With the second overall pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft, the San Jose Sharks have a lot of options. We explored the possibility of San Jose picking forward Ivar Stenberg at second, and we also looked at defenseman Chase Reid in previous posts. Both of these options seem like very real possibilities, given how closely together in skill the top five or so prospects seem to be grouped. For many scouts, it’s a matter of opinion and value. Do you value skating more than shooting skills? Do you value potential upside more than current talent? This year, there’s no clear number one or two. What we do expect to see is a lot of players getting drafted, followed by half the pundits shaking their heads in disbelief and the other half saying the team made the right choice.
With that in mind, we look at Keaton Verhoeff, who didn’t put up the same type of numbers as Reid did last season, but he also made different choices.
Keaton Verhoeff, D – University of North Dakota (NCAA)
Height: 6-foot-4
Weight: 212 pounds
Age/DOB: 18, June 19, 2008
Shoots: Right
University of North Dakota (NCAA): 36 games, 20 points (6 G, 14 A)
Canada U18 (WJC-18): 5 games, 4 points (0 G, 4 A)
Canada U20 (WJC-20): 5 games, 4 points (0 G, 4 A)
Verhoeff was one of the players who decided to leave the CHL and take a shot at the NCAA in the first season that junior players were eligible to move to college. For Verhoeff, it was about challenging himself to get to that next level, something he talked to NHL.com’s Deputy Managing Editor Adam Kimelman about earlier this month.
“It was tough, it was hard, but it’s what I wanted to do,” Verhoeff said. “It’s what I wanted to be competing against. Those guys really pushed me, both in practice and in games, so it was a good learning experience for me, and really kind of pushed me to that next level, I think.”
Verhoeff held his own against those larger men, ranking fifth among freshmen defensemen. For comparison’s sake, the top-scoring defenseman in the NCAA this season was San Jose prospect Eric Pohlkamp, who scored 39 points (18 G, 21 A) with the NCAA champion University of Denver. Pohlkamp is also 21, three years older, and has three more college seasons under his belt.
Then there’s the fact that Verhoeff was 17 when he did all this. The kid didn’t even turn 18 until a few days ago. Those few years can make a huge difference when you’re talking about teens playing against men. For Verhoeff, he’s a big kid, but he’s also still young. Even though he is 6-foot-4 and 212 pounds, 17-year-olds often don’t know how to use that size the way 21- and 22-year-old men with the same size do.
The case against Verhoeff
When you look at Verhoeff, scouts raise two red flags. There are questions about his decision-making. It was a bumpy start to his college career, and he struggled early with his offensive choices with the puck. However, as the season wore on, he made smarter choices and his game evolved. Call it a work in progress if you will. It’s definitely not an asset at this point, but you can’t completely write it off.
The real issue with Verhoeff is his skating. Some scouts say that he looks a “half step slow” or “clumsy.” Because he’s on the bigger side, he’s not exactly fleet of foot. Looking at General Manager Mike Grier’s draft history, this could mean that he’s already decided against Verhoeff. Grier tends to pick defensive players who can skate, often valuing that over other skills. Verhoeff’s lack of skating skills might be a major strike against him.
The case for Verhoeff
That said, Verhoeff does have one thing that Grier loves. Verhoeff is a big boy. As we said, he’s 6’4″ and 212 pounds. That’s a good-sized kid, and he might still have some growing to do. Even if he doesn’t, he can still put some of the “right” muscle onto his body. Genetically, he hit the lottery for an athlete and that’s something you just can’t teach.
Add to that the fact that Verhoeff has the skill to go with his size, and that’s pretty darn good. The kid is said to have a high-end shot, probably because he can put all that muscle and size behind every puck he puts on net. Verhoeff does pretty well with the puck and knows how to transition out of his own end, though there are those mistakes that we talked about before. Overall, he can fuel an offensive breakout.
Finally, he has a high ceiling. As far as scouts are concerned, Verhoeff is a big, competitive kid, and those are two assets that are tough to teach. You can help a kid skate better. You can help him get better hands. Teaching some of those intangibles is a little more difficult.
What the scouts say about Verhoeff
The consensus big board at The Athletic has Verhoeff ranked at seventh overall, which is well outside of where the Sharks are drafting. Honestly, if he weren’t a right-shot defenseman, we’d likely be skipping over him entirely. However, here’s what scouts are saying about the big defenseman.
The Athletic’s Corey Pronman is the highest on Verhoeff and has him third on his draft board, but even then, it’s not exactly a glowing review.
“Verhoeff is a big two-way defenseman. He’s a strong skater, especially for his size. He isn’t flashy, nor is he overly creative offensively, but he has good skill, sees the ice well and makes difficult plays with a great point shot that will be a threat in the NHL,” wrote Pronman. “His decision-making at times can leave you wanting, though. He’s hard on his checks and uses his size. In college, he wasn’t a hard minutes defenseman this season, but he has been at the junior level, and he was a 17-year-old on a top college team. He projects as a tough-minutes top-pair defenseman in the NHL who could score at a quality clip.”
Up next is SportsNet’s Jason Bukala, who has Verhoeff at fifth overall on his board. He thinks the kid is “mature.”
“I appreciate the fact Verhoeff challenged himself by making the decision to attend North Dakota and compete against players much older than him,” wrote Bukala. “I believe that if Verhoeff had held himself back and returned to Victoria, he would have scored around 30 goals and averaged well over 25 minutes per game of ice time. He’s still only 17 years old (turning 18 on June 19) and ended the season captaining Team Canada’s U18 squad in Slovakia. Verhoeff is a competitive workhorse who, at 6-foot-4, 215 pounds, is tracking to be a “do it all” prospect for whoever selects him at the draft.”
While Chris Peters of FloHockey ranks Verhoeff sixth on his draft board with a comparable to Aaron Ekblad.
“Among the defensemen in this class, Verhoeff may have the highest overall ceiling. As a 6-foot-4, 212-pound defenseman with good mobility and a strong athletic toolkit, there’s a lot to like,” wrote Peters. “Having seen the complete body of work, I believe Verhoeff has more offense than he showed this year and that he’ll be a more effective player next season given the steep learning curve for him this year. His skating, his puck play and athletic ability are all NHL assets at this point, no worse than NHL average. The hockey sense question planted just enough seeds of doubt for me to not list him among the top five players in this draft, but I would raise no objections to a team taking him at or near the top of the defense group.”
The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler had a lengthy piece on Verhoeff that I tried to grab some highlights from. Wheeler has Verhoeff ranked at eighth on his big board. Here’s some of what he had to say about the kid who played in the NCAA as a 17-year-old.
“At North Dakota, he has averaged 18:58 per game (third on their blue line), ran a power-play unit and had some spot usage on the PK, but I also thought he really struggled in stretches with his decision-making, reads and feet, and those issues were highlighted in some big games and in the Frozen Four,” wrote Wheeler. “Verhoeff has good vision and comfort on the puck, though he can occasionally bobble or over-skate it, and is prone to hanging onto it too long because he wants to make something happen, and a big shot. He’s competitive defensively and has a good stick, though he will make the odd mistake. When he’s going forward, he can round corners and circle the offensive zone. But he can also look a half step slow out of the blocks/pivots and even looks clumsy at times when he has to change directions or get going in a panic from a standstill in his own zone. He can make plays, he can run a power play and he has an NHL shot. He really likes holding onto pucks and can make little poised plays off of the end boards behind his net under pressure or attack down the wall and swing around the offensive zone. He has an NHL body. Plus, he’s a June birthday who has time to continue to build and elevate his game, and he’s a righty.”
Conclusion
As with Reid, Verhoeff is not ready to make the jump to the NHL. While he has the size to do it, there are current holes in his game that will need refining before he’s prepared to make the jump. In other words, drafting Verhoeff will not be an instant fix, so Sharks fans should be aware that this isn’t a Matthew Schaefer situation.
That said, this is a high-risk, high-reward play. There are more holes in Verhoeff’s game than there are in Reid’s, but if he’s able to fill those holes, he could be a home run pick.
That said, is it worth risking the second overall pick on a gamble? Probably not. If the Sharks were using the fifth or sixth overall selection to take Verhoeff, it might be worth it, but the second overall pick might be too much of a risk on a kid who has the potential to be just as much of a boom as a bust.
