Fear The Fin
A San Jose Sharks Community where fun must be always
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Sharks re-sign Ostapchuk, Kesselring
Lost in the mix of an excellent draft weekend was General Manager Mike Grier getting some key pieces of business done. The San Jose Sharks announced on Saturday that the team signed restricted free agent Zack Ostapchuk to a four-year extension. The next day, restricted free agent Michael Kesselring signed a three-year extension of his own. Locking up a fourth-line center and a mid- to bottom-pairing defenseman for the next few years is tidy work for the general manager after pulling off s...
Sharks take Ivar Stenberg second overall; Keaton Verhoeff ninth overall; trade up to take Ryan Lin at 21st
Was there ever any doubt? Soothing the souls of San Jose Sharks fans everywhere, Mike Grier and company have selected Ivar Stenberg as the second overall pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft. A forward, Stenberg played in the Swedish Hockey League last season, an 18-year-old playing against a bunch of men and still putting up points. He managed to have 33 points in 43 games and took home the Rookie of the Year trophy at the end of the season. Among all of the players left on the draft board, ...
Every San Jose Sharks pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft
It’s draft day, San Jose Sharks fans, and General Manager Mike Grier has been wheeling and dealing to get the team not one, not two, but three picks in the first round of this year’s draft. As of the time of this posting (I make no guarantees about what happens after), the Sharks have the following picks: #⃣ Got our (updated) numbers. pic.twitter.com/gTPCY8WTdm — San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) June 24, 2026 With three picks in the first round … for now … the Sharks are set to...
Sharks’ options at number 9 overall
San Jose Sharks General Manager Mike Grier has once again made life interesting for Sharks fans. Not only did the Sharks luck into today’s second overall pick, but just days before the draft, Grier also traded for the 9th overall pick , giving the Sharks two top ten picks in 2026. Since Grier traded William Eklund to get that 9th overall pick from the Ottawa Senators, we can be pretty sure that the Sharks plan to take Ivar Stenberg at second overall. He’s one of only two players in this draft ...
Sharks trade William Eklund to Ottawa Senators
The San Jose Sharks have traded the team’s longest tenured forward to the Ottawa Senators. This afternoon, the Sharks organization announced it traded William Eklund, Kasper Halttunen and Brandon Svoboda to the Senators for the 9th overall pick in the upcoming draft. The deal comes one day after the Senators acquired the ninth overall pick (along with a few others) from the Florida Panthers for Brady Tkachuk. What the Sharks lose in this deal Obviously, the biggest loss in this deal ...
2026 NHL draft: The case for Carson Carels
Virtually all avenues are open to the San Jose Sharks with the second overall pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft, but as they told Spiderman, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Despite the fact that General Manager Mike Grier can select virtually anyone with this draft pick, there are only a handful of players that truly stand out as qualified to be selected with the second overall pick. Everyone is assuming that the Toronto Maple Leafs will select Gavin McKenna at number one ov...
2026 NHL draft: The case for Keaton Verhoeff
With the second overall pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft, the San Jose Sharks have a lot of options. We explored the possibility of San Jose picking forward Ivar Stenberg at second, and we also looked at defenseman Chase Reid in previous posts. Both of these options seem like very real possibilities, given how closely together in skill the top five or so prospects seem to be grouped. For many scouts, it’s a matter of opinion and value. Do you value skating more than shooting skills? Do you...
2026 NHL Draft: The case for Chase Reid
The San Jose Sharks have a killer group of young forwards that have made them the deepest prospect pool in the NHL. With Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, Michael Misa, Quentin Musty, Kasper Halttunen, Collin Graf, Filip Bystedt and more, the Sharks are the envy of many an NHL general manager. In the net, Yaroslav Askarov appears to be the goaltender of the future with Joshua Ravensbergen and Christian Kirsch there to catch him if he falls. What Team Teal does not have is a top-of-the-line d...
2026 NHL Draft: The case for Ivar Stenberg
Since coming to San Jose to helm the Sharks, General Manager Mike Grier has never wavered from his promise of drafting the best player available (BPA). He’s always said that he will draft the BPA and no matter what the noise around him is, he’s stuck to that promise. It happened last season when the Sharks selected Michael Misa despite having a need for a defenseman and even more so when, with the 30th overall pick, the team selected goaltender Joshua Ravensbergen because he was next up on the...
Laila Edwards headlines PWHL San Jose’s draft day
From Olympic Gold medalist to first-round draft pick, Laila Edwards is the newest member of PWHL San Jose. The defender headlined the first-ever draft class for PWHL San Jose, bringing the total number of players for San Jose’s team to 16. A few days ago, the rumors started swirling that Edwards might fall to fourth overall because PWHL Las Vegas was interested in taking a center with the third pick in the draft. Those rumors were confirmed when the team selected Tessa Janecke at number t...
Sharks trade pick 20 for Michael Kesselring & 27th overall pick
San Jose Sharks General Manager Mike Grier is bringing in reinforcements to help address one of the team’s biggest offseason needs: defense. Today, the Sharks announced that it traded the 20th overall pick in the upcoming NHL Entry Draft to the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for the rights to Michael Kesselring and the 27th overall pick in the draft. Kesselring is the key piece in this deal. The 26-year-old is a pending restricted free agent who doesn’t have a contract. However, the Sharks no...
2026 season review Yaroslav Askarov: Finally getting his shot
After years of playing backup to All-Star goaltender Juuse Saros on the Nashville Predators, Yaroslav Askarov finally had the opportunity to be the top dog this past season. Two years ago, when the San Jose Sharks traded for Askarov, the team told the young netminder the plan. He’d get his chance. The then-23-year-old (he turned 24 yesterday) got it this season. Supported by capable backup Alex Nedeljkovic, the net belonged to the young rookie and, as expected, the season was filled with some ...
2026 season review Barclay Goodrow: Is veteran presence enough?
When Barclay Goodrow entered the offseason after the Sharks’ dismal ending to the 2024-25 season, he talked about getting healthy. For too many seasons in a row, he had spent April, May and sometimes even June battling in the postseason despite injuries, bumps and bruises. He wanted last summer to be different. With the Sharks not even close to sniffing the playoffs, he knew he finally had the opportunity to spend some time truly healing. When he returned to training camp in the fall, the...
PWHL San Jose gets 4th overall pick, locks up first 10 players
It’s been a busy few days for PWHL San Jose as the team locked up five more players in the next phase of the expansion process, signing five more free agents to bring the total roster count to ten. That’s on top of learning today that the team will pick fourth overall in the upcoming PWHL draft on June 17. For PWHL San Jose fans, it’s time to get excited. Who could PWHL San Jose draft with the fourth overall pick? For the first ten players, San Jose worked hard to lock down defensive...
2026 season review Alex Wennberg: Doing the little things right
When the San Jose Sharks signed Alex Wennberg on the first day of free agency in 2024, the team was hoping the then-29-year-old center might be able to help usher in a new era of Sharks hockey. It honestly could not have gone any better. What the Sharks got out of Wennberg in these last two years has been a leader on and off the ice. The forward has shown young players like Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith and Collin Graf how to play the right way. He and his family have been pillars in the San J...
PWHL San Jose selects first five players, begins to take shape
I’m out of the country and therefore almost entirely out of commission for the first couple weeks of June and so while I’ve done my best to keep with what San Jose’s new PWHL team has done, it’s been a lot of trying to get connection to Twitter and email just to see what’s going on. And boy, is there a lot going on. While San Jose wasn’t the first expansion team to the punch when it came to signing players, it was one of the first teams to add a majority of its five expansion players. In fact,...
2026 season review Ty Dellandrea: A depth center never hurts
The San Jose Sharks went into the 2025-26 season with one of the deeper center pools in the league. With Macklin Celebrini, Alex Wennberg, Michael Misa and Ty Dellandrea down the middle, along with players like Will Smith and Adam Gaudette able to play the center role, the team already had NHL-level centers to spare. Dellandrea was finally slotted into a role that seemed to fit where he needed to play in the NHL, a fourth-line center with the ability to move up the lineup if injuries required ...
2026 season review Dmitry Orlov: Welcome to San Jose
Known for his booming hits and ability to move the puck, Dmitry Orlov was an exciting addition to the San Jose Sharks’ roster last offseason. On a defense corps that was the worst in the NHL in the 2024-25 season, Orlov was expected to help the team take the next step in its development. Not only was the Russian defenseman expected to help the Sharks lock things down on defense, but he was also expected to move the puck up to the young, dynamic forwards and help fuel the offense. Orlov’s ...
2026 season review Sam Dickinson: Rookie season completed
The San Jose Sharks’ prospect pool is loaded, but a lot of eyes have been on young Sam Dickinson. The 11th overall pick in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft excelled when he returned to juniors after the draft, setting records and showing great promise as an offensive defenseman. The big question for Sharks fans heading into last summer was where the rookie would play in the 2025-26 season. Since the new collective bargaining agreement has not gone into effect yet, the Sharks needed to decide if the ra...
2026 player review Vincent Desharnais:
When the San Jose Sharks traded a 2025 fifth-round draft pick to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Vincent Desharnais in March of last year, there wasn’t much to the deal. The idea was that the Sharks had acquired a depth 6/7 defenseman who would fill in when there was an injury. For a fifth-round pick far, far in the future, it wasn’t a hefty price to pay. So it was a surprise when Desharnais proved, midway through the season, to be one of the more reliable and steadfast defensemen within the Shark...
2026 season review Nick Leddy: A class act
The San Jose Sharks added Nick Leddy to the roster on July 3 when the team claimed the defenseman off waivers. The St. Louis Blues needed to clear cap space, so the Blues waived the defenseman rather than buy him out. Sharks General Manager Mike Grier needed to add to the Sharks’ blueline, and Leddy was an easy addition given that he could play on the right side and he wasn’t going to cost the team anything in terms of prospects or draft picks. After an off-the-record discussion with the veter...
If the Sharks don’t re-sign John Klingberg, then who plays on the right?
Fear the Fin has started running through the player reviews, but we thought we would take a brief pause to take a deeper look at defenseman John Klingberg and who could replace him as many San Jose Sharks fans have called for at the end of this season. Klingberg was good for the Sharks … at times. At other times … well … fans had concerns. Many have hoped that they don’t see him back in teal again. However, that doesn’t solve the Sharks’ defensive problem. As of this writing (and I’ll adm...
2026 player review John Klingberg: A reasonable defensive gamble
When the 2025-26 season started, General Manager Mike Grier knew that he needed to add a veteran defenseman who could move the puck and feed his group of dynamic young forwards. He also knew that the high-end defensive free agents weren’t going to run to San Jose, a team that is still a few years away from true contention. So the general manager had to get creative. He had to make offers to second-tier defensemen and players with the hopes that they might pan out in the end. Which is how the S...
2026 player review Will Smith: Avoiding the sophomore slump
Will Smith entered his sophomore season with the San Jose Sharks with high hopes. The then-20-year-old put in the work over the summer, spending time on the ice with Macklin Celebrini and working out with some of the top names in the league, including Nathan MacKinnon and Sidney Crosby. Smith also won a gold medal with the U.S. Men’s National team last summer, registering seven assists in ten games. He came into the 2025-26 season in better shape and better prepared to play among the best in t...
Shaping San Jose’s new PWHL team
San Jose has a PWHL team, but it still needs players to take to the ice. Some of those players will be selected in the PWHL Draft on June 17. But there will also be players selected before the draft. These are the players who are currently in the PWHL and might be willing to switch to another team. That’s what’s happening starting on June 1, when the Preliminary Player Negotiation Period opens at 9 a.m. PT/12 p.m. ET. The expansion process is set to happen in six phases, and it happens mo...
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