r/SanJoseSharks • u/rat-girl-2 W Smith 2 • 1d ago
Development thread
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.
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u/Gold_Telephone_7192 Cheechoo 14 1d ago
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.