I believe Raska and Viel should make the Sharks

I've been saying this about Viel for a couple years now. Give him a real shot at least. He's young and can inject some energy into your 4th line.

I don’t think there’s any reason to:

Not use Sasha on 3RW
Send down all of Merkley, Santeri, Leonard
Not give both or one of Raska/ Viel a job

I doubt we see these all 3 things happen but still. Eklund is pretty much looking like he’s gonna make it (but I’d rather he goes back to Sweden to develop more). For Dahlen; being a safe assumption to make the team and he’s got some upside deserving of playing LW in the top 6. I don’t think Leonard, Chmelevski will gain anything from being sent down either. I’d also like to give Merkley some confidence and give him a NHL debut opening night, with Santeri joining him.

Just my thoughts on the lineup


He’s a ton of fun. I liked him last year but you can tell he’s a lot more ready this time around. He looks great and you can see he’s playing with confidence as well as Raska seems like a great linemate for him.

Raska YES. He is ready now. I like Viel but I don't see Booger playing him over Cogs at least not consistently.

I genuinely do like Viel but he was given the opportunity last year for a decent amount of games and didn't impress me whatsoever. He's decent when he focuses on things other than just beating the piss out of other dudes though. Just not sure we're gonna see that version of him in the NHL ever.

Raska could be okay though. I like Raska's motor a lot and he's quite skilled too actually.

Raska really has looked fantastic in preseason but it seems like his current energy wouldn't be sustainable over and entire season, bright future tho

Barely above a point per game in the Q last year

I've been watching a ton of sharks preseason because of Merkley Eklund Dahlen (also pasichnuk is my dude) and Raska has been one of the highlights for sure