Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Back in on Canuck Central. Sat and Bic on Sportsnet 650. And this hour of Canuck Central is brought to you by BC Liquor. Until May 30th, save $5 on Empress 1908 Gin, known for its vivid color and smooth botanical flavor. Visit your nearest BC Liquor today. 19 plus. Enjoy responsibly. Let's go to the Able Auctions hotline and welcome in our next guest.
It is Curtis Pichelka, who covers the San Jose Sharks for the Bay Area News Group. Curtis, thanks for making some time for us, man. How are you doing today? I'm doing well, guys. How are you? Hey, we can't complain.
I know there's been some frustration that the Canucks did not win the draft lottery and the San Jose Sharks, despite being a lot better than the Canucks this year, ends up leapfrogging them and picking second overall. How excited has the fan base been over the draft lottery luck that the Sharks enjoyed a couple days ago?
Yeah, yeah, pretty excited, to say the least. I mean, I think, you know, everyone was expecting the Sharks to, you know, wind up with a ninth or tenth overall pick. But, you know, now you get a chance to draft second and add a real impact player who might be able to even help the team, you know, as soon as next season.
So, you know, it's a lot of buzz here around the Sharks and what this team could look like not only next year, but, you know, going into the future. It's, you know, everyone I talk to just feels it's a real bright future for the Sharks.
Felt like live, Mike Greer had muted excitement. Was there an element of like, I've scored the touchdown before, I act like I've been here before?
Yeah, that's a good point, because he has been there before. Obviously, the last three years, the Sharks wind up with top four picks, obviously, and getting guys like Mackenzo, Reedy, Michael Mesa, and Will Smith into the fold to start. So yeah, it was a pretty muted reaction by Mike, but
I think even though he realized, talked to some reporters afterward and said, there's still a ton of work to do in terms of getting this team set to where it wants to be. And they certainly have their eye on making the playoffs next season. So it's just one step in the process for them. But I think everybody in the organization is excited about what could happen here in the near future.
In terms of what might happen second overall, and it's way too soon. We're still like a month and a half away from what's going to happen here ultimately in terms of the draft itself. But do you think the possibility of them drafting a defenseman second overall and letting one of those wingers, whether it's Stenberg or even a pipe dream of Gavin McKenna, slip down to number three?
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Chapter 2: What excitement surrounds the Sharks' second overall pick?
Shakir Mukumudulin is an RFA, and he's expected to be brought back, too. But you don't quite know what you have, really, in terms of having guys ready to go, AHL players ready to go to start the next season. So the free agent class, we'll kind of see what develops there. I think that, like you said, Maybe the more enticing route or maybe the route where it gets you more of a high-end
uh defenseman is to is to trade uh a player off your roster a player off your or a prospect or even you know mike rears even talks about you know maybe using one of their first two no maybe their second first round pick this year you know the one they got from the oilers and the jake wallman trade that's that's definitely going to be in play too in terms of trying to add like you said shore up that that defensive core and and uh you know someone who could not only just be here for a year or two but you know grow with this young core of players that they have and
is going to be under team control for several more seasons. So it's not going to be an easy task for the Sharks to sort of fill that bill, but they definitely feel that they've got cap space to do it, and they've got some prospects and assets to try to do that as well. I wouldn't be surprised, too, if they bring back Vinny D'Arne as a depth role.
It looks like Mario Ferraro is going to be allowed to test the markets, and Nick Letty and John Klingberg, two of the other Sharks' defensemen, that they have this year are going to be going to free agency as well. So, but a lot of questions, but I think the Sharks feel they've got a pretty good plan going forward.
Well, they do have a lot of assets, and sitting there with the second overall pick is obviously the biggest one that they can play at this point, whether it's drafting it or using it for something else. And that whole idea, because we talk about this on Talk Radio, trading down potentially, trading these top five draft picks.
And I suppose these things are always possible, but would you be surprised if they seriously do entertain moving that draft pick, whether it's going down or outright for a star-level player?
Yeah, I mean, like every manager at this stage in life, at this stage, you know, every general manager is going to say, hey, we're open to it. We're open to listening. But it's actually doing it is quite another thing. And I tend to think that, you know, another team is really going to have to knock Mike Greer's socks off to execute something like that. But maybe it does work out where,
You use that number two pick, trade back, and maybe bring back, you're able to bring in sort of a quality young defenseman to help fill out your roster there. There's a ton of different ways that this thing can go before we get to the draft in Buffalo. So I think that's definitely one of the possibilities that the Sharks have right now.
they were so close this year and obviously they, they swept up the excitement of, of the NHL too, with, with Macklin kind of taking the step. And now it feels like, I imagine poised to like the mandate was probably make the playoffs next year. Does that mean that there'll be one of the more aggressive teams this off season?
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Chapter 3: What does the Sharks need in terms of player positions?
And at the draft is when the picks are the most valuable at that point. So do we see a draft day trade where you move that first round pick to somebody else and get the D-man you're looking for? And that's what's going to be interesting here about Vancouver because under Rutherford and Alveen and the current management team, they've been very reluctant to move Filip Hronik.
Mm-hmm.
Would a new general manager come in and not say that he's going to move him? And Hronik has a no-move clause. He controls the situation as well. But how does that get viewed? Because if the Canucks come in with the new GM and they make Hronik available at the draft, they can get a haul for him. An absolute haul at the draft.
That could be one of the top D-men available, if not the top D-men available on the trade market. Man, there's nobody available. No. I mean, not that we know about. Yeah. Maybe somebody pops open or something happens that we're not aware of for the time being.
For San Jose in particular, right? If we're just kind of focusing on them and how the second overall impacts Vancouver, if they're going to go be aggressive, you know, the... this age range of the player to me really matters. And that's why I brought up Keandre Miller because he was 25 years old when he got dealt. He goes into his age 26 season.
They're probably not shopping in a 28 and above age range because they want someone that's going to be in their prime for some time to merge with this group of Macklin at age 20. In comes Smith and Misa, all these guys that are 20. You don't want someone to age out. You want someone that's going to have like six years of their prime for through what this era of the Sharks hockey is going to be.
Yeah. And, you know, Ian and key for like Heronic for second overall, would that work? I don't, I think that's too much. And, and, and I mean too much as in like, I don't think San Jose is giving you the second overall pick, even if the Canucks. So would they do, uh, the Canucks 33rd overall pick, which is the first pick in the second round or the Minnesota pick in Heronic, uh,
That may be, but honestly, the valuation you could put on a second overall pick is like three first round picks. Easily. You can say that, right? And usually second overall picks do not get moved. We don't see these trades happen. And if a second overall pick gets moved, and I think Hironik is fantastic.
I don't think he's good enough for a team to be like, yeah, we're moving the second for Filip Hironik. Straight up. I think you need a player who's even a higher caliber for you to get the second overall pick for him back in return. Could you come up with an overall valuation that's similar if you start packaging together draft picks with Hronik?
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