The San Jose Sharks have drafted some impressive players in the team’s 30-plus-year history. Guys like Joe Pavelski, Patrick Marleau, Logan Couture and Tomas Hertl have all come out of the San Jose prospect pool. They are homegrown talents that went on to become some of the most elite players in the league. But single wins in a draft class for any team are much more common than an entire class or even 50% of that class becoming NHL players, let alone noticeable ones.
Which got Fear the Fin thinking, the outlook for the 2023 draft class is pretty good in the year after the draft. (We’re not ready to look at the 2024 class just yet, though we might be getting close.) While we don’t know how the 2023 players will turn out at the moment, the future looks bright for at least three or four of the nine players drafted in 2023. Could it be a contender for the best draft class in Sharks’ history?
San Jose Sharks 2023 NHL Draft Class
Let’s start out with what we know about the 2023 Sharks draft class. Will Smith was taken fourth overall and is now, officially, an NHL player. While it’s taken some time to come into his own, Smith’s game appears to be growing. There’s reason to hope, too. Smith excelled in his first year post-draft. He helped Boston College to the NCAA National Championship game. While BC lost the game, Smith was named to the Frozen Four All-Tournament team. He finished the season with 71 points in 41 games.
Also drafted in the first round was Quentin Musty. In his first season post-draft, Musty broke the 100-point mark with the Sudbury Wolves in the OHL during the regular season. He finished with 102 points in 53 games. His team made it to the playoffs and won its first round before being eliminated in the second round by the North Bay Battalion. Musty had 10 points in 8 playoff games. He appeared to be on pace for another impressive season this year until he fractured his hand.
In the second round, the team traded up to take Kasper Halttunen, who was one of the top power-play goal-scorers in the OHL this season. Halttunen spent a handful of games with the San Jose Barracuda this season, an impressive feat for a 19-year-old, before he was sent back to the London Knights.
Just like last season, the Knights are impressive. The team is looking to follow up its Memorial Cup appearance and OHL Championship last season with another one this season. Halttunen is expected to be a big contributor on that front. He had 61 points in 57 regular season games last season. He has three points in four games now that he’s back in the OHL.
Meantime, it looks like Luca Cagnoni was a fourth-round steal. Cagnoni has 16 points in 16 games with the Barracuda, and he’s second in the AHL in scoring by a defenseman. That’s an impressive followup to his performance last season when he the best season by a WHL defenseman in 30 years. Cagnoni finished last year with 90 points and then helped his Portland Winterhawks advance to the WHL championships where they were beaten by the Moose Jaw Warriors.
Other draft picks include Brandon Svoboda, who has an outside shot of making Team USA in the World Junior Championship this winter, Axel Landen, Eric Pohlkamp, who is one of the top defensemen on the defending NCAA Championship team at the University of Denver, David Klee and Yegor Rimashevskiy, who snuck in at 17 on The Athletic’s Corey Pronman’s top Sharks’ prospects.
In other words, many of the players drafted by the Sharks in 2023 have taken large steps forward in development and are projected, at this point, to play NHL games. With Smith already in the NHL and Cagnoni looking like he could make the jump as soon as next season, the class of 2023 is already bringing a promising NHL forward and defenseman to the table.
Who can compete with the Sharks 2023 draft class?
So, what draft class is comparable to the Sharks’ 2023 class? Not as many as you might think.
There are many draft years where there are one or maybe two NHL-caliber players, but there’s no depth. Then there are a few seasons where the Sharks drafted a bonafide star like Timo Meier (2015) or Tomas Hertl (2012) and Patrick Marleau (1997) but didn’t have much luck in the later rounds.
Some drafts have two or three serviceable NHL players, but they lacked star power. The Sharks drafted Dylan DeMelo and Matt Nieto in 2011 but didn’t get much else out of the draft.
The 2001 draft class also lacked star power. That’s when the Sharks drafted Marcel Goc, Christian Ehrhoff, Dimitri Patzold, Tomas Plihal, Ryane Clowe and Tom Cavanagh. While Goc played 646 career NHL games, Ehrhoff played 789 and Clowe played 491, none of them were true top line players.
Draft success needs both a star and depth players who are all capable of playing roles in the NHL.
We scoured the Sharks’ draft history and came up with five groupings that might be comparable. It’s much easier to judge in hindsight, but if you think back to some of the classes below, you’ll likely realize that you weren’t as excited about them at the time as you are now about the current crop of players. At least we weren’t.
Here’s a look at potential comparables in reverse order.
Honorable Mention: 1995’s goalies
There weren’t many skaters that contributed to the Sharks out of the 1995 draft, but the team really nailed it in the goaltending department. In 1995, the Sharks drafted Teemu Riihijarvi, Peter Roed, Marko Makinen, Vesa Toskala, Miikka Kiprusoff, Michal Bros, Timo Hakanen, Jaroslav Kudrna, Brad Mehalko, Robert Jindrich, Ryan Kraft and Mikko Markkanen.
Of them, Toskala and Kiprusoff were the most successful picks. Toskala played 266 games and had 129 wins. Kiprusoff played 623 games and had 319 wins, though most of those occurred with the Calgary Flames.
Honorable Mention: The 2017 class had two solid NHL players
The 2017 class had a top-line center in the mix, though he’s not playing in teal. In 2017, the Sharks drafted Josh Norris, Mario Ferraro, Ivan Chekhovich, Jacob McGrew, Scott Reedy and Sasha Chmelevski. While Norris has 137 points in 204 career games (as of Nov. 28), none of those came with the Sharks. He was traded to the Ottawa Senators in the deal that brought Erik Karlsson to San Jose.
Ferraro, as Sharks fans know, is an NHL defenseman, though he’s more mid-to-bottom pairing than the top pairing he’s currently playing. Ferraro already has 330 NHL games to his name. Reedy played 35 games for the Sharks in 2021-22, but hasn’t found his way back to the NHL since then. Chmelevski also last played for the Sharks in 2021-22 and has 24 career NHL games.
Getting an A-list forward and an NHL defenseman out of a single class isn’t bad, even if the Sharks haven’t been able to reap the rewards on one of the players personally.
5. Couture’s 2007 draft class offers some competition
You have to go all the way back to 2007 to find some comparable competition. That’s when Logan Couture was drafted ninth overall. In addition to Couture, the Sharks drafted Timo Pielmeier, Patrik Zackrisson, Nick Petrecki, Justin Braun, Nick Bonino, Tyson Sexsmith and Frazer McLaren.
Couture offers this class the star power it needs. He’s still a playoff legend. Meanwhile, Braun and Bonino offer the required depth. Braun played 842 NHL games before he retired—not bad for a defenseman drafted 201st overall. Who knew he had some interview skills as well? While Bonino didn’t start his career in teal, he eventually ended up playing for the Sharks. He has 868 NHL games under his belt. McLaren had 102 NHL games of his own.
4. Vlasic headlines 2005 draft class
Say what you want about Marc-Edouard Vlasic, but he was once an elite defenseman, and he is still capable of putting together solid shifts at the NHL level. That should count as the star power that a draft class requires.
Add to that players like Devin Setoguchi, Alex Stalock, Derek Joslin, Tony Lucia, Paul Fenton, Taylor Dakers and William Colbert, and you have enough support to put the 2005 draft class on this list.
Vlasic, as you know, is one of the longest-active defensemen in the NHL. He’s played 1,288 games and counting. Joslin played 116 career NHL games between the Sharks, Hurricanes and Canucks. Stalock has 179 career games and 70 wins. He has a 2.70 goals against average and .908 save percentage. While Setoguchi played 516 NHL games and had 261 points when he retired.
The sheer number of combined NHL games played by this draft class might give the 2023 class a run for its money.
3. Nabby and Friesen 1994
It’s hard to discount a class that included the winningest goaltender in San Jose Sharks history. 1994 saw the Sharks draft Jeff Friesen, Angel Nikolov, Alexei Yegorov, Vaclav Varada, Brian Swanson, Alexander Korolyuk, Sergei Gorbachev, Eric Landry, Evgeni Nabokov, Tomas Pisa, Aniket Dhadphale and David Beauregard.
Friesen went on to score 516 points in 893 career NHL games. Varada had 493 career NHL games of his own. Korolyuk played 296 career NHL games, all with the Sharks. But the biggest get in the draft was Nabby.
Nabokov played 697 career NHL games and finished with 353 career wins, a 2.44 goals against average and a .911 save percentage.
2. 1998 can claim a Rocket Richard winner
Accolades seem to get you everywhere in the NHL and elevate your status and that’s what’s happening with the 1998 draft class. In 1998, the Sharks drafted Brad Stuart, Jonathan Cheechoo, Eric Laplante, Rob Davison, Miroslav Zalesak, Brandon Coalter, Mikael Samuelsson, Robert Mulick and Jim Fahey.
Stuart played 1,056 games in the NHL and finished with 335 points. Cheechoo had 501 career games, but the highlight was 2005-06 when he scored 56 goals en route to a Rocket Richard trophy. Cheechoo finished with 170 career goals.
Samuelsson was another great find for the Sharks in the later rounds, though he only played four games for the team. The forward finished with 699 NHL games. Davison also had several seasons in the NHL, finishing with 219 games.
1. Sharks snag Pavelski in the seventh round of the 2003 draft
The Sharks found the diamond in the rough of the 2003 draft class. Joe Pavelski, drafted 205th overall, took over as the highest-scoring player out of the entire 2003 draft last season. He has more career points than Eric Staal, Thoams Vanek, Jeff Carter, Dustin Brown, Brent Seabrook, Ryan Getzlaf, Brent Burns, Mike Richards…well, you get the idea.
Pavelski was the big star of the 2003 draft, but there were some other notable names in the class. In 2003, the Sharks also drafted Milan Michalek, Steve Bernier, Matt Carle, Carter Lee, Brian O’Hanley, Alexander Hult, Kai Hospelt, Jonathan Tremblay, Patrick Ehelechner and Josh Hennessy.
Carle went on to play 730 career NHL games, Bernier played 637, Michalek had 747 career NHL games and 446 points, and Hennessy played 23 NHL games.
So, while Pavelski was the headliner, there were some other acts such as Carle, Bernier and Michalek that added bulk to the 2003 draft class.
Is 2023 the best draft in Sharks’ history?
Ultimately, time will tell, but the 2023 class of draftees has the potential to compete as one of the best draft classes in Sharks’ history. There’s at least one player in the mix, Smith, who is considered a top-line forward. Depending on how Musty develops his game, he, too, could be a long-term NHLer.
We’re hoping that Cagnoni beats the odds and outplays his size. In a league that’s getting faster, more skilled and less gritty, Cagnoni might be coming along at just the right time for his skill set. If that’s the case, he could also be an impactful player at the NHL level.
Then there are the intangibles. Has Pohlkamp hit his ceiling, or is there more development left for the eldest of the Sharks’ 2023 draftees? Will Halttunen’s power play acumen translate from the OHL to the AHL or even the NHL? What could Rimashevskiy, a 19-year-old playing consistently against men in the KHL, bring if/when he eventually moves over from Russia?
As with all draft classes, time will tell, but at the moment, things look bright for San Jose’s 2023 draft class.
