What’s the deal with Dahlén? He put up a tonne of points, but Vancouver clearly didn’t want him. Has there been any issues in San Jose?

Love Tristen Robins. Steal.

I think the Vancouver org was pretty harsh on him in terms of making mistakes and/or not performing to his maximum 100% of the time. When he was in Utica I think he felt like he would get unnecessarily benched after making one mistake and was not given the proper opportunity to develop. Whether that was more a fault of his own attitude or the Canucks genuinely mistreating him, I'm not totally sure, but it's definitely some combination of the two. So they traded him cause he wasn't happy with the Canucks.

Since then, I don't think he's had any issues with the Sharks. They've basically let him play wherever he wants to find his game again and build up confidence as well. Frustrating that he never even considered making a jump to the SHL though. He loves Timra because it's his hometown team, and he wants to help them get to the SHL level, but he's obviously way too good for that league. As if his 1.77 PPG last year wasn't a good enough example, he has like 19 points in 8 games this year. Not sure how he'll pan out, but some potential is still there if he really puts his mind to it and focuses on making a transition to the NHL.

Me too. I wasn't expecting them to draft Robins at all, so when I heard his name called I was ecstatic.

Dahlén possibly never making that jump to San Jose is disappointing for me, personally, because I was excited in the most silly way possible to have a second generation Sharks player. But I honestly don't know that he's even interested in the NHL at this point - iirc he still hasn't signed his ELC for this season.

For me, this year's draft class is probably the most exciting one I've seen from the Sharks in -- oh man, a while. Don't get me wrong, 2017 was a good draft year too, and it helps a lot that we wound up with as many picks as we did, but I honestly cannot remember the last time the Sharks ran a draft where I was genuinely pleased about essentially every single one of their picks. I mean, there were definitely some players that I was upset to see them leave on the board at the tail end of the 1st and beginning of the 2nd rounds, but overall I really have very few complaints about the end result. I'm excited to see what DW Jr does going forward; I think he's proving to be a capable head of scouting and I definitely think he's better at assembling a draft board than his dad is.

I'm thrilled to bits with the first four Sharks prospects from this year, but I may be the most excited to watch Gushchin develop. Everything I've read about him seems to indicate that he's got excellent hockey IQ, knows his skillset, and has a damn fine work ethic, and that's honestly my favorite kind of player.

Yeah it was disappointing for me too. I do question how motivated he is to jump to the NHL and if he will really ever adapt to NA. But he's still young, still very skilled, and can pretty much sign his ELC whenever he feels like he wants to come to the NHL (which is hopefully after the Allsvenskan season is over. We'll see. I hold out hope for him, but his time is running thin.

Completely agree, for once I actually think they hit the nail on the head with every pick in the first 4 rounds. Really solid. Wiesblatt, Bordeleau are both somewhat safe picks but I think they will both still pan out pretty well. Coe is pretty underrated too. But Gushchin has a ridiculous ceiling. If all goes well, he could end up being an absolute steal.

I actually punched the air when they picked Gushchin and then had to laugh when I saw Ivan Chekhovich's Instagram stories - apparently they're really good friends who train together and he was psyched about the situation.

Did you read the piece that Coe wrote for the Player's Tribune? I'm not quite as excited about him as I am the first four guys, but I'm definitely rooting for him to make it up and really feel for him with regards to what he's been going through with his dad's health (I lost my dad to cancer a year ago and I know that the whole diagnosis, treatment, hope, disappointment, lather rinse repeat thing really ****s with your whole world.)

I'm even pleased with our seventh round picks, which is really something considering that I mostly feel like by the time you get there a lot of times the Sharks seem to have essentially been throwing darts at the board. Spitserov, for example, is hard to find information on and is coming from a deeply unlikely source, but he's committed to UMass and I trust their hockey program pretty much implicitly. Greg Carvel seems to have a real gift for developing players, and the Sharks seem to have developed a solid relationship with that school.

Yeah the fact that they're friends is awesome. Might help them develop.

And I did see that article, it was really heartfelt and touching stuff. It must be so difficult going through something like that and/or knowing someone who does. So sorry to hear that you lost your dad to cancer :/ Cancer is a real ****ing ****...

The 7th rounders are very hit or miss, but statistically taking overagers there is more likely to pay off so I'm fine with guys like Oberg, Young, and Raska even though they aren't super well known guys. And I didn't know that about Spitserov, that's awesome. I know guys like Leonard and Ferraro (and Cale Makar too) have come through UMass so that's always a good sign.