BATTLE: San Jose Sharks Bottom 6 ROSTER Faces TOUGHEST Competition with Sharks Offseason Additions

The Sharks Bottom 6 is one of their most competitive groups seen players who saw a lot of ice time being healthy scratches this season. Your Locked On Sharks, your daily podcast on the San Jose Sharks, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, my name is JD Young, on today's episode of Locked On Sharks. We're going to dive into the bottom six of the forward group. We'll look at who I think, of course, the locks to play, who's going to be kind of competing for those last spots on the night and night out basis, and who do I think Korsovsky trusts to start this season? So yesterday, we of course, we looked at the top six of the Sharks and kind of as we've gathered. This is a much deeper forward group than we have seen in San Jose in years, right? Of course, Celebrini and Smith get plenty of shine and well-deserving shine, but you have guys like Sharnashov and Senberg who are supposed to expect it to make big time impacts this season. Of course, you signed Mason Marchman, who I think is going to have a top six role. You traded for and then extended key for Sherwood, you have Alps, Weinberg, there are plenty of players who are going to be in the mix and as we discuss, that third line for San Jose is going to be one of its best potentially that we've seen in a long, long time since the days of Joe Thornton patrolling the third line with Kevin LeBank and Marcus Sorensen good for those guys, man, but now like this team and where it's going, the competition to get in and make the Sharks forward group and play every night, it's much harder to do so than it was even at this time last year and where we were two or three years ago. So again, we spent a lot of time talking about the top six and kind of the guys who expect to be in that point and kind of the guys who are going to be on the third line and kind of wanted to kind of jump off of there, right? So assuming it's either the Weinberg line and that's some version of like graph or Stenberg or Kiefer Sherwood on that line, that's, you know, playing the second line and then your third line is, you know, Misa or Shurneshav with graph or Kiefer Sherwood or tower to fully, like there's a lot of guys, like one of those guys is going to be in line to play four climb minutes, right? And you know, Stenberg who Sharks drafted second or roll and, you know, I think will be kind of, they're not going to drop them as we've talked about before. They're not just going to kind of drop them in and let them do like, celebrate yourself, but I think he's going to be further along than like what we saw from Misa and Dickinson last year where I think he will kind of get the benefit of the doubt from the coaching staff and will quickly work his way in and be kind of in every day player, right? We don't have to worry about the contract situation that we did last year. So I assume he's going to be in that middle six somewheres. And Shurneshav I think is, as I've talked about several long, provides something different and, you know, I think is going to make this team out of training camp. And yes, I do know like they could easily send them to the AHL and the same thing with December, we're two players so you could potentially see in the AHL, but I just think, especially with Shurneshav right in his style of play. And I think he's a guy who can easily, or I think we'll have to win his job. I'm like, I don't think he's a lot to win his spot, but I can see him. It's harder for me to see him starting the season in the AHL that is starting the season in the NHL. So, I mean, we mentioned 10 guys who we feel like are close to locks to make the NHL, the short roster, right? Order of just how they're on Pappedia. So based on archivism, it's hard to fully. Alex Weinberg, key for sure, would call and graph, Stenberg, Mesa, Celebrini, Will Smith, Igor Shurneshavs, that's 10 right there, all right? That really leaves you with a bunch of guys who are going to be kind of in the fourth line. And all these guys who I think will make the roster, and that is Barclay Goodrow, Zachary Sopcock, Adam Godet, and Tidal Andrea. So that puts you right there of 14 players who are on, going to be on the roster. Typically, most teams usually carry kind of 14 forwards, seven defensemen, two goalies because that leaves you 23, right? 14 plus seven, I can do touchdowns, 14 plus seven, 21, you throw a safety in there and you have to 23 points, right? 23 players that is your NHL roster, you know, up through the trade deadline as 23 players. So it's going to be very hard, I think, for some of these younger players to potentially crack the roster, right? And guys like, you know, Ethan Cardwell, who I think is a perfectly kind of suit, like bottom six type of forward, right? You know, Patrick Giles, same type of thing, right? Bottom six type of forward, Philip B said, you know, kind of, you're hoping to be your third line center of the future, but you're just kind of running out of room here for guys like that. Right there, who I think could, you know, 100%, you know, even throw Cam London, but I think he'll come off his injury, maybe starts the season and we'll probably start the season, the NHL, especially given his waiver exempt. But the other guys though, I think are players who would one, like, would be at least in the mix for the bottom six, and I just, I don't know if there's going to be any wiggle room without sending down a guy like a Stenberg or, you know, or guy like a Shernishov. And maybe they do that and maybe right Shernishov starts, if there's just no space or maybe Stenberg just doesn't look quite NHL ready, maybe one or both of those players starts in the AHL and it kind of gives you a little bit of, at least, flexibility going into the season, but it does kind of feel like this forward group for the most part is probably locked into who we expect to see at least opening nights, you know, assuming no injuries or anything like that, but it definitely, you know, it feels like there's not a lot of wiggle room for here, and especially when you look at how Mike Greer and the Sharks kind of took care of some of these players here, right? Tidal injury who was coming off an injury, you know, last season, got an extension when he got back from his injury at two years at 1.625 million. So not like a huge commitment, but still like that's, you know, a fair commitment more than the AHL minimum, right, this is a reminder, you can vary 1.15 million in the AHL. Again, like the, the $500,000 or whatever isn't going to kill the Sharks if they have to kind of eat some of that while if they'll injure a word to go to the AHL. But you look at Zachos Abchuck, right? He's just got a new deal this off season for four years at $2.35 million, you know, and as like was, you know, really coming on as the season went on was kind of raved about by, you know, by Mike Greer and the coaching staff of kind of what he brought to the team and kind of his physical physicality and his speed and stuff like that, right? You look at, of course, there's Barclay Goodrow, who's making the most out of all these players and as he enters the last year of his deal at 3.41 and does have a 15 team no trade list. And then you have Adam Gaudet, who enters last year of his deal at $2 million. So, you know, there's decent resources, kind of attached to a lot of these guys. So, we're going to, you know, talk about kind of digging to these four particular because I feel like the rest of the 10 guys we know, and it's just going to be who's playing with who, but to, you know, most likely two out of these four players aren't going to be playing on a nightly bait or maybe even all four of these players are going to be seeing. They're, you know, not, they're going to be competing for games night and night out. So we're going to discuss that here in just one second. Running into business shouldn't feel like you're trying to connect a bunch of systems that were never designed to work together. One app for accounting, another for inventory, another for sales, and somehow none of them talk to each other. That's where Odo comes in. Odo is an all-in-one business management software that brings every part of your business together in one powerful platform. From sales and accounting to inventory and marketing, everything works at one place. Odo is one platform to manage, grow, and scale your business. Best organizations know that success isn't just about talent. So having everyone working towards the same goal, that's true, just in sports, just like it is in business. Think about the way the sharks have been building this roster, right? Draft, develop, and then now put veterans around to kind of protect the young players. You can tell like the organization they've had a vision, they're sticking to it, and now hopefully we start to see the results because everyone's working on the same playbook. Great organizations have been because operations matter. That's why you should get Odo. Try for free today at odu.com/lockdown. That's oduo.com/lockedon. I do, of course, want to think of making it locked on sharks your first listen. You haven't checked out the every day or club. Now is a wonderful time to do so with the season. We're almost here. Five bucks a month, guys. You get ad free audio episodes of every episode of Lockdown Sharks. You get access to our Discord channel. We get to talk with other sharks fans about the sharks, as well as you get newsletter plus during the season a bonus episode every week, straight to where we can talk about other stuff that we just really can't cover on the daily podcast. Check it out over at lockdownsharks.supercast or click the link in the show. All right, so we kind of know the players. Again, you could make an argument if Cardinal comes out and has a massive training camp, which we saw him do last year. I thought it was worthy of making the team last year with his performance and preseason. Right. Carolina Patrick Giles, both of those players are players who will need to clear waivers. I know our old friend, Ethan Cardwell, he's got to the point now, where he's got to clear waivers. So Cam London and Philip Bees said who the London also missing good truck of the season last year wouldn't be surprised. And Bees said, right, there's five centers ahead of him at this point. Between right, celebrating Misa, Wienberg, Delandria, and a stop truck. It's just a numbers game at this point for him. So the four though, right. Got it. Good draw, a stop truck, Delandria. Like these guys playing, you know, pretty, you know, meaningful minutes for San Jose last year. Title injury played 14-11 last year and 46 games played, right. And you expect that number, like you're playing four, you're going to be playing the fourth line center roll between Delandria and a stop truck. Like that is the competition. I think is who wins that fourth line center roll between those. Like a stop truck last year played 1006. So you do wonder, like, does Delandria, who the sharks coaching staffer likes him because he's very good on draws. And to be honest, like it's not much of a difference between Delandria and a stop truck. Delandria took 280 draws, or he won 280 draws last year. And it was at 51 point, basically 52% clip on his face off wins. And then a stop truck won 236 last year. It was at 51.6. So it's pretty close there when it comes to, it's, you know, three percentage points between the two. So it's not like it's a huge drop off from, if they go from Delandria to a stop truck, right. A stop truck who, again, the sharks gave him, like, both these players got contracts this off seat or, you know, within a six-month time frame of each other, actually three-month time frame of each other, right. Both players got contracts. And I know, you know, Delandria is a little bit older, but, you know, it fit 26. But the stop truck got the bigger deal. Like, if it comes down to it, like, who were you going to kind of putting that fourth line center? And I, you know, I think a stop truck should have the path, because I think he does a little bit more than Delandria. And he brings a little bit more with his size and his speed, especially, right. And we've seen a stop truck in his wheels and what he's been able to do with it. So you have to feel like, out of these four guys, Goudreau is probably the safest, at least to kind of be an every-night player, right. And again, you're, you think 10 guys I mentioned, that's three full lines and then a spot on the fourth line. So if it's like a Sherwood or whomever call and graph a Sherwood, I'm just like somebody like that playing a fourth line role, you're down to two people, two spots and two guys who are up in the press box every night. And out of the four again, so you, Delandria and a stop truck probably competing for that last, for the fourth line center role. And then it's going to come down to most likely Goudreau Godet, something like that. And Gaudet does provide a little bit of center depth, like you can play center. He is a right wing and Goudreau is a left wing. Goudreau, like again, he's just, you can see what Power Sharks utilized him right last year, right. Gaudet played 1128. Goudreau played 1121 last year, but Gaudet and his 66 games played, right, 17 goals, 8 assists, 25 points and 66 games. Again, playing 11 and a half minutes a night. Gaudreau played every game last year, every game, five goals, 7 assists, 12 points, if you're in the plus minus minus 18 compared to Gaudet's minus 9 situation. And yes, I know Goudreau does have his, right, he's going to stick up and he's good in the locker room and all that stuff. But you do wonder if like the sharks realize that he might, like this might be a time where you might need to kind of start looking at some of the guys again, right. Good teams, and we did kind of penalty kill discussion, you know, a couple weeks ago, like good teams utilize their better, like their top players to play on the pk, right. And that's the hope the sharks start doing that and they're not relying on your good roads and some of these fourth line guys as much. At least with Gaudet, if he's on the ice, like you do get a scoring, right. And he's got the wheels and stuff to potentially create some scoring opportunities. I know like that contract is almost unmovable, but you do wonder if somebody on this group here, right. Whether it's, I think that whether whether it's Dallandria, whether it's Gaudreau, or whether it's Gaudet, if you look to maybe move one of these guys here to try to free up, either free up a rock, for a spot, or and give them an opportunity to go play elsewhere. Because again, two of these guys are most likely going to be in the press box every night. Man, it's probably going to be rotating, but it's it's going to be a rotating cast of these guys, and I wonder if the sharks maybe try to move off of one of, especially if maybe a team deals with an injury or something like that, really in the season or during preseason, and they want to try to get somebody else in their bottom six. Like all these guys are for the most part capable bottom six players, but I do wonder if that might be the route. So let's we're going to kind of try to piece together a bottom six here for San Jose, and then we'll, yeah, at least what I would do on the bottom six. So, and then we'll get to here in just one second. I do, of course, want to thank you for making it locked on sharks your first listen. If you haven't checked out the NHL show locked on NHL, now is a great time to do so. We got you covered Monday through Friday with all the biggest stories in NHL, as well as getting you ready for a new season. So you can follow on wherever you listen to podcasts. And of course, you can watch on YouTube as well. So how do the sharks kind of deal with this? Again, assuming it's just for say, go argument, right? We'll go with Celebrini, Smith, Marchment. Again, I have just a gut feeling on that for the top line. We'll do a second line of Stenberg, Wenberg, and then let's go, let's go Sherwood in that situation because I feel like Sherwood, Wenberg really made a great, like we kind of know the sharks how they want to utilize that line. So really replicates this line from last year. Third line, we'll go Churneshav, Misa, Colongraph. All right. Fourth line, again, Tafoli. I don't think you're sitting Tafoli. It's probably going to be like Goodgerow or Saptop Tafoli on your fourth line. Or maybe Sherwood on the fourth line. Who knows? But it's something like that going forward with that would put Godet and Delandria as your kind of healthy scratches. Again, I still think there's going to be a lot of rotation on that bottom six there. And like if it was me, I would probably, like I would not be, I would see if I could get anything for Barkley Goodgerow, especially because Wenny's got a 15 team trade list. So it's definitely opened up and you can more try to maybe move him. Team wants some sort of veteran leadership, all that fun stuff. And who knows? Maybe he would want to go somewhere else, probably not. But if you could maybe move him, you could maybe move him. Like I personally, I would rather have, I think a Godet. And I know they're both right wingers, but a Godet, a Saptop Tafoli line. Like that at least gives you like real scoring pop. And I know Tafoli doesn't have the wheels anymore. Like those other two guys, but like you could 100% like that fourth line is like fun and exciting. And they can do stuff for you, right. And they have like a Saptop, brings you like plenty of grip. You have a guy, you know, like that's that's a fair amount of goals from your fourth line wingers, right? I mean, Tafoli had 19 last year in Godet, had 17 last year. Like that's those are the edges. And those are how you win games is when you're four, like your third and fourth line eat grand, or they're not playing as much. But when they're just markedly better than other teams, like and and putting your right area, they're scoring, or they're driving offense and putting your top line is going to be coming out after them in a position to succeed. Like and again, if it's not, if you want to have Tafoli up there and maybe you have Sherwood down, I think Sherwood can can play, you know, either side, right? If you need Sherwood to play the left wing or right wing, he can do that as well. Like that, that gives you like real skin, Sherwood, who scored, you know, 25 or 23 goals last season, trying to do math all top of my head. That gives you like real scoring potential on your fourth line between Godet, Ostopchuk and Sherwood. And again, we talked about Sherwood's a guy we want to see more of on the PK. And I think Ostopchuk's a guy we want to see, you know, on the PK as well, because of what he does really well, right? Like I'm, I would 100% be down for that. Again, I think that's a solid fourth line. That's a fun fourth line. You're not holding your breath for 90s, you know, 60 to 90 seconds that something horrible doesn't happen. And then you are trying to, you know, have a celebrity or Benberger, whoever comes out next, clean up the mess from that fourth line. I think there's legitimate scoring like potential on a line like that. So, but I do wonder, like I said, I wonder if they look to try to move off of somebody, one of those guys. And then you could, you know, look just kind of again, looking at the sharks slash bearer kuda here, right? If you had, if you ran 13 forwards and then maybe you did, you got two defensemen or if you wanted to have 14 forwards, right? You could maybe a guy, you know, a guy like a, a Patrick Giles, who I think, perfect example of a guy who right could, if you need to jump in on the NHL, it's going to be fine. If you, you're ready, he's not going to hurt anybody. If he's kind of sitting in every night, or if, you know, you can wait, definitely wave him and get him down to the bearer kuda at some point. I think like a guy like that, where you think it's a better packing order, right? Where you kind of know exactly where everyone is or maybe the sharks look to move. I know you just signed them to a new contract, but Tidal Andrea, right? Especially if somebody else's fourth line center just isn't really working out for them. Like you could get like a mid to late round pick for a guy like Tidal Andrea as well. So but yeah, I think it's going to be very much a influx fourth line. I would be as, I want to say like, I wouldn't be shocked, but I, I think the day, hopefully the days of like Barclay Goodrow playing every game, every night, those days need to be done. I think we need to start to prepare for post Barclay Goodrow. And even if it's a guy like Ethan Cardwell who gets an opportunity because I think Cardwell can do all the same stuff that Barclay Goodrow does, but also has an offensive, you know, a much higher offensive ceiling. And it's also right costs, you know, a third or quarter of the price, I guess, at, you know, $850,000 compared to Barclay Goodrow's $3.6 million. And again, like this starts, don't have to worry about cap space now, but you know, going forward, like you need to fill those bottom those fourth line guys with really cost effective players, because you're going to be using so much of your salary cap on your celebrities and your smiths and your top line guys, because right, those guys deserve that money. And I think you need to be a little bit more efficient with how you spend your money in the bottom six, but I will, it'll be interesting to see how this shakes out. And I think it's going to be right. I mean, the 2C battle is like headlines. That's what we're all watching for. But who's, who kind of sticks there in the, especially that fourth line? Who kind of sticks on that fourth line and how do the sharks or who's, again, who's sitting? Who's sitting May and Night out for San Jose? So that's going to be it for me today. We'll be back tomorrow. We'll probably be looking, probably kind of looking at the defense there, how that shakes out. Who wins at seventh, seventh defenseman job there? So we'll be discussing that as we continue to kind of get through, you know, get ready for the training camp. So make sure you phone along wherever you get podcasts. Follow the show on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and on TikTok. I lock on the sharks, follow me on Twitter and Blue Sky at my fryhold. Talk tomorrow. Bye friends.