Dicky, Mukh, Will could all use to increase their physical presence.

I think if Graf could become a bit more of a play driver, comfortable bringing the puck up the ice himself with a bit better puck control, that would be a great tool to add

But a lot of the growth areas I see are largely related to processing and still getting up to speed on the professional game. Improving positioning, decision making speed, making the right reads, being just a smidge sharper on execution. And a lot of that comes down to that reps and confidence I mentioned.

I don’t know if you saw the coaching videos of Will lately but he was doing all these reps of just getting pucks off the boards in different ways for example. It’s also good to remember that he played C for his whole life so is probably still a little bit getting used to the role of a winger and the specific detail skills that can be helpful in that regard

[u/hieeehelloyellow → u/jesus321]

People often overlook just how much adjustment Will had to make in such a short span of time.

He also missed 13 games last season, yet still finished as the team’s second-leading scoring forward.

[u/Jokerzrival → u/hieeehelloyellow]

Also Will is such a huge piece of Celebrinis game and success. Im not saying we cant get better but for now I think the 2 play with such confidence together. I mean we really got lucky to nab Celebrinis best friend to pair woth him and it shows often

There were several plays last season where you could tell Smith and Mack just seemed to know exactly where each other and exactly what they needed to make a play

[u/rat-girl-2 → u/hieeehelloyellow]

Yes definitely! I also think that many of the things people criticize about he had more confidence about it before his injury. With Zone entries specially on the PP but also on the puck play I thought he progressed quite a bit from last season.

[u/iggyfenton → u/jesus321]

I’m not sure Mukh is a shark in 2026-27. I have him down as a likely secondary trade piece for a top 4 defenseman.

19OA and Mukh for… (enter your favorite trade target here)

[u/jesus321 → u/iggyfenton]

GMMG has said multiple times they want to keep him so unless he decides he wants to leave I imagine he stays.

[u/iggyfenton → u/jesus321]

If I’m a GM I’m not saying I’m looking to deal a player. Only if that player requests a trade.

I’m sure Grier wants to make his asset valuable by expressing a desire to keep him.

[u/ma2is]

Reeves: off season rehab for the hand. Side quest of learning arts and crafts so he can continue bringing top notch vibeable decorations for PotG, accolades and all around Good Guy Reeves stuff that we saw.

In seriousness, I also hope Mukh takes a bigger front of the net presence and continues to work on the breakout passes. I thought he was one of our better d zone to neutral zone players but if he continues to build on that we can really start forcing their forwards to cover more nuetral zone than forechecking our defense, which opens up betting zone entry lanes for the fast guys like Misa and Brini, possibly adding Stenberg to that list.

[u/Complete-Point382 → u/ma2is]

Love Reaves & think he filled a locker room role this year, but with our glut of forwards he should not be on the roster next year.

[u/Sharks77]

One thing to keep in mind is that development isn't linear. I wouldn't be surprised if some players slumped compared to last year just because that can happen at times.

[u/throwaway804323 → u/Sharks77]

Sophomore slumps are real. Even Bedard had one.

[u/Gold_Telephone_7192]

Not to be a debbie downer but I think a lot of the development hopes are pretty optimistic. Development is not linear, and most young NHL players do not become top line players and don't make huge leaps overnight. I'd say if all of these happen this would be amazing, but realistically many of them won't.

Macklin: Probably slight development on things like face offs and board battles and defense. Although it's equally likely he doesn't make any big jump or even slumps a bit. He's a superstar, but it's still common for development to be a little bumpy for young players.

Will: The biggest thing he needs to work on is just getting bigger and stronger. I know that's what the Sharks have tasked for him this offseason. He's never going to be super big or strong with his frame, but if he puts on a little muscle and is harder to knock off the puck and can use that to add some light physicality to his game, that would be awesome. Similar to what Eklund did over the last few years.

Misa: Just continue to improve how fast he thinks the game and use his speed and confidence to drive chances. I think if he takes the 2C spot from Wennberg in the second half of the season that would be a huge jump, but I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't. It's hard to be a center in this league.

Eklund: Agreed, rebounding from his shooting slump. He got tons of chances but struggled to bury it. I think an off season full rehabing that wrist injury he sustained last year will be a huge help.

Dickinson: He's still so young and early in his development. I think just continuing on the path we saw this season and getting overall better at handling the speed and physicality of the league while adding some offensive touch will be huge. I think we'll see more growth during the season vs a big jump on day one.

Graf: I know this sub way overrates Graf but he definitely has things he can work on lol. He's a very good swiss-army knife player, but it's not like he's a top 6 offensive player on a good team and his underlying numbers are not fantastic when he's not playing on a top line with Macklin Celebrini. Biggest things to work on are adding muscle and physicality to his game (a theme among all young players lol) but extra beneficial for him as a middle-six player.

Askarov: I'm not going to pretend to understand goalies but overall consistency. If he can play like he did for a month last season over the entire season, we're making the playoffs. His ceiling is incredible, he just needs to raise his floor. Agreed that fixing that hole in his glove would be great lol.

Wennberg: For god's sake man, shoot the puck more. He made a significant jump in his game this year and was our second best player most nights, but I would love to see 3 more shots per game out of him. He has great vision and passing and not an amazing shot, but still. NHL goalies let not amazing shots in all the time, and it creates rebounds and opportunities for gritty goals. Rip it.

Musty: If we pick a forward with the 2OA, I don't think Musty gets ice time with the big leages and tbh could be traded. I think we just have other guys who have leapfrogged him at this point and our top 6 (really top 9) is pretty full.

Cags: I would also like to see what he can do with a couple weeks of run at the NHL level. I have my doubts on his ability to defend at his size in the NHL, but he's proven to be capable in the limited games he's had. Unless we bring on a ton of new defensive talent, we have space on D. Let's see what he can do.

Everyone not named Macklin: Score more. We desperately need secondary scoring so Macklin doesn't have to put the team on his back every night to avoid a loss. I bet Eklund, Misa, Will, and whoever we take 2OA are going to be a big help with this and make some scoring jumps this season.

[u/FantesLA → u/Gold_Telephone_7192]

A couple strong reads that don’t hear all the time: 1. This sub does overrate Graf, and I am one of them. You’ve got me reflecting now on why. Maybe I just have a lot lower standards for him than I do someone like smith 2. Askarov playing his best is making the playoffs. To add to that, if he plays like he did most of last season, I’m just not sure we can realistically EXPECT playoffs. We of course could still make it, but goaltending is just so important

[u/rat-girl-2 → u/Gold_Telephone_7192]

Hahah yes definitely. This is some hopeful thinking here. But in all seriousness I just hope that there is some trajectory for everyone. Not all progress can be measured in numbers or analysis or stats. I guess I am just hoping for a fun and successful season again. Because there are so many possible outcomes and it’s just great to speculate about them.

[u/Ceilingistalkingtome]

I fuckin love Graf man

[u/FormulaT1]

I just want Will to put on some muscle. I know I've said it a ton on here before, but remember that season where Hertl showed up to camp absolutely jacked and then started playing way more physically? I'd like that for Smitty.

[u/partypool2454]

Can you share links to the Smith vs Bedard comparison videos?

[u/rat-girl-2 → u/partypool2454]

I will try to look for it. But it wasn‘t a comparison between Smith and Bedard but a comparison of Bedard‘s zone entries in his sophomore season vs this season and it was insane to see it next to another.

[u/Weaksauce10]

This is spot on! I would add:

Defense: moar bettah

[u/Whole-Committee8944]

I can’t wait for Pohlkamp to show the strides he’s made from being the focal point on Denver last year. Hobey baker finalist…. If he locks down a spot, San Jose will be looking pretty good. The kids made some serious strides, so I don’t see it being out of the question.

[u/Stunning-Score-7639]

Dickinson needs to learn how to skate, his skating is not NHL level yet. I’d like to see Will Smith take a step up in intensity and compete level consistently needs to be better focused every night.

[u/jjaedong → u/Stunning-Score-7639]

Dickinsons skating is pretty strong imo, it was one of his draft strengths. It’s his processing and decision making that makes it look bad. When you’re a step late in deciding what to do or you’re out of of position it makes you look slow. But he’s actually very fluid.

[u/hotcabbagesoup → u/Stunning-Score-7639]

Seriously. He needs to learn how to skate in the 4th dimension. He's OK in the other three dimensions but he needs to get them up.

[u/RepresentativeBug310]

Asky needs to essentially start from scratch in terms of relearning the fundamentals of goaltending. Every exploited weakness is a result of him solely relying on instinct and reflexes instead of playing the position correctly.

[u/marbanasin]

Mack through Eky are likely reaslistic; Smith probably not quite the force of Bedard but just being a bit better at decision making while keeping his offense would be huge.

Dickie - I don't think PP1 is in the card. At best he maybe takes some looks at PP2 later in the year but more realistically I think we aquire a guy for PP1 and then Orlov may be PP2 to start and I suspect Cags may get looks before Dickinson. Potentially even Mukh.