Thank you to everyone who voted in this year’s Fear the Fin Top 25 Sharks Under 25 fan poll. We received well over 100 votes and after looking at the list, I can honestly say there are a lot of good reasons to be hopeful about the present and the future of the San Jose Sharks.
A quick note about our process before I jump into the honorable mentions. While more than 100 people voted, not everyone filled out the entire form. Some people only chose their top ten Sharks. That’s okay. The trouble is, that makes the math a bit harder. Still, the fairest (and honestly easiest) thing to do when creating the list was to average the scores based on the total responses received, even if some of those responses were blank and thus counted as a zero. It didn’t seem to skew the scores too badly. So, we just averaged the score based on the total number of responses we received. I think when you look at the list in its entirety, you’ll find it’s pretty spot on.
And now a mea culpa. When I created the Top 25 Under 25 list, I left Joey Muldowney off the list, mistakenly thinking that the young forward was no longer eligible to play with the Sharks. Upon further review, Muldowney has one more season before the Sharks need to decide whether to sign him or cut him loose. That’s on me.
Because of my mistake, Muldowney wasn’t on the voting list, so we’ll put him on the honorable mention by default. Truthfully, had I put him on the list, he likely would have ended up somewhere in the 20 to honorable mention range anyway, so this isn’t far off from where he belongs.
Joey Muldowney
Position: Forward
Height: 5’9″
Weight: 160 pounds
Age: 22
Date of Birth: June 5, 2004
Draft Year: 2022 (172nd overall by San Jose Sharks)
Shoots: Right
2026-27 Team: University of Connecticut Huskies (NCAA)
22-year-old Joey Muldowney was eligible to leave the University of Connecticut this spring and sign with the Sharks, but the forward didn’t take a step in his development in his junior season with UConn. That’s most likely a contributing factor in why he didn’t receive a contract offer in the spring. Muldowney went from 47 points (29 G, 18 A) in 37 games in the 24-25 season to 28 points (17 G, 11 A) in 33 games in the 25-26 season; it was a regression.
This season, look for the senior forward to show he’s ready to take a shot at professional hockey. Muldowney has the skill set to make the jump to the next level; he just needs to show he can put it all together.
Teddy Mutryn
Position: Forward
Height: 6’1″
Weight: 209 pounds
Age: 19
Date of Birth: Feb. 16, 2007
Draft Year: 2025 (95th overall by San Jose Sharks)
Shoots: Right
2026-27 Team: Boston College (NCAA)
Teddy Mutryn missed out on our list last season, but he’s worked his way into our honorable mentions this time around. His work ethic is what’s helped him move up the rankings. The center is considered a hardworking, two-way forward. He’s the kind of player that general managers like in their bottom six, and the Sharks are just waiting to see if he continues to bring that level of intensity and physicality to his next level, Boston College.
Mutryn had a good summer, where he played for Team USA in the World Junior Summer Showcase. He scored one goal in seven games, but he was defensively responsible and made this play to break up an attack by Canada.
Teddy Mutryn (USA | #SJSharks) breaks up the Canadian entry and goes on the attack shorthanded. #WJSS #WJCShowcase @DraftProHockey pic.twitter.com/twKp99BhpL
— On The Fly (@OnTheFly1515) August 1, 2026
Mutryn played the 2025-26 season with the Moncton Wildcats in the QMJHL, where he had 68 points (31 G, 37 A) in 54 games.
Andre Gasseau
Position: Forward
Height: 6’4″
Weight: 225 pounds
Age: 23
Date of Birth: July 3, 2003
Draft Year: 2021 (213th overall by Boston Bruins)
Shoots: Left
2026-27 Team: San Jose Barracuda (AHL)/San Jose Sharks (NHL)
Adding one of the new guys to our honorable mentions list, Andre Gasseau joined the Sharks’ prospect pool in June when the Sharks traded a fourth- and fifth-round pick in 2026 for Gasseau and a 2026 fourth-round pick. Gasseau just wrapped up his senior season at Boston College, where he wore the “C” for the Eagles. He was a point-per-game player, registering 23 points (6 G, 17 A).
Fans shouldn’t get too concerned about the fact that Boston traded away the rights to Gasseau. It looks like the forward wasn’t going to sign an entry-level deal with the Bruins (Causeway Crowd), so Boston dealt the player to try to get something in return. Gasseau isn’t an A-level prospect, but he’s a big guy and projects to be a bottom-six forward if all goes well.
In 2025, The Athletic’s Corey Pronman wrote: “He’s a big center who moves reasonably well for his size. He has a solid two-way game and makes enough plays to produce secondary offense. Gasseau’s physicality has become more of a factor lately. That he’s added that element gives him a potential path to being a bottom-six NHL forward, given he won’t be a true offensive guy.”
Given that the Sharks have the top-six almost set, don’t sleep on Gasseau. The forward could become a factor with the team as soon as this season if there are injuries or trades. That’s why his 2026-27 team is listed as the Barracuda or the Sharks.
Brady Knowling
Position: Goaltender
Height: 6’5″
Weight: 203 pounds
Age: 18
Date of Birth: March 9, 2008
Draft Year: 2026 (127th overall by San Jose Sharks)
Catches: Left
2026-27 Team: Saginaw Spirit (OHL)
Shiny new toys are fun, and goaltender Brady Knowling is just that. We presume the fourth-round pick made it into the honorable mentions because he’s got such raw talent that he could, maybe, become another amazing asset in the goaltending pipeline that the Sharks appear to be building up.
Knowling is a bit of a wildcard because there are times when he looks like a number one goaltender. He’s big, he’s good at positioning and he takes up a lot of the net. But he has a ton of flaws too. Like most 18-year-olds, he’s not always consistent, and that can lead to trouble.
He played for the United States National Team Development Program Juniors last season in the USHL, where he finished with an 8-5-1 record, 3.33 goals-against average and .886 save percentage. He also backstopped the U.S. National U18 Team and finished with a 15-12-0 record, 3.56 goals-against average and .880 save percentage. The numbers aren’t great, but as Chris Peters from FloHockey wrote in a pre-draft scouting report, his numbers can be taken with a grain of salt.
“Knowling made the U.S. World Junior Team this year, but also didn’t have a particularly amazing season in the stats,” wrote Peters. “That said, he’s a 6-foot-5 goalie with all the tools you’re looking for. The team in front of him was poor this year, which gives him a little grace on the poor numbers, but selecting him among the top goalies in the draft is done largely on a projection with shallow evidence. He still has the ceiling teams take a chance on and I can’t blame them.”
Alexander Karmanov
Position: Defense
Height: 7’1″
Weight: 271 pounds
Age: 18
Date of Birth: March 22, 2008
Draft Year: 2026 (201st overall by San Jose Sharks)
Shoots: Left
2026-27 Team: North Bay Battalion (OHL)
We’ll wrap things up with Alexander Karmanov, who I can safely say was chosen for his size more than his skill. Karmanov has a lot of development to do, including allowing his skill to catch up with his 7’1″ frame. However, if he can get close to what the Sharks are hoping he can be, the defenseman will definitely do some damage.
As the tallest player ever drafted in the NHL, Karmanov isn’t an extremely impactful hockey player at the moment in any other category other than size. He split time between the Brantford Titans in the GOJHL and the North Bay Battalion in the OHL last season. The season before, he was playing with the 16U AAA Scranton Knights. To make the jump from AAA to the GOJHL to the OHL in the span of about 18 months shows that his development trajectory isn’t bad. That said, most kids are playing in the OHL for a full season, especially when they’ve been playing hockey since they were kids, as Karmanov has.
Karmanov will have a full season with the Battalion, so we’ll see how well he does. If he improves his skating and his defensive reads are good, then he might jump up our rankings next season.
