As the San Jose Sharks prepare for the 2025 NHL Entry Draft, we have a bit of time to take a look at what happened five years ago. With 20/20 hindsight, we’re not only looking at who the Sharks drafted, but who the team could have drafted instead.
We realize this is a silly endeavor in that it assumes that San Jose is the only team with the benefit of hindsight. That means that at times, we’re holding off on drafting the best player until we absolutely have to. Think Marty McFly in Back to the Future II. We traveled forward and then returned with a fancy sports book that contains all the details from the 2020 draft, specifically which players were taken and where.
The only other rule we’re sticking to is that we’re not undoing any trades. That just makes it too complex. So, with those two rules in mind, we’re re-drafting in 2020 for the Sharks with all of our insider information.
With pick 31, the San Jose Sharks select …
Who the Sharks drafted: Forward Ozzy Wiesblatt
Who the Sharks should have drafted: Forward JJ Peterka
In one of the most heartwarming moments of the 2020 draft, the Sharks selected Ozzy Wiesblatt, taking special effort to sign his name so that Wiesblatt’s mother, who is deaf, could know at the same moment her son did. The trouble for the Sharks is that Wiesblatt never managed to make it to the NHL for the Sharks. In June, the team traded him to the Nashville Predators for Egor Afanasyev. Wiesblatt has played just four NHL games in his career. Afanazyev played in the KHL last season, though he’ll return to the Sharks in the fall.
The Sharks should have drafted JJ Peterka, who would have been the best forward available at that point in the draft. The 6-foot-0 right wing has already played 226 career NHL games and has 137 points (62 G, 75 A). He’s a career minus-9 on a Buffalo Sabres team that hasn’t had a ton to cheer about recently.
With pick 38, the San Jose Sharks select …
Who the Sharks drafted: Forward Thomas Bordeleau
Who the Sharks should have drafted: Defenseman Brock Faber
Other options: RW Luke Evangelista (42nd overall); G Joel Blomqvist (52nd overall)
The Sharks selected Thomas Bordeleau with the 38th overall pick. We like Bordeleau, but he had trouble cracking the Sharks’ lineup this past season and appears to be slowly falling down the Sharks’ prospect ladder. At this point, Bordeleau looks like he’s going to be a winger at the NHL level, which is fine except that there’s a defenseman on the board that would serve the Sharks much better.
Brock Faber was selected 45th overall by the Los Angeles Kings. While it took the defenseman a little longer to develop, he is now looking like a solid NHL defenseman with offensive upside. He came in second in Calder Trophy voting last season behind Connor Bedard. Faber had 47 points in 82 games in his rookie season. And, he’s a right-shot defenseman, something most GMs covet.
With pick 56, the San Jose Sharks select …
Who the Sharks drafted: Forward Tristen Robins
Who the Sharks should have drafted: Defenseman Alexander Nikishin
Other options: D Mason Lohrei (58th overall), LW Will Cuylle (60th overall), D Topi Niemela (64th overall) and D Lukas Cormier (68th overall)
The San Jose Sharks took Tristen Robins 56th overall in 2020, and for a while, it looked like the forward would be an excellent second-round pick. But Robins’ game has fallen off since the draft, and he was recently traded to the Ottawa Senators, ending his tenure with the Sharks’ organization.
A better option for the Sharks would have been Alexander Nikishin. The 69th overall pick by the Carolina Hurricanes was released from his contract in the KHL early and suited up for the Hurricanes in the series against the Florida Panthers. While he only registered one assist and was a minus-five, the entire Hurricanes team was steamrolled by the Panthers so we can’t really use that as a measuring stick for Nikishin.
Nikishin is an offensive defenseman with top-four pairing potential, according to The Daily Faceoff, and he’s seventh on the Hockey Writers’ list of top 100 prospects, calling him one of the best two-way defenders in the KHL.
With pick 76, the San Jose Sharks select …
Who the Sharks drafted: Forward Danil Gushchin
Who the Sharks should have drafted: Forward Alex Laferriere
Other options: G Calle Clang (77th overall), D Wyatt Kaiser (81st overall), G Nico Daws (84th overall) and D Jack Thompson (93rd overall)
This one was a close one because there is a lot to like about Danil Gushchin’s game, but Gushchin is still trying to force his way into the NHL on a team that’s not competitive, while Alex Laferriere (83rd overall) has earned a spot on the playoff-bound Los Angeles Kings.
Laferriere is in his second full NHL season and has 57 points in 147 career games. He’s plus-15 this season. According to Corey Pronman of The Athletic: “Laferriere checks a lot of boxes. He’s a good skater, with strong puck skills and offensive instincts. He’s not going to run guys over, but he doesn’t mind playing the body and can create at the hard areas of the ice. He doesn’t particularly stand out at either end of the rink so I do wonder what his long-term role is, but regardless there’s a place for him on a team’s bottom six.”
Development-wise, Laferriere is much further along than Gushchin, though time will tell where each player will end up in ten years.
With pick 98, the San Jose Sharks select …
Who the Sharks drafted: Forward Brandon Coe
Who the Sharks should have drafted: Goaltender Dylan Garand
Other options: LW Mikael Pyyhtia (114th overall), C Sean Farrell (124th overall), D Isaak Phillips (141st overall), D Matthew Kessel (150th overall), C Matt Rempe (165th overall)
This one was close because Brandon Coe was a very good pick at 98th overall, but a top goaltending prospect is something that’s hard to come by. That’s the only reason we’re taking 103rd overall pick Dylan Garand a little earlier. Garand is considered one of the top prospects in the New York Rangers’ prospect pool, according to The Athletic. While he’s not the best young goaltending prospect (that honor goes to Yaroslav Askarov), Garand is certainly up there.
With picks 196, 201, 206 and 210, the San Jose Sharks select …
The Sharks had four picks in the seventh round, where finding an NHL player is rare. Alex Young at 196th overall, Adam Raska at 201st overall, Linus Oberg at 206th overall and Timofey Spitserov at 210th overall isn’t horrible. Raska has NHL games and Spitserov had 18 points in 33 games at the University of Vermont this season. It wasn’t bad.
That said, drafting left wing Gunnarwolfe Fontaine for the name alone would have been worth it. He played at a point-per-game pace this season at Ohio State. It is his fifth season in college hockey.
Conclusion
Scouting matters. The NHL draft is a crap shoot at best. The Sharks didn’t do bad in 2020, but it’s clear some other teams found some diamonds in the rough.
