Acquiring ninth-overall pick opens door for Sharks taking a forward second overall

The San Jose Sharks were already a pivotal team in this year’s NHL Entry Draft, as they held the second-overall pick. After Tuesday’s trade with the Ottawa Senators, which saw them acquire the ninth-overall pick in exchange for forward William Eklund and two prospects, the Sharks are now arguably the defining team of Friday’s first round.

Having a second pick in the top ten gives San Jose the flexibility to target the best player available at second overall, knowing they have another high-value pick to address a team need. The Sharks can now wait until the ninth pick to add help on defense if they so choose, while snagging a blue-chip forward at second overall and walking away with best of both worlds, so to speak.

On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton were joined by Daily Faceoff‘s prospect analyst Steven Ellis to discuss how San Jose can now approach the draft with a second top-ten pick in hand.

Carter Hutton: San Jose making that trade yesterday with the Ottawa Senators, acquiring the ninth-overall pick and still having number two, is (Ivar) Stenberg a lock at number two for the San Jose Sharks?

Steven Ellis: It feels like it at this point. For me, I always want to do best player available. My original mock draft said, you know, I understand the reason to get (Chase) Reid, but Stenberg at number two makes a ton of sense, and it opens up the opportunity to make some trades. And then you saw them trade William Eklund and it’s like “Ok, here you go, here’s your replacement.” Ivar Stenberg is a younger guy, very skilled, can play on the top line and would be a really good fit with someone like Macklin Celebrini and maybe Will Smith. I really like that idea. At that point, if you’re picking Chase Reid, you could do that and then maybe use that second pick and pick another defenseman and all of a sudden the weakness you had on the blueline is no longer a weakness whatsoever. But I feel like this is one where, just pick Stenberg, he’s the best player available at that point, that’s the one that makes the most sense.

You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Wednesday’s episode here…