The Sharks are finally regenerating

The Sharks have changed a lot since their last visit to the Bell Center … in October 2019.

Mathias Brunet
Press

San Jose started the season badly, losing four in a row, but it could be blamed on the playoff blues, having reached the Stanley Cup semi-final and lost in six games to eventual champions, the St. Louis Blues.

This 4-2 victory at the hands of the Canadiens, thanks to three points from Evander Kane, gave them a fourth victory in six games and the machine seemed to be on.

Nothing announced the tumble that was to follow, and a sudden drop in the standings, 29^e in the general classification that year, 26^e last season …

We had undoubtedly underestimated the importance of captain Joe Pavelski, not retained in the free agent market, the aging of the stars Brent Burns, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau and the escapades to come of Evander Kane .

Sharks GM Doug Wilson still believed he had surrendered a late first-round pick and second-best prospect to Erik Karlsson on Thursday night in October as he headed to Toronto with his club. This exchange, made a year earlier with the Ottawa Senators, was nevertheless going to leave traces.

Josh Norris was entering his season in the American League after a run that could be compared to Ryan Poehling’s in the NCAA and the National Junior Team. Wilson was arguably no longer watching his progress, but Norris had been shut out in his first four games with the Senators’ school club in the American League.

Norris would explode with three points in his fifth meeting, days before the Sharks ‘most recent visit to Montreal, then amass 57 points in his next 51 games and establish himself the following year as the Senators’ number one center.

The Sharks ‘drop in the standings in the most recent two seasons would turn the Senators’ 2019 late-first-round pick offered to the Senators into a fifth overall pick in 2020, now Tim Stützle.

Karlsson’s second-round picks would give Ottawa future goaltender Mads Sogaard and left winger Zack Ostapchuk.

This transaction cost the Sharks dearly. It prevented them from accumulating hopes to ensure a good transition from the aging nucleus to the future.

Here we are three years later. Thornton and Marleau are no longer around. Burns, Karlsson and Vlasic try to hold the fort even though they have slowed down. Goalkeeper Martin Jones was kicked out in favor of Adin Hill and James Reimer.

As Jesperi Kotkaniemi did in 2018 in Montreal, forward William Eklund, seventh overall in 2021, brings a breath of fresh air. He managed to hang on to a position in San Jose in an attacking trio with Tomas Hertl despite his 19 years, after a season of 23 points in 40 games at Djurgardens, in the Swedish First Division (SEL).

Jonathan Dahlen, 23, carved out a place on the first line with Logan Couture, after a spectacular 71-point season in 45 games at Timra, Sweden’s second division.

So a certain transition has started in San Jose, maybe three years too late, but better late than never, right?

It’s still early days to talk about new times in San Jose.

But opening the season with a victory over the Jets, with two new faces in their attacking lines, is a step in the right direction after two seasons of misery.

This match also reinforces the notion that a more positive atmosphere has reigned in the entourage of the team since the start of training camp.

We are first released from Evander Kane, brilliant scorer, the best of the team last year, but also an extraordinary distraction.

After making headlines over his $ 15 million debts at the Las Vegas Casino, Kane has added an escapade to a long list of errors in judgment by falsifying vaccine evidence. He has just been suspended for 21 games and no one around the team seems to be waiting for his return.

We will see more of what this club has in its belly Tuesday night at the Bell Center.

Joshua Roy continues his momentum

We have to be cautious with hopes. So let’s avoid talking about “theft” in the draft before he reaches the NHL, but 2021 Canadian fifth-round pick Joshua Roy continues his strong streak in training camp. This first choice of the QMJHL in 2019, whose first seasons did not live up to expectations, already has 15 points, including 6 goals, in 7 games in Sherbrooke. He had gotten 18 in 20 games after being traded to the Phoenix last year. His eight points in three games earned him a place on the QMJHL Team of the Week.

Dylan Strome in penance

Dylan Strome had a smashing debut in Chicago after his acquisition from Arizona three years ago with 51 points in 58 games. But the performance of this third overall pick in 2015, ahead of Mitch Marner and others, subsequently faltered and he had just 17 points in 40 games last year. Strome doesn’t seem to be gaining the favor of coach Jeremy Colliton. We have often changed trio partners, used sometimes in the center, sometimes on the right or on the left, and now he was struck out of the formation during the first three meetings of the season despite a difficult start for the Hawks, three defeats, including two on a regular basis. Rumors of a swap will certainly not fade away.

Joe Veleno arranges to come back

Even as the Detroit Red Wings are rebuilding and younger players, defenseman Moritz Seider and forward Lucas Raymond among others have already earned their spots in Detroit, 2018 late-first-round pick Montrealer Joe Veleno , who was granted Exceptional Player status in the QMJHL in 2015 at the age of 15, was forced to enter the American League season in his third professional year, at age 21. Like Ryan Poehling in Montreal, we want Veleno to dominate there before getting a chance to play in the NHL. “It’s important for young people to be placed in a position of success, with an important role,” said coach Jeff Blashill recently. But we’ll see it in Detroit somewhere this season, you can bet on that. Veleno started the season strong with three goals in his first two games at Grand Rapids.