The San Jose Sharks moved up three spots in the first round of the upcoming NHL draft, trading the 14th and 42nd overall picks to the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for the 11th overall. The trade sees General Manager Mike Grier move the team into pole position to draft a top defenseman, which would fill a gaping hole in the team’s prospect pool.
During his draft day media availability, Grier made it clear that he would explore moving up if the price was reasonable for the team while making it clear that he would go for the best player available when using the team’s first-round picks. That could have presented a conundrum for the Sharks; most mock drafts project that the six best defensemen would have been gone by the time they were on the clock again.
At 11th overall, however, the story is slightly different. Most mock drafts project that one of Artyom Levshunov, Zeev Buium, Zayne Parekh, Carter Yakemchuk, Anton Silayev, or Sam Dickinson should still be available here, and this would fill a big need for the team. While a forward like Cole Eiserman projects as a fantastic NHLer, the team already has a glut of high-end offensive talent; the same, however, cannot be said of the blueline, where Shakir Mukhamadullin remains the only blue-chip piece.
Given this, and considering the glut of early picks the team had (with two first-round picks and three second-rounders), Grier’s decision to move up makes a lot of sense. Considering that the team received the 53rd overall pick in exchange for taking Jake Walman’s full contract on, the organization’s last two moves essentially amount to trading the 14th and the 42nd overall draft picks in exchange for Walman, the 11th and the 53rd overall draft pick.
Following this trade, there are two possibilities. Either the Sharks get the cornerstone defenseman they’ve coveted since they began their rebuild, or they pick up an incredibly strong forward like Berkly Catton, Cayden Lindstrom, Tij Iginla or Konsta Helenius, who are the types of elite prospects good enough to pick regardless of need in the prospect pool.
In either case, it is hard to argue that the team is not better set up for success now than it was a week ago.
