CDCFL San Jose Sharks

[matchesmalone]

The Rangers are advertising Rantanen as potentially available. I asked if DeBrincat plus Ohgren would get it done. Dallas put up Marchessault, Nylander, Terravainen so I asked if they'd be interested in something around Terravainen plus for DeBrincat.

[matchesmalone]

OK well the more I explore options on DeBrinct, I don't think anything is going to happen. New Jersey is still on the fence about doing Newhook plus either Burakovsky or the 2024 1st. Not even sure either gets it done for us. After more talks with Detroit we're too far apart on Guentzel. Been kicking tires with Ottawa on Hamilton and odn't think there's anything there, but perhaps if someone like Hertl or Schmaltz is traded we could probably get them out of Ottawa.

[matchesmalone]

Much interest in Guentzel? I suggested DeBrincat plus Severson. He said not interested in Severson but if we replaced him with futures it could be something.

[matchesmalone]

Beckett Hendrickson 9-3-5-8 +3
Ryan Fine 16-3-5-8 +/-0
Alex Weirmair 16-4-3-7 -7

Think I'd rather stay away from Weirmair. To rack up dashes like he does on such a stacked team, I dunno. Noticed a couple other guys who deserve some attention for the middle rounds of the draft, in Hendrickson and Fine. Hendrickson could really get slept on.

[matchesmalone]

Benjamin Poitras, Jan Sprynar, Tuomas Uronen, Arttu Alasiura, Rasmus Kumpalainen, Nikita Susuyev, Oskar Asplund are some more names worth watching.

[matchesmalone]

Tanner Adams looks interesting. Not sure how high he goes.

[matchesmalone]

I've been watching more of the fall 5N-U18s. Absolutely loving Felix Nilsson. Not sure how much offensive upside is there, but there's good reason he's already played 10 SHL games - very pro-style player, good two-way game, wins battles, strong on faceoffs. Unger Sorum, Wahlberg, Bergstrom also all seem to be worth keeping an eye on for Sweden.

Also came across Viljami Marjala, who I recall having some interest in his draft year but ended up going undrafted in CDC twice now. Drafted by Buffalo IRL, and now having a monster year in Finland's junior league at 19. Maybe not worth a 4th at this point but at least deserves to be kept tabs on.

[Josh]

3rd/4th Round Targets

It's still a bit early and there's not much in the way of comparative rankings, so I simply went with guys who no one has inside the top 60.

First up I'll mention a couple kids who were passed up in entirely in the 2022 CDC draft but who were drafted in the NHL and who are putting up pretty good seasons. Amadeus Lombardi and Pasquale Zito are guys who should warrant some consideration.

Three forwards and a defenseman look like potential targets among the newly-eligible. Jakub Stancl, Alex Weiermair, and Brady Birnie are the forwards. Birnie might be my favourite of the trio, but he's TINY. Still holding his own against 20 year-olds in the dub though.. Then there's Kristian Kostadinski on D. Looks like a guy who's gonna fly under the radar buthas a good shot at amounting to something.

A few guys I was looking at but who didn't make the final cut were forwards Johannes Frisk and Sam Oremba, and defenseman Victor Westh. Possible targets for later in the draft if we end up acquiring some picks.

[matchesmalone]

Amadeus Lombardi is not eligible to be signed. He'll have to pass through the draft again first.

[Josh]

Man, sorry this took so long. Some of the players who turned up in the results of my first analysis just weren't good enough, so I needed to change things up. I'm a lot more comfortable with the new ones. You also got me thinking about other teams, which expanded the scope.

This is essentially a list of CDC teams with players whose current value should be lower than Thompson's, but whose production values relative to position are reasonably likely to reach his anytime between now and a few seasons from now. It only yields two teams where trades involving only players on the list could make sense - Nashville and Washington. In the other cases, the list only serves to highlight players we should push to include in any deal for Thompson. Alternatively, it can also be used as a list of players to target.

In order of value:

Nashville: Nico Hischier, Arthur Kaliyev, Anttoni Honka, Chase Stillman
Washington: Joel Eriksson Ek, Jonatan Berggren, K’Andre Miller, Fraser Mitten
Ottawa: Jesper Bratt, Jamieson Rees, Francesco Pinelli
Chicago: Gabriel Vilardi, Marco Rossi, Brandon Duhaime
Florida: Brandt Clarke, Martin Chromiak, Alex Laferriere
New Jersey: Quinton Byfield, Seamus Casey
Vegas: Matt Boldy, Elmer Söderblom, Jordan Spence, Martin Kaut
Arizona: Martin Necas
Pittsburgh: Logan Thompson, Calen Addison, Robert Mastrosimone
Minnesota: Carson Lambos, Alexander Holtz, Marat Khusnutdinov
Islanders: Connor Dewar, Patrick Guay
Buffalo: Dawson Mercer, Michael Rasmussen
Calgary: Fabian Zetterlund, Patrick Puistola
Tampa Bay: Joseph Veleno, Ryder Korczak
Toronto: Filip Hronek
Edmonton: Mason Shaw
Boston: Nicolas Roy
Dallas: Marco Kasper
Anaheim: Rasmus Kupari
Philadelphia: Kasper Simontaival
Detroit: Jack Peart
Los Angeles: Alex Steeves
Montréal: Dylan Garand

The results produced a few free agents as well. The most difficult to ignore is Amadeus Lombardi. We should sign him!

[matchesmalone]

Ok I told CBJ and DET that we would wait to see how UFA plays out before making any decisions on Wheeler or Crosby. Looking at our lineup right now we have 21 players on the roster and 14.685 in cap space. A full cohort of 8 regular defensemen. Still waiting for final confirmation on the Bob signing but seems done at 6.25. Add that and Eklund's 3.775 brings us down to 4.66 with a full 23 man roster. To be conservative lets assume it's Chmelevski and his 0.685 we have to send down if we add a player at UFA, not giving us much relief... 4.66+0.685=5.345. So conceivably we could offer Granlund 5.25, but that leaves us extremely little breathing room. I still think Iafallo and Coyle are fairly interesting cheaper options.

But alternatively, if we do the Vrana/Tatar deal, take that 5.345+2.75=8.095, and now we have something to work with. To be sure we are on the safe side, I take the difference from Chmelevski to Vesey (in case for some reason we need to call up Vesey over Chmelevski), which is 0.365, and subtract from 8.095, giving 7.73, and that's the number I'd be comfortable giving Forsberg/Giroux/Duchene/Bergeron/Pavelski. Not sure exactly what it's going to take or what we should offer value-wise, but for our cap structure going into next season, that's where we're at.

[matchesmalone]

Sharks top 20 prospects (with equivalent draft pick value) :

Tier I (top 5 OA)
1. William Eklund

Tier II (top 15 OA)
2. Liam Ohgren
3. Fyodor Svechkov

Tier III (1st round)

4. Calle Odelius
5. Sasha Chmelevski
6. Arvid Soderblom
7. Drew O'Connor
8. Ville Koivunen
9. Reilly Walsh
10. Roby Jarventie

Tier IV (2nd-3rd round)
11. Ben McCartney
12. Bryce McConnell-Barker
13. Ian Mitchell
14. Nolan Allan
15. Gavin Hayes

Tier V (4th or later)
16. Jonathan Aspirot
17. Vadim Zherenko
18. Hunter Skinner
19. Hunter Shepard
20. Topias Vilen

That top 15 is very strong. Just comparing against when I used to do NHL team rankings, this is a pretty exceptional group. So with free agency we're mainly looking to bolster the bottom quarter of the list, and if we can land one or two in tier IV that would be enormous.

[matchesmalone]

I guess I'll leave off Costantini and Berg for now. Still trying to whittle the numbers down. Those two plus Frasca and Sillinger will be the first guys I circle back to if I feel we weren't able to add enough bodies to the system first go-around. We'll have about 10 free contract spots to use. I'd like to add at least 5, and no more than 7 or 8.

Nick Cicek - 995k

Joel Nystrom - 925k

Kyle Jackson - 750k

Stephen Halliday - 775k

Lucas Edmonds - 750k

Benjamin King - 750k

Oskari Salminen - 2x1.5 or 3x1.25

Calle Sjalin - 1.25

Linus Oberg - 750k

Filip Cederqvist - 995k

Ryan Fanti - 2x1.5 or 3x1.25

Viktor Lodin - 1.15

Declan Carlile - 1.15

Andre Lee - 825k

Noah Beck - 825k

Cole Reinhart - 800k

Oskar Back -925k

Matthew Stienburg - 1.15

[matchesmalone]

Actually scratch Sillinger for now. Would prefer players already owned by NHL teams. Looking through NCAA again, there's actually some really intriguing lower key options: Declan Carlile, Andre Lee, Noah Beck, Matteo Costantini and Matthew Stienburg. Gonna overpay a little for Beck because we need D in the system, and especially for Carlile because Tampa. I'm sure there will be a lot of teams in on Carlile.

Add Cole Reinhart, Oskar Back, Cam Berg. I'm actually on the fence about Berg and Costantini right now. They're drafted sure but stats look solid yet unspectacular.

Stienburg is very intriguing to me. Former 3rd round pick, owned by Colorado. Jumped straight from high school hockey to NCAA so the weak freshman campaign is very excusable. Then Cornell was one of the few teams to shut down completely for covid, and now he was a p/g, albeit already 21.

[matchesmalone]

Tried to narrow down the list a bit further. Got it to 13. Tried to come up with some rough estimates of what each might require. Add Sjalin to the group I'm most excited about. And actually bump him ahead of Nystrom. Lodin isn't far behind.


Nick Cicek (UFA) - 995k

Joel Nystrom (2002) - 925k

Kyle Jackson (2002) - Where does he get drafted IRL? Same goes for the next three. 750k?

Stephen Halliday (2002) - 775k

Lucas Edmonds (UFA) - 750k

Benjamin King (2002) - 750k

Oskari Salminen (UFA) - 1.5

Calle Sjalin (UFA) - 1.25

Linus Oberg (UFA) - 925k

Filip Cederqvist (UFA) - 995k

Ryan Fanti (UFA) - 1.25

Lukas Sillinger (UFA) - 750k

Viktor Lodin (UFA) - 995k

Actually scratch Sillinger for now. Would prefer players already owned by NHL teams. Looking through NCAA again, there's actually some really intriguing lower key options: Declan Carlile, Andre Lee, Noah Beck, Matteo Costantini and Matthew Stienburg. Gonna overpay a little for Beck because we need D in the system, and especially for Carlile because Tampa. I'm sure there will be a lot of teams in on Carlile.