The training camp question of whether Michael Misa and Sam Dickinson would make the San Jose Sharks roster was answered. Now there is another: Will they both make their NHL debuts Thursday night?<\/p>\n
Misa and Dickinson stuck with the Sharks as they made their final moves to shape the 23-player roster ahead of their season opener at home against the Vegas Golden Knights. The Sharks\u2019 top two prospects could be in the lineup as Ryan Warsofsky begins his second season as coach.<\/p>\n
It is quite a leap for Misa and Dickinson, even with their pedigree. The two Ontario Hockey League products were among the very best players in Canadian junior hockey last season, with Misa\u2019s 134 points leading all of CHL in scoring and Dickinson racking up 91 points on defense while capturing OHL and Memorial Cup championships. But they\u2019re now in the NHL, a different beast for virtually any teenager who isn\u2019t Connor McDavid.<\/p>\n
Finalizing the roster was a bit of a challenge at the end. Though some teams were invariably set late last week, the Sharks played three of their six preseason games within the final four days with a back-to-back set at Vegas and Utah on Friday and Saturday. The later start to the season allowed Warsofsky a few days to sharpen his focus on the game group after having to drag out the evaluation process for the final spots a little longer than he\u2019d prefer.<\/p>\n
Misa, the No. 2 pick in this year\u2019s draft, and Dickinson, the No. 11 pick in 2024, didn\u2019t blow away the competition in the preseason. The Sharks felt they did enough to warrant chances to show they deserve to stick with them to start the season, as Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith did as rookies last year.<\/p>\n
There wasn\u2019t much doubt about either Celebrini or Smith, with the latter kept in the NHL despite a slow start before flourishing in the second half. There is more with Misa and Dickinson, as the Sharks bolstered their lineup with more veterans up front and on defense. But keeping the two for now was always an option as neither is eligible to play in the American Hockey League.<\/p>\n
There is no question Misa and Dickinson will become a featured part of the young core the Sharks are building. As to either being featured now, that\u2019s up to Warsofsky and general manager Mike Grier. Warsofsky was noncommittal about whether Misa or Dickinson would play in the season opener when asked, per reports. Does it make sense to feed them some on-the-job training in the NHL, or is it better to slow-play them and limit their exposure to a taste here and there before reassessing their development path?<\/p>\n
And here\u2019s the more overarching question with the Sharks: Is this a roster that will get them out of a two-year residence in the NHL basement?<\/p>\n
Forwards<\/p>\n
Philipp Kurashev \u2013 Macklin Celebrini \u2013 Will Smith<\/p>\n
William Eklund \u2013 Alex Wennberg \u2013 Tyler Toffoli<\/p>\n
Jeff Skinner \u2013 Ty Dellandrea \u2013 Collin Graf<\/p>\n
Barclay Goodrow \u2013 Adam Gaudette \u2013 Ryan Reaves<\/p>\n
Extra: Michael Misa<\/p>\n
It looks like the Sharks prefer to see whether the chemistry Celebrini and Smith created as linemates over the second half of last season will give them a dynamic twosome at the top of the lineup. Smith ended 2024-25 with 30 points in his last 34 games, and Celebrini, a Calder Trophy finalist, was tied for second with Philadelphia\u2019s Matvei Michkov in rookie scoring with 63 points despite missing 12 games. (The path to Celebrini\u2019s future captaincy might have been laid Wednesday when he was named one of five alternates.)<\/p>\n
The two can\u2019t power a 32nd-ranked offense by themselves. Between them and two scoring wingers, William Eklund and Tyler Toffoli, 43 percent of the Sharks\u2019 goals were produced by those four. No longer having Mikael Granlund or Fabian Zetterlund around means some offense must come from other sources.<\/p>\n
One-year bets were placed on a couple of skilled wingers who have seen better days. Philipp Kurashev, who\u2019s on a $1.2 million contract, appears to have a prime opportunity with Celebrini and Smith after a 2024-25 that was woefully short of his 18-goal, 54-point season running alongside Connor Bedard in Chicago. Jeff Skinner didn\u2019t flourish in Edmonton with just 16 goals in 72 games despite skating with McDavid or Leon Draisaitl at times. But the 33-year-old who\u2019s on a $3 million deal could be a trade piece if he scores at a 20-goal pace, a threshold he\u2019s reached 10 times. He\u2019s a candidate to move up if Kurashev struggles.<\/p>\n
Misa might eventually be their second-line center. Alexander Wennberg seems to be in that spot for now, although he\u2019s never come close to duplicating his career best of 59 points eight years ago. Ty Dellandrea\u2019s strong camp earned him a roster spot when he once might have been on the bubble. Collin Graf, 23, could be an underrated middle-six player capable of producing secondary offense and grabbing some penalty-killing shifts.<\/p>\n
Ethan Cardwell and Pavol Regenda made strong preseason pushes. Both were terrific against Vegas\u2019 NHL-heavy lineup, with Cardwell scoring three times and Regenda adding his own 4-point night assisting on every goal. It wasn\u2019t enough to dislodge Barclay Goodrow or Ryan Reaves, and the Sharks are keeping just one extra forward. Goodrow still has two years and a $3.64 million cap hit left on his contract, and Reaves was acquired from Toronto for Henry Thrun. But Cardwell and Regenda put themselves in position for a call-up.<\/p>\n
Defense<\/p>\n
Nick Leddy \u2013 John Klingberg<\/p>\n
Mario Ferraro \u2013 Timothy Liljegren<\/p>\n
Dmitry Orlov \u2013 Shakir Mukhamadullin<\/p>\n
Extras: Sam Dickinson, Vincent Desharnais<\/p>\n
The Sharks have a lot of blueliners. If this were another season \u2014 perhaps even last \u2014 Luca Cagnoni (assigned to AHL San Jose) and Jack Thompson (injured reserve) might have been in line to win a spot. In fact, San Jose is keeping eight defensemen as part of the 23 \u2014 that\u2019s part of what happens when you add more veterans such as Dmitry Orlov and John Klingberg as free-agent signings and Nick Leddy as a waiver claim.<\/p>\n
Add returnees Mario Ferraro, Timothy Liljegren and Vincent Desharnais, and it\u2019s a crowded defense corps. Mukhamadullin, who showed a lot of promise in his 30-game look with the big club last season, has earned his spot with some composed play on the back end in five preseason games while displaying some effective puck movement and grabbing three assists.<\/p>\n
The lead pair will be something to shake out. There will also be motivation to provide quality minutes for Ferraro, Klingberg, Leddy and even Liljegren as they\u2019re all due to become unrestricted free agents. Klingberg should soak up some time in quarterbacking the first power-play unit. Ferraro is a fixture on the penalty kill and could be their prime trade piece on the blue line as his $3.25 million cap hit is appetizing in a higher-cap environment, especially if the Sharks use their final retention slot to facilitate a deal.<\/p>\n
So, where does that leave Dickinson? The left side is loaded with vets with Orlov on a pricey two-year contract. If the 19-year-old loan to the AHL were in place this year instead of next, as has been worked out in the new collective bargaining agreement, the ideal move would have been to send Dickinson to the Barracuda as he\u2019s too good for junior hockey. But they could keep Dickinson around, spot him occasionally and stretch his stay in San Jose out until the World Juniors tournament without burning the first year of his entry-level deal.<\/p>\n
Goaltenders<\/p>\n
Yaroslav Askarov<\/p>\n
Alex Nedeljkovic<\/p>\n
We knew which two goalies would be on the team. What might be left in the air is who will get the nod for the opener.<\/p>\n
Yaroslav Askarov is the long-term No. 1 goalie. Likely. More than likely. Perhaps with absolute certainty. But the 29-year-old Alex Nedeljokic, who is now on his fourth NHL team after being acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins, was outstanding in his two preseason starts with just one goal allowed in the 53 shots he faced.<\/p>\n
By contrast, Askarov was hit up for 11 goals against in his three games. The 23-year-old allowed six goals by the Mammoth on 24 shots Saturday.<\/p>\n
With the Sharks hosting a traditionally offense-challenged Anaheim Ducks team Saturday, it might be prudent to save Askarov for the Ducks and go with the more experienced Nedeljkovic against Vegas and reward the veteran for his strong preseason. Askarov will be in the NHL all season and should get plenty of action, but it wouldn\u2019t hurt to ease him into the No. 1 waters and not do anything to wreck his confidence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The training camp question of whether Michael Misa and Sam Dickinson would make the San Jose Sharks roster…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,835,99],"class_list":["post-212695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}