With the Dallas Stars officially eliminated from the playoffs, we now know (almost) all of the draft picks the San Jose Sharks will hold in the upcoming NHL Entry Draft, barring any trades before draft day. (Thank goodness for the people who obsessively update Wikipedia because it means that we know what the draft order is for the Sharks almost immediately after it happens. We salute you.)
Below are the picks that the Sharks have, along with how the team acquired them. For the earlier picks, we took a look at some of the players the Sharks might pick if the draft plays out exactly like some of the top pundits predict it will.
The Sharks have two picks in the first round, starting out with the most important of them all, second overall. If Matthew Schafer is available at number two overall, the Sharks will take him. There is no other choice. We’ll run through him and some of the other options in future posts.
That said, if the New York Islanders or whoever picks first take Schafer at first overall, then the Sharks could pick Michael Misa if we’re going off of multiple site predictions, including ESPN.
A Bob McKenzie ranking suggests James Hagens, but it was older (from January) and might have changed since then.
The Sharks will also select 30th overall since Dallas was eliminated by the Edmonton Oilers on May 29. This was the first overall pick the Sharks received in the trade that sent Mikael Granlund and Cody Ceci to the Stars.
The Athletic staff guessed that the Stars would win it all. While that won’t happen, the pick the staff made is still good. The Athletic selected Henry Brzustewicz for the Sharks, a defenseman who happens to play alongside 2024 first-round pick Sam Dickinson on the London Knights.
Elite Prospects has William Moore, a center from the U.S. National Team Development Program, ranked 30th on its list. While McKeen’s Hockey March rankings had Blake Fiddler, a defenseman with the Edmonton Oil Kings and son of former Nashville Predator Vernon Fiddler, ranked 30th.
If we’re guessing, it’s going to be a defenseman at the number 30 spot for the Sharks, especially if the team misses out at Schafer at number two.
The Sharks also have two picks in the second round. Even though San Jose lost the lottery, the team still gets the first pick in the second round. That means the Sharks get the team’s pick of the best of the rest.
Tankathon has San Jose choosing Shane Vansaghi, a winger from Michigan State, at 33rd overall. ESPN believes that the aforementioned Brzustewicz will be available in the second round, so if the Sharks pass on the defenseman the first time around, then the team could take him here.
San Jose also has a 53rd overall pick in the second round, this one acquired in the trade with the Ottawa Senators for Fabian Zetterlund. Tankathon is the only site so far that’s done a deep dive into the draft. It chose winger Alexander Zharovsky at 53rd.
The San Jose Sharks still don’t know which pick it will have in the third round. The team traded its original third-round pick along with Tomas Hertl to the Vegas Golden Knights. That pick ultimately ended up with the Vancouver Canucks.
The Sharks received a third-round pick from the Edmonton Oilers when San Jose acquired Ceci last summer; however, because Edmonton is still in the playoffs, the Sharks don’t know if it will be 95th or 96th overall yet.
In the fourth round, the Sharks do not have the team’s original pick (97th overall). That one was also sent to the Senators in the Zetterlund trade.
The team does have the 115th overall pick. Originally belonging to the St. Louis Blues, the pick was acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets in the Luke Kunin trade.
San Jose also has the 124th overall pick. This was the conditional pick the Sharks received in the Granlund and Ceci trade with the Stars. Because the Stars didn’t make it to the Stanley Cup Finals, the Sharks get this pick instead of a third-rounder. This pick originally belonged to the Winnipeg Jets and passed through a few hands, including San Jose’s, before arriving in San Jose. This was the same pick the Sharks received from the Jets when the team traded Vladislav Namestnikov to Winnipeg in 2023. It was traded to Dallas in 2024 for Ty Dellandrea.
San Jose doesn’t have its original fifth-round pick. That was traded to Florida in 2023 as part of a package for Anthony Duclair.
The team does have the 150th overall pick in the fifth round. That was acquired on Dec. 9, 2024, when the Sharks sent Mackenzie Blackwood to the Colorado Avalanche.
The Sharks don’t have a pick in the sixth round. The team’s 2024 sixth-round pick was traded to Washington last draft so the team could move up and take Carson Wetsch in the third round last year.
In the seventh round, San Jose does not have its original pick. That pick was traded to Tampa Bay with Anthony Duclair for Jack Thompson and a third-round pick.
The team does have a pick later in the seventh round. The 210th overall pick originally belonged to the New Jersey Devils. San Jose acquired the pick from Jersey on March 8, 2024, when management traded Kaapo Kahkonen.
In total, San Jose has nine draft picks. The two in the first round and the two in the second round are key, especially considering that one of the second-round picks is close to a first-round one. Like last season, the Sharks have a good opportunity to restock the draft pool and make the NHL’s deepest prospect pool even deeper.
Defense will be key, and the Sharks might find some good options with those picks in the first two rounds.
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