{"id":463658,"date":"2026-09-14T19:42:44","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T19:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/463658\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T19:42:44","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T19:42:44","slug":"san-jose-sharks-quentin-musty-makes-changes-eyes-nhl-debut-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/463658\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks’ Quentin Musty makes changes, eyes NHL debut this year"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2013 San Jose Sharks prospect winger Quentin Musty<\/a> was disappointed not to get a promotion to the NHL last season, a fact that the 2023 first-round draft pick<\/a> doesn\u2019t try to hide.<\/p>\n

Now in his second full season as a professional, Musty hopes changes to his game will help him make his Sharks debut<\/a> sometime soon.<\/p>\n

Despite some disruptions,<\/a> Musty, 21, was an offensive force for the OHL\u2019s Sudbury Wolves for four seasons from 2021 to 2025 and was the Barracuda\u2019s fourth-leading scorer last year with 45 points in 61 games.<\/p>\n

But to reach the NHL and earn enough trust of the Sharks coaching staff to stay there, Musty knows he needs to round out his game, starting with improving his defensive awareness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think just positioning is the biggest thing for me,\u201d Musty said Sunday. \u201cJust knowing where to be on the ice. Coming from junior, I had four different coaches in four years and played four different systems, and then coming here last year was a brand-new system to me as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust knowing where to be and when to be (there), one-on-one defensively, I\u2019m a big body. I can kill plays that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Musty was happy with how he played during the Rookie Faceoff event at Tech CU Arena over the weekend, especially on Saturday<\/a> during an 8-1 win by the Sharks over an overmatched team of Los Angeles Kings prospects.<\/p>\n

Musty, at 6-foot-2, fought Jared Woolley after the Kings\u2019 6-foot-5 defenseman laid a questionable hit on Filip Bystedt and fellow prospects Michael Misa and Ivar Stenberg. He also sacrificed his body by blocking a shot in the third period, even though the Sharks were comfortably ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think (Saturday) was a big step for me,\u201d Musty said. \u201cIt\u2019s a rookie tournament, but I loved my game. \u2026 I was doing the right things, just finishing my hits, blocking shots, and the fight, I didn\u2019t do it to stand out. I did it to protect my teammates and let L.A. know that it\u2019s not going to fly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Musty began Saturday\u2019s game on a line with Bystedt and fellow winger Cam Lund, who sustained an upper body injury<\/a> in the first period and left the game. From there, Musty played with a variety of linemates while trying to be responsible in all three zones.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working on the defensive reliability. As far as the fighting stuff, I don\u2019t know if we really want him doing that too often,\u201d Barracuda coach John McCarthy said of Musty. \u201cBut I think the defensive detail, the 200-foot game, all that stuff that we talk about, it\u2019s good to see him (block) a shot like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Musty had an assist in that win over Los Angeles and added an empty-net goal in the Sharks\u2019 3-1 win over the Utah Mammoth on Sunday, but added, \u201cFor me, producing doesn\u2019t really matter in this tournament. I\u2019m just trying to show my reliability. Obviously, if I get the puck on my stick, I have confidence that I\u2019ll make a play and produce offense that way.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn prior years, I\u2019ve had a ton of success in this tournament, and ended up not making the team. For me, just focusing on defensive reliability, and I think I took a step (Saturday).\u201d<\/p>\n

With training camp set to begin on Thursday, the Sharks look fairly set on the wing as they appear to have their deepest forward group<\/a> in years.<\/p>\n

Along with returning wingers Tyler Toffoli, Kiefer Sherwood, Will Smith, Collin Graf, Barclay Goodrow, Adam Gaudette, Ty Dellandrea and Igor Chernyshov, the Sharks have added Mason Marchment, a free agent signee, and Stenberg, the No. 2 overall pick from June\u2019s NHL draft. That group is joined by centers Macklin Celebrini, Alexander Wennberg, Misa and Zack Ostapchuk.<\/p>\n

Unless the Sharks keep 15 forwards out of camp or someone is injured, Musty will be in tough shape to earn a spot on the team\u2019s opening night roster. But for however long he lasts in camp, he can still leave a good impression on general manager Mike Grier and coach Ryan Warsofsky\u2019s staff, and perhaps be one of the first wingers called up if anything happens.<\/p>\n

Musty spent time in the offseason training with a group of players, including Smith, a fellow 2023 first-rounder, and new Sharks defenseman Michael Kesselring.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been working the whole summer for this and thinking about this since the end of last year,\u201d Musty said. \u201cIt was tough not getting called up last year. I thought I was on the right track towards the end of the year, but obviously (the Sharks) were pushing for playoffs at that point.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was tough not to get the call-up, but this camp, it\u2019s all I\u2019ve been thinking about the whole summer. I\u2019m ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

GUSTAFSON SHINES<\/p>\n

A San Jose native who grew up playing for the Jr. Sharks, Jake Gustafson always wanted to put on a teal jersey and play for the team he grew up watching.<\/p>\n

He played both games over the weekend, capping the Rookie Faceoff event with two goals on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\"SanSan Jose Sharks forward Jake Gustafson (70) skates against the Utah Mammoth during the first period of their game in the 2026 Rookie Faceoff on Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in San Jose, Calif. (Aric Crabb\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first came on the power play as he one-timed a pass from linemate Brendan Hoffman past Mammoth goalie Michael Hrabel at the 14:05 mark. Then with time winding down, the right-shot Gustafson came down the right wing and ripped a shot past Hrabel with one second left for a two-goal Sharks lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been so cool,\u201d Gustafson, 18, said of the experience. \u201cI\u2019ve dreamed this since I was a little kid, and getting the opportunity to do it was just nothing short of a dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following a 25-point rookie season with the Portland Winterhawks, Gustafson, the son of Sharks executive Jon Gustafson, was taken in the sixth round, 174th overall, by San Jose at the NHL draft in June. At 6-foot-4 and 185 pounds, Gustafson\u2019s strengths are his hockey sense, skating, and physicality.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t immediately clear whether Gustafson would join the Sharks at the main camp this week. But he\u2019ll head back to Portland relatively soon for one more season in the WHL before he begins his NCAA career at Colorado College, where his dad played.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 San Jose Sharks prospect winger Quentin Musty was disappointed not to get a promotion to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[401,402,181,404,88,90,89,98,403,94685,127],"class_list":["post-463658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-hockey","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-nhl","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-sharks-alert","tag-social-alert","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463658","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=463658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}