The Sharks are a little thin when it comes to NHL proven forwards, specially the right-wing. After losing Pavelski, Donskoi, and Nyquist Team Teal has a lot of their internal depth to sort through in order to find a suitable top six skater.
A lot of the hype is surrounding the players making their way up the prospect pipeline. However the Sharks brought in few veteran skaters hoping to make waves in the NHL. San Jose signed Jonny Brodzinski this summer and are giving him every opportunity to succeed on Team Teal.
Kevin Kurz of The Athletic is observing training camp on the ground and tracking which line combinations the Sharks coaching staff had in mind at the start of training camp.
It’s far too early to think of these as being definitive. Nevertheless, you get the sense that the Sharks believe in Brodzinski’s potential considering he’s getting a shot as the trigger man along future Hall-of-famer Joe Thornton.
This also signals that San Jose is leaning towards Dylan Gambrell in the top 6 at that start of camp. But this doesn’t mean that other forwards can earn a shot that those minutes. With 6 preseason games and a couple of weeks remaining in camp there is still plenty to sift through.
Other players to watch while these few weeks transpire are Alex True, a 6’5 center who led the Barracuda in scoring in 2018 – 2019, sniper Joachim Blichfeld, centerman Noah Gregor, Sasha Chmelevski, and last years pre-season darling Ivan Chekhovich.
This is THE story line to track throughout training camp especially with so much riding on these “gambles” made by Sharks front office.