Fear the Flashback: Looking back at the Sharks 2006 draft

Hop in the DeLorean folks, we’re going all the way back to 2006: A time when the NHL was recovering from a stupid lockout by letting the Carolina Hurricanes win the Stanley Cup by beating the Edmonton Oilers. The Sharks had an interesting draft that year and we’re going to deep dive right on into it. Ready? (All data is from hockey-reference.com)

Let’s take it from the top. Ty Wishart was taken by the Sharks with the 16th pick in the draft. He never played a game for the Sharks and only played 26 NHL games in his career, but nevertheless is an important part of San Jose history. He was traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning, along with a first rounder that was used on Kyle Palmeiri, a fourth rounder and Matt Carle, to get Dan Boyle.

So we’re going to call that pick and trade a qualified success, what do you think? The Sharks second pick undoubtedly turned out just fine. San Jose took Jamie McGinn with the 36th pick in the draft and, as we saw on Tuesday, McGinn continues to be an effective NHL player. He played 204 games in teal and scored 49 points.

San Jose didn’t have a third round pick and took James Delory out of Oshawa with the 98th pick in the draft. He, along with fifth round pick Ashton Rome and seventh rounder Jay Barriball, never played an NHL game. The Sharks’ sixth round selection, on the other hand, has stuck in the organization for a very long time.

John McCarthy was drafted with the 202nd pick in the draft out of Boston University. He has 88 career NHL games, all with the Sharks, and has played a whopping 373 AHL contests while scoring 205 points. McCarthy has never managed to move past being an AHL scorer, but he has been a great organizational guy for the team.

Let’s double back to the third round pick the Sharks traded away. That pick went to the New York Rangers for Ville Nieminen just before the trade deadline. Nieminen scored just nine points in 52 games with the Sharks while the pick, which was eventually traded to Anaheim, became John de Gray.

De Gray never became an NHL player, but he did once get in a fight with another 2006 Sharks draftee … that’s right, McCarthy. What a small world it is.