The San Jose Sharks have signed University of Denver defenseman Eric Pohlkamp, the highest-scoring defenseman in the NCAA this season, to a two-year, entry-level contract, the team announced on Thursday. The Sharks drafted Pohlkamp with a fifth-round pick in 2023.<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old started his collegiate career at Bemidji State before transferring to Denver for his sophomore and junior seasons. The native of Baxter, Minn., had 18 goals and 21 assists in 43 games this season as the Pioneers won the national championship. He also was one of three finalists for the Hobey Baker Award, given to college hockey\u2019s top player.<\/p>\n
Pohlkamp also played on the Pioneers\u2019 Frozen Four team last season and became their leading blueliner after current Vancouver Canucks rookie Zeev Buium left to sign with the Minnesota Wild and make his debut in the Stanley Cup playoffs.<\/p>\n
Pohlkamp gives the Sharks another prospect in their defense pipeline as a right-hand shot with clear offensive instincts. He\u2019s sturdy at a listed 5-foot-11, 210 pounds, and has a big shot that\u2019s been effective on DU\u2019s power play.<\/p>\n
Many of San Jose\u2019s top young blueliners are left-handed shots, including current rookie and 2024 first-round pick Sam Dickinson, as well as Luca Cagnoni (now playing in the American Hockey League), Haoxi Wang (Ontario Hockey League) and Leo Sahlin Wallenius (Swedish Hockey League).<\/p>\n
The Sharks also have current AHL right-shot defender Mattias Havelid, but Pohlkamp could find an opportunity as the Sharks continue to revamp their patchwork defense corps, unless general manager Mike Grier goes outside the organization for immediate upgrades.<\/p>\n
In his 2025 breakdown of the Sharks\u2019 deep prospect pool, which he rated No. 1 among all NHL clubs, The Athletic\u2019s Scott Wheeler wrote that Pohlkamp plays a \u201cphysical, competitive and aggressive style\u201d defensively with one major offensive tool in his arsenal. \u201cHe also has one of the hardest point shots outside the NHL \u2014 like he can absolutely bomb it,\u201d Wheeler said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe doesn\u2019t look or play like your typical sub-6-foot defenseman, playing with decisiveness before poise, attacking past the first layer and often laying big hits,\u201d Wheeler wrote. \u201cI think he\u2019s got a chance to be an interesting pro defenseman, and I think he\u2019ll become good organizational depth at minimum for someone. He\u2019s also a righty. I\u2019m a fan and he wouldn\u2019t rank No. 15 in most pools.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Jose Sharks have signed University of Denver defenseman Eric Pohlkamp, the highest-scoring defenseman in the NCAA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[404,88,90,89,98],"class_list":{"0":"post-271335","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-san-jose","10":"tag-san-jose-headlines","11":"tag-san-jose-news","12":"tag-san-jose-sharks"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}