Max Miller #SJSharks Beat Reporter & creator of
@SharksHKYDigest SJS correspondent for @NHLdotcom on X
https://x.com/Real_Max_Miller
https://sharkshockeydigest.com/
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Max Miller and Sharks Hockey Digest
01:31 Decentralized NHL Draft Experience
03:30 Analyzing Sharks’ Young Core and Michael Misa
06:32 Sam Dickinson’s Potential and Overlooked Defensemen
10:19 Sharks’ Goalie Prospects and Future Predictions
14:26 Drafting Strategies and Player Comparisons
20:16 Skating as a Priority in Draft Selections
23:26 Comparing Blackhawks and Sharks Prospect Pools
30:17 Future Projections for Sharks and Blackhawks
35:13 Celebrini vs. Bedard: The Great Debate
40:26 Closing Thoughts and Future Outlook
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18 Comments
I think this is the 2nd time I've heard you @the prospect don say Hrabal is a shark's propsect. He is not. He's was drafted by the coyotes so he's a mammoth.
Wang, pronounced Wong.
See the Blackhawks rebuild doing just fine. It takes a while for d-men to develop and the Blackhawks are developing it really well. Its easier to find forwards that fit.
Not sure why Chernyshov's upside isn't top line winger. He may not get there, but his upside is clearly very high.
No Pohlkamp mention? But good for the Matt Davis pull.
Stick to the Sharks. You know nothing about the Hawks. You never even mentioned Nazar. Hawks d core is way better than the Sharks. Not even close.
Wyatt Kaiser Artyom Levshunov & Sam Rinzel would all be the number one young defenseman in the sharks system. That is the major separator between the sharks and Blackhawks overall player pools.
It’s clear that this guy has no clue what’s going on in the Blackhawks system. He says they have no defenseman depth in their player pool? Defenseman take a long time to develop. Del Mastro Kaiser Allan are all 23 – 21. All three of those players would be top 4 defenseman in the sharks player pool.
This Sharks guy is a homer. Why talk about the Hawks when you know nothing about them?
Hawks are deeper EVERYWHERE
"I dont see the blackhawks defense prospect pool being deep"….lol
Sharks Sharks Sharks! Arent the Sharks great? Arent their prospects great? The Hawks are all over the place, Not like the Sharks! The Sharks are solid everywhere! The Hawks were screaming from the rooftops that Bedard was the second coming!Remember that???? SURE YOU DO! We cant waste much time talking about the Hawks, that would be a waste of time when we could be talking about the Sharks! Smug know it all is such an attractive persona. Don you usually have great guests, kind surprising for a young channel sp full props to you, but this guy isnt one of them.
What a ninnyhammer.
Hawks fans in comments salty AF for some reason
Im sorry, what! They don't think the Hawks have top end defenseman and aren't deep? Im sorry, what!!! They are so freaking deep with young stud defenseman. Vlasic, Lev, Rinzel are legit top pair defenseman, two of them are right-handed which is what every team covets. Kaiser, Del Mastro, Korchinsky, Allen, and even Crevier! That is 8 legit NHL caliber Defensman that are all under the age of 25. Sorry, but comments like that make me doubt their ability to assess teams and players….jeez.
As a sharks fan, Blackhawks are deeper on defense and it’s not close. We have better top end goalie and forward prospects than the Blackhawks but max saying the hawks aren’t deep on defense is insane hahahaha.
Also max saying Dickinson is a good, not great skater. His biggest attribute was how good of a skater he was coming out of the draft. He was one of the fastest skaters in the entire draft class, according to elite prospects after the combine. And his issue was his processing, especially in the defensive zone. He just throws pucks around sometimes and while he didn’t do that as much this season in London, it’s going to be a huge test for him in the NHL because of how quickly forwards get on the defenseman.
To all the Blackhawks fans in the comments tweaking right now don’t worry you guys are gonna be right there with us in the playoffs once all of our prospects are in the NHL together. Both of our teams are gonna be huge problems for the league.
Great episode fellas! – Daeden
Leo Sahlin Wallenius did sign his ELC, but he is still under contract to his SHL team (Vaxjo) so he will be playing for them next season. Seeing as this is the last year of his contract, I assume he will be moving to the AHL (Cuda) when the SHL season ends.
Ibelieve Misa should go to the NCAA for multiple reasons but if Misa sticks with the Sharks my best guess is that he gets the Will Smith treatment. Plays wing on Wennbergs' line.
It does not make any sense to have Misa with Smith as most assume Smith will center line 2 (I am not quite so sure it will be line 2). Maybe he gets a little run at center on the third line if Wennberg is traded at the TDL, maybe not but not before then.
Cagnoni most likely never makes it to the NHL, but as he has always exceeded expectation I would not move it past him (just not next season). My issue with him is that no matter what Cagnoni will need a very big physical defenseman to pair with him.
One prospect that was on the Cuda last season that Max did not mention is Jake Furlong. It was his rookie season with the Cuda, but he definitely got better as the season progressed. He's a defensive defenseman that shoots left. A solid prospect.
Noah Beck I think is behind Jake Furlong is the pecking order. Beck was a seventh round pick by the Blues in 2020 and Furlong was a fifth round pick by the Sharks in 2022 (GMMG's first draft).
The Sharks are hoping he can do what he has done for 3 of 4 seasons in the NCAA. 2023-2024 was a down year for him so he transferred to Arizona State from Clarkson with some of the reason being a coach he liked being added to the Arizona staff and a better opportunity for minutes and marketing himself (better program).
Check Beck's stats, they are pretty good. He is big at 6 foot 3 weighing in at 205 pounds and can transition the puck with a strong work ethic and a penchant for avoiding penalties. His biggest question is his skating which he has improved on but needs a lot more work.
I agree with Max on Martin as he played very well for Denver in his four years at Denver but there is one prospect looking into. Yaroslav Korostelyov who was drafted by the Sharks in the seventh round of the 2024 draft.
Check out his MHL numbers for the last three seasons: SV% .931, .936, .936; Shut outs 2, 1, 4; GAA 3.07, 2.16, 1.53. Continual improvement and stellar performance. My bet is he is in the KHL sooner rather than later. I think in a couple years more people will be paying attention sooner rather than later. His drafting eerily reminds me of when Nabby was drafted years ago.
I do not think I agree with Max about the Sharks wanting a more projectable defenseman at 33. Had they wanted that they could have taken Fiddler (picked immediately after) who was more projectable (especially being the son of an NHL players).
I also disagree that all the picks are just high upside but will take a while. Of course any picks after the second round will take a while and most second and some first rounds picks take longer than expected but Cole McKinney is not one of those.
He is other than Misa, the most projectable pick they took in the entirety of their draft. He is balanced, physical center that plays a mature 200 foot game. He projects to be a third line center and should have been taken late in the first or early in the second.
I do agree with the thoughts of having prospects come in a varying times but most of this is solved by the year they are drafted. Yes, a few develop faster than expected but most take the same amount of time to get to the pros.
As to Wang specifically, yeah he will take more time, but they knew that when they drafted him (as was said). As to when prospects makes moves to the pros, yeah I agree GMMG is staggering them.
Take the defense as an example. Furlong and Cagnoni started last season with the Cuda, the season before it was Muk and Thompson. This upcoming season it is Beck and Havelid. The season after that looks to be Wallenius and Pohlkamp.
But this is a natural thing and not as planned out as Max made it seem. Lastly, the draft for the Sharks filled most of their needs but not all. I refer to it as a backfill draft. The Sharks in the forward and goalie pool are loaded with top end talent, but it is the third and fourth line prospects for example that were missing aspects of players the Sharks needed.
For example, of all their prospects only Wetsch looks to hit people. Yeah, some are physical but mostly when they are on the corners and they do not look to hit other players. Of them Haltunnen is the most physical. So, going into this last draft the Sharks helped solve that issue with McKinney, Heisse and Mutryn who are both very physical players that like to hit.
Same with the defense when they drafted Magomedsultanov. Most all of their defensive prospects do not play a physical game Havelid, Wallenius, Dickinson, Muk, etc. do not play a physical game. The closest is Pohlkamp. If you watch any NCAA hockey (Denver specifically) you can see Pohlkamp is like a heat seeking missile at times.
Magomedsultanov is that and a little more. Check out some of his games. He looks to hit and likes it. Plus his engine does not quite and he can skate all day. Needs a better initial burst but other than that is edge work is very good.
When it comes down to picking in the draft, GMMG is BPA but by committee. His staff will push for a player and if he is not top on his board be can be persuaded (example Zack Sharpe).
Chernyshov can and will play on his off wing. It was a requirement for the Dynamo's coach and is the same for almost all KHL teams that wingers are required to play both sides regardless of which hand they shoot with. Like Kovalenko he will play on his off wing when needed.
In his KHL days Chernyshov often played on his off wing position in a bottom six role and was given mostly defensive zone starts, but the funny thing is that by the end of the shift when the puck dropped it almost always was in the offensive zone.
His biggest knock when he went to the KHL was his defensive game, but the Dynamo coach solved that by ensuring that is precisely where he would be playing, in the defensive end. He turned Cherynshov into a very good responsible defensive player.
When looking at his point drop off from the MHL it makes sense and it one of my pet peeves when most scouts talk about Russian or former Eastern Block players, point production is important but the most important thing to look at.
Like the SHL, the KHL is not a development league. Players only play there if they benefit the team. And they almost always start like players in the NHL, working their way up the lineup. They have to earn it.
Lastly, check out another Russian prospect Rimashevsky. A 2023 seventh round winger that plays with Dynamo as well. He played top line minutes with the Dynamo last season and put up decent numbers. He is looking really good for a seventh round pick.
Between Musty and Chernyshov, Chernyshov will start first as he has actually played in a man's league. AND they will not bring up White to play center when they have Ostapchuk and Giles. They IMHO get the first shot playing center with Bystedt as a dark horse.
😄😄 hocks fans crying about nobody caring about their rebulid😂
GMKD has a plan and he’s sticking to it and its working. He has made smart moves with cap space, draft picks, FA, trades. He has signed short term FAs that have done their jobs. Domi, Maroon, Martinez, Mrazek, and others. No FA have hurt this team. Mid term FA at a reasonable price have played fine without breaking bank. Bertuzzi, Teuvo, Donato. Trades like Mikheyev, Dickenson, capt Foligno and Jones for Knight have been good. Draft picks, Levshunov, Bedard, Moore, Nazar, Rinzel, Lardis look good with Korch still in mix. His first long term signing of homegrown talent Vlasic is considered excellent. This is a rebuild. GMKD is guiding this team just fine.