{"id":377451,"date":"2026-06-27T18:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T18:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/377451\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T18:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T18:46:11","slug":"san-jose-sharks-earn-rave-reviews-for-round-1-haul-in-2026-nhl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/377451\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks Earn Rave Reviews for Round 1 Haul in 2026 NHL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

The San Jose Sharks<\/a> went into the 2026 NHL Draft with three first-round picks and plenty of debate about how the front office would address dire needs versus drafting the best player available. Coming out of Round 1 on Friday night, general manager Mike Grier is drawing rave reviews for what could be a league-altering draft haul.<\/p>\n

Scott Wheeler of The Athletic<\/a> named the Sharks as the biggest winner from the first round of the 2026 NHL Draft, adding to a young core that \u201cshould be the envy of the league\u201d moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the Sharks perfectly executed this draft cycle and are the biggest winners of Round 1. They need a premium D prospect more than another premium young forward as an organization, but I think they came to the right conclusion that Stenberg was the best player available at No. 2, and they still managed to get one of the top D in the draft at No. 9 in Verhoeff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott Wheeler on the San Jose Sharks\u2019 Round 1 haul in the 2026 NHL Draft<\/p>\n

Related: San Jose Sharks Named Best Landing Spot for Future Hall of Famer<\/a><\/p>\n

For weeks leading up to the NHL Draft, there was ample speculation regarding who the Sharks would target with the second pick. The consensus seemed to be that Grier would prioritize the franchise\u2019s need for a top-line defenseman, passing on winger Ivar Stenberg in favor of someone like Chase Reid.<\/p>\n

However, Grier\u2019s philosophy as the Sharks\u2019 general manager has been to take the best player available. When San Jose traded winger William Eklund in a package for the ninth overall pick, it became evident that San Jose planned to take Stenberg second and then grab a defenseman with the No. 9 selection.<\/p>\n

Related: Keaton Verhoeff On Where He Can Improve, Celebrini Phone Call<\/a><\/p>\n

On draft night, the board fell perfectly in the Sharks\u2019 favor with defenseman Keaton Verhoeff available at the ninth pick. San Jose wasted no time in taking the right-handed defenseman, with Grier admitting in his post-draft press conference on Friday that trade conversations involving the pick stopped when San Jose saw he\u2019d be available.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been a little lower on Verhoeff over the last two years than most, but the consensus started to line up more with me toward the end of his freshman year at North Dakota. Still, despite some of the yellow flags his boots and decision-making raise for me, he\u2019s still a pro-built right-shot summer birthday who already has pedigree in the NCAA, WHL and internationally with Hockey Canada. His size, handedness, shot, strong overall tools and development runway should make him a stud defenseman in the league and still landed him high on my board.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott Wheeler on the San Jose Sharks selecting Keaton Verhoeff<\/p>\n

The good fortune didn\u2019t end there for San Jose. As defenseman Ryan Lin continued to experience a draft-night slide, Grier seized on an opportunity to move up for him. San Jose packaged the 27th overall pick with the 72nd and 120th overall selections to move up to No. 21 to snag Lin.<\/p>\n

Related: Sharks\u2019 First-Round Pick on Practicing with Macklin Celebrini<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve followed my work on this draft class, it should come as no surprise to you that I\u2019m high on the selection of Lin, my favorite prospect in it. I think he\u2019s one of the smartest, most polished, and most competitive D in this class. I think he\u2019s a better skater and athlete than people gave him credit for, and I think he\u2019s going to be an impactful top-four intellectually puck-moving D in the NHL.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott Wheeler on San Jose Sharks draft pick Ryan Lin<\/p>\n

San Jose came away with three of Wheeler\u2019s top prospects in the 2026 NHL Draft, adding two premium defensemen prospects while adding an exciting, young wing in Stenberg. In ESPN\u2019s final 2026 NHL Draft rankings by Rachel Kryshak, Stenberg (second overall), Verhoeff (sixth overall), and Lin (13th overall) were all rated highly.<\/p>\n

The Sharks\u2019 farm system took a slight hit with Macklin Celebrini, Yaroslav Askarov, and Will Smith losing their prospect-eligibility status, with Michael Misa soon to follow. However, the additions of Stenberg, Verhoeff, and Lin on Friday night will once again mean the Sharks have the best farm system in hockey and one of the best, young cores in the NHL already in San Jose.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"avatar\"<\/p>\n

\t\tMatt Johnson is Senior Editor of NFL and College Football for Sportsnaut. His work, including weekly NFL and college … More about Matt Johnson<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Jose Sharks went into the 2026 NHL Draft with three first-round picks and plenty of debate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89,98],"class_list":["post-377451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-sharks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377451","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=377451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}