It’s draft day, San Jose Sharks fans, and General Manager Mike Grier has been wheeling and dealing to get the team not one, not two, but three picks in the first round of this year’s draft. As of the time of this posting (I make no guarantees about what happens after), the Sharks have the following picks:
#⃣ Got our (updated) numbers. pic.twitter.com/gTPCY8WTdm
— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) June 24, 2026
With three picks in the first round … for now … the Sharks are set to make moves in tonight. Whether it’s bolstering one of the best prospect pools in the NHL or making a trade to make the current core better, the Sharks are certain to make a splash tonight.
Fear the Fin took a look at who the Sharks could select at second overall in some previous posts. While defensemen Chase Reid, Carson Carels and Keaton Verhoeff are certainly entertaining prospects and would most definitely help the Sharks in a position that they need the most, they’re likely not going to be the best player available when that second pick rolls around. That honor will most likely go to Ivar Stenberg.
Grier seemed to signal to the hockey world that he was thinking along the same lines earlier this week when he traded William Eklund, Kasper Halttunen and Brandon Svoboda to the Ottawa Senators to acquire the 9th overall pick in this year’s draft. You don’t send out a top-six forward on a team that’s on the rise unless you think you can replace that kind of offense immediately. Stenberg projects to do just that.
As for that 9th overall pick. There’s hope that Carels, Reid, or Verhoeff will drop to 9th, and there’s an outside chance that one of them will. If not, defensemen like Alberts Šmits or Daxon Rudolph are likely to be available. We looked at both of them in a separate post. Either one of them would also immediately boost San Jose’s defensive prospect pool, with Rudolph giving San Jose a potential top power play quarterback of the future.
As for the 27th overall pick, it’s hard to say. At that point in the draft, no one knows what’s going to be left. General managers tend to go so far off-script by then that it truly is a best-player-available game. I always think back to last season when Grier chose goaltender Joshua Ravensbergen despite having Yaroslav Askarov in the pipeline. At this point, if he sticks to his script, Sharks fans should be good.
The first round of the NHL draft starts at 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET on ESPN. Rounds 2-7 will start at 8 a.m. PT/11 a.m. ET on Saturday on NHL Network/ESPN+ and SportsNet.
