For 24-year-old Ethan Cardwell, this might be his last chance to show he has what it takes to make it on the San Jose Sharks’ roster. The young forward had a chance to force his way onto the roster last season, but an up-and-down showing when he did get the call up didn’t do him any favors. Instead, he was passed on the depth chart early in the season and, when the roster spots finally opened up in the spring, Cardwell was unavailable. The forward suffered a season-ending injury in February that kept him off the ice.
In total, Cardwell played just seven games for the Sharks, notching one point (1 G, 0 A) and finishing a minus-3. He also played 24 games for the Barracuda, finishing the season with 15 points (7 G, 8 A).
Position: Right Wing/Center
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 180 pounds
Age: 24
Date of Birth: August 30, 2002
Draft Year: 2021 (121st overall by the San Jose Sharks)
Shoots: Right
2026–27 Team: Expected to play top-line minutes with the San Jose Barracuda, while pushing for more NHL looks with the Sharks
Sadly for Cardwell, missing his window might be the problem. While he was out with his injury, forward Igor Chernyshov grabbed hold of that top-six forward spot and claimed it as his own. At the same time, center Zack Ostapchuk took charge of the fourth-line center role. What’s more, Collin Graf has earned the coaching staff’s trust and cemented himself as a reliable middle-six forward who can be used in any situation. Cardwell will now have to prove that he’s a better option than any of those three young players, and since you haven’t seen them on this top 25 list yet, you can bet that they’re ranked higher than the young forward.
For those of you keeping track, Cardwell finished 17th in our player poll last season and has dropped down to 19th this season.
What we like
When he’s on his game, Cardwell has an engine that’s always going. He works hard to get to the puck and to get it away from the opponent. He’s a fighter.
In 2025, The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler called Cardwell a “… crafty playmaker who knows his way around the ice, plays fast and works hard to win his races and come away from the wall with the puck to make something happen. He’s got good anticipation and instincts, both on and off the puck. He plays with jump and sense/feel.”
Cardwell is a smart hockey player who knows how to make things happen on the ice. If we were handing out roster spots on effort alone, then Cardwell would probably get one.
Areas of improvement
The trouble for Cardwell is that he’s already at a slight disadvantage because of his size. At 5-foot-11, he’s smaller than his competition. While that might work when you’re a top-six forward breezing by opponents, it’s not so good when you’re asked to be a checking forward in the bottom six. And that’s what Cardwell’s role appears to be.
This season, if he’s going to prove that he can be more than an NHL/AHL tweener, he’ll have to adjust his game. Cardwell isn’t the top-six NHL player he might have envisioned himself to be when he was first drafted. It’s more clear now that players like Chernyshov and Ivar Stenberg have locked up those top-six spots on the Sharks’ roster. If Cardwell wants to play on the Sharks, he’ll need to prepare himself for a bottom-six role.
And that means adjusting his game, something he hasn’t done consistently to date. This past season, when he played solely on the fourth line, he was not an impact player.
When you look at Evolving-Hockey’s goals above replacement chart for all forwards who played 30 minutes or more for the Sharks last season, there were only two skaters who had a worse time of it on the ice than Cardwell — Barclay Goodrow and Ty Dellandrea.
Both Goodrow and Dellandrea bring other attributes to the ice outside of their play that will help them earn positions in the lineup. Goodrow is a veteran presence. Dellandrea is a center and has more size and grit. Cardwell, at this point in his career, doesn’t offer either of those attributes. He’ll need to do more if he wants to beat out the other rookies and the current veterans for ice time in the NHL.
What’s next for Cardwell?
Which is why we’re predicting that Cardwell will play for the Barracuda this fall. The 24-year-old signed a one-year, two-way deal with the Sharks this summer. We don’t expect that he’ll put on enough of a show at training camp to force the Sharks to send Chernyshov, Graf or Ostapchuk down to the Barracuda. We also don’t expect the Sharks to bench/trade Adam Gaudette, Dellandrea or Goodrow, so that Cardwell gets a spot in the lineup. The only other answer is that Cardwell is bound for the Barracuda once again.
The hiccup for the Sharks this time around is that Cardwell’s contract is not waivers-exempt. That means that every time they want to move the kid to the Sharks and then back to Barracuda, he will need to clear waivers. Each time Cardwell moves, the Sharks risk losing the young forward to another team.
Highlights
When Cardwell is running at full speed, he has a scoring touch and he create some impressive highlights. Take, for instance, this preseason matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights on Oct. 3.
Ethan Cardwell makes it 1-0 #SJSharks!! pic.twitter.com/zenUWm4ToW
— JD Young (@MyFryHole) October 4, 2025
Cardwell scored the first goal of the game, going bar down.
But he can score other ways too. He scored later in the game as well. In the third period, he tossed the puck at the net for his second of the night.
ETHAN CARDWELL GIVES THE #SJSHARKS A 3-0 LEAD! pic.twitter.com/VIsBjrkMLq
— JD Young (@MyFryHole) October 4, 2025
Cardwell later capped things off with an empty-netter to complete the hat trick.
What’s interesting about the 24-year-old is that while he sometimes looks out of place in the NHL, he also looks too good for the AHL at times. Take this defensive play that he made in October for the Barracuda.
This is why Ethan Cardwell will play a lot of NHL games. pic.twitter.com/VIzJhoEzv1
— JD Young (@MyFryHole) October 25, 2024
Cardwell is extremely aggressive on the penalty kill — a part of his game that he’s worked hard on in the AHL — and then he beats the defenseman to the puck in a race the other way. While it’s a 50-50 puck, Cardwell outmuscles the defenseman to win the battle and then gets it to the trailing player for the empty-net goal.
2026 Top 25 Under 25 countdown … so far
20. Nolan Allan
21. Haoxi Wang
22. Cole McKinney
23. Carson Wetsch
24. Mattias Havelid
25. Christian Kirsch
Honorable Mentions: Joey Muldowney, Teddy Mutryn, Andre Gasseau, Brady Knowling and Alexander Karmanov
Editor’s Note: More than 100 people voted in our fan poll this year, though admittedly, not everyone filled out the entire form, i.e., all 25 spots and the honorable mentions. In some cases, some people filled out their top ten and left the rest blank. While it makes the math a bit harder, we found the fairest (and easiest) thing to do was average the scores based on the total responses received. While blank scores counted as zero, it didn’t seem to skew the results too badly. Ultimately, this isn’t an exact science, but I think you’ll find it’s a pretty good list.
