It was a bittersweet day when the San Jose Sharks announced that the team had traded 2021 first-round draft pick William Eklund along with a pair of prospects to the Ottawa Senators. Eklund was a fan favorite and one of the longest-tenured Sharks. Considering the turnover the team had dealt with in the 2020s, coupled with more losses than wins, Eklund felt like a harbinger of a brighter future. Seeing him depart San Jose took the wind out of Sharks fans, even for a moment.<\/p>\n
However, the shrewd move by General Manager Mike Grier was used to acquire the one thing the Sharks\u2019 prospect pool has needed more than anything, a potential first-pairing defenseman who has the size and the skill to dominate the NHL for years to come. While all draft picks are considered gambles, the possibility that Keaton Verhoeff becomes an NHL regular is greater than not.<\/p>\n
Position:\u00a0Defenseman
Height:\u00a06\u20194\u2033
Weight:\u00a0214 pounds
Age:\u00a018
Date of Birth:\u00a0June 19, 2008
Draft Year:\u00a02026 (9th overall by San Jose Sharks)
Shoots:\u00a0Right
2026-27 Team:\u00a0University of North Dakota (NCAA)<\/p>\n
Verhoeff took a different route than a lot of his draft counterparts. Instead of sticking to the CHL for another season before declaring for the NCAA, he decided to head right into college hockey. He played the entire season for the University of North Dakota as a 17-year-old. <\/p>\n
Verhoeff had 20 points (6 G, 14 A) in 36 games. He also played for Canada at the World Junior Championships where he had four points in five games and helped the U20 team win a bronze medal. We expect him to play a bigger role for Canada this winter. <\/p>\n
What we like<\/p>\n
First and foremost, we like his decision to play in the NCAA. Verhoeff didn\u2019t take the easy route and pad his stats; he decided to take on the challenge of the NCAA head-on. <\/p>\n
While other defensemen in his draft class, like Daxon Rudolph, Carson Carels and Chase Reid \u2014 who were all drafted ahead of him \u2014 stuck to the CHL, Verhoeff challenged himself. He didn\u2019t get the explosive numbers that Rudolph (78 points), Carels (73 points) or Reid (48 points) did, but he got the experience. <\/p>\n
We are very interested to see how Verhoeff does this season compared to Rudolph (University of Denver), Reid (Michigan State) and Carels (North Dakota). While those kids are learning how to play in the NCAA, Verhoeff will already be adjusted to the more intense game against bigger, more experienced men.<\/p>\n
Verhoeff already has the size that you look for in an NHL defenseman. He\u2019s a 6-foot-4, 214 pound, 18-year-old. He\u2019s large, and he can skate, a dangerous combination that\u2019s served him well so far. While he\u2019s not flashy or overly creative, he\u2019s a smart hockey player who plays hard and has a hard shot from the point. <\/p>\n
And now that he\u2019s experienced with a year of college hockey under his belt, we would not be surprised if he has a breakout season.<\/p>\n
Areas of improvement<\/p>\n
Like most 18-year-old defensemen who are suddenly faced with really good players night in and night out, Verhoeff will need to work on his decision-making. The defenseman can\u2019t just out skate or out hit his mistakes now, and he\u2019ll have to be smarter with the puck. <\/p>\n
We expect to see a huge jump in his game this season. We already mentioned that he\u2019s had a season to learn in the NCAA. He\u2019s also had the summer to speak with and work with the Sharks\u2019 coaching staff. He\u2019s had a lot of voices and a lot of training over the summer and he\u2019s headed back to North Dakota with a lot to work on.<\/p>\n
Look for him also to spend this season adding the \u201cright kind of muscle.\u201d Not necessarily getting bulkier, but adding muscle to make himself a more efficient hockey player. <\/p>\n
What\u2019s next for Verhoeff?<\/p>\n
Verhoeff returns to the University of North Dakota, where we expect he\u2019ll play heavy minutes on the top pairing. He might be paired with 2024 first-round pick E.J. Emery, like he was at times last season. Another option is that the coaching staff pairs him with fellow 2026 first-round pick Carson Carels. Either way, Verhoeff will have NHL-level talent to work with as he prepares for his next step.<\/p>\n
And the Sharks are happy to let him percolate in the NCAA at least for this season. San Jose Sharks Director of Player Development Todd Marchant told Max Miller of Sharks Hockey Digest in July<\/a> that the team is not going to rush Verhoeff.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the end of the day, there\u2019s no rush. There\u2019s no rush to get to the NHL,\u201d Marchant said. \u201cI say this a lot, we don\u2019t want players just to play in the NHL, we want them to have success. If that means waiting one more year and playing another year in college, then we\u2019ll wait a year. If it means playing right now, then that\u2019s what will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Highlights<\/p>\n Finally, here\u2019s a whole compilation of highlights from Prospect Shifts.<\/p>\n 2026 Top 25 Under 25 countdown \u2026 so far<\/p>\n 10. Ryan Lin<\/a> Editor\u2019s 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\u2019t seem to skew the results too badly. Ultimately, this isn\u2019t an exact science, but I think you\u2019ll find it\u2019s a pretty good list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a bittersweet day when the San Jose Sharks announced that the team had traded 2021 first-round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":["post-480191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480191","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=480191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
11. Luca Cagnoni<\/a>
12. Joshua Ravensbergen<\/a>
13. Eric Pohlkamp<\/a>
14. Quentin Musty<\/a>
15. Filip Bystedt<\/a>
16. Zack Ostapchuk<\/a>
17. Leo Sahlin Wallenius<\/a>
18. Cam Lund<\/a>
19. Ethan Cardwell<\/a>
20. Nolan Allan<\/a>
21. Haoxi Wang<\/a>
22. Cole McKinney<\/a>
23. Carson Wetsch<\/a>
24. Mattias Havelid<\/a>
25. Christian Kirsch<\/a>
Honorable Mentions:<\/a>\u00a0Joey Muldowney, Teddy Mutryn, Andre Gasseau, Brady Knowling and Alexander Karmanov<\/p>\n