The New Era
Edition #162
INTRO:
The new era of hockey has arrived in San Jose.
Let’s give a warm welcome to a team in the Bay Area that attempted to win.
An overwhelming amount of you wanted me to focus on hockey for the next couple of months. I will now try to become a big hockey guy especially with the Sharks killing it this offseason.
I wrote about the End of an Era with the Oakland Athletics leaving for Las Vegas. With Vegas already having a hockey team (and a successful one at that), the Sharks aren’t going anywhere (at least for now). A new era has begun in San Jose. We’ll cover that and more, right here, on Sports Square.
Sharks:
Macklin Celebrini:
When anyone has been talking about the Sharks in the last 2-3 months, this one player just can’t be left out of the discussion and his name is Macklin Celebrini. Celebrini is 18 years old born on June 13th, 2006. Ummm, the next generation is here.
He was the first overall pick by the San Jose Sharks and is 6 feet tall, weighing 190 pounds. He shoots lefty and has way too many awards. He’s being paid 970,000 dollars a year.
Macklin is something special. That’s for sure. Any site I go on looking for draft rankings and stuff like that, there isn’t one place where they don’t say, “Macklin is something I’ve never seen before.” Shockingly, the Sharks won the draft lottery. I say that because the Sharks have been bad for a while now. In the last 5 years, they only have 123 wins and 199 losses which is 5th worst and 2nd worst in the league respectively. Basically, ever since the Oakland A’s went bad, the Sharks went bad.
The Canadian hockey player showed us exactly why he’s all that in his first practice as a San Jose Shark. In his first scrimmage of training camp, he scored a goal and created lots of scoring chances. That’s optimistic for the Sharks. I mean, from what I’ve seen, he’s definitely not a bust, but you never know. Almost no one ever thought Bryce Young was going to be a bust (I did. Check it out here: Bryce Young Was Never That Guy.) Here’s what Celebrini had to say after all that.
"At the end of the day, it's the same game I've played ever since I was a kid. It's just having fun and enjoying it."
-Macklin Celebrini
Other Additions:
The Sharks went out and did something this offseason to say the very least. I’m not going to say they’re a playoff team yet, because the competition is way too good to say one player is going to carry them to the finish, but what I will say is, that there is a chance that they might be in the race until the final day.
Some other additions include Tyler Toffoli, who’s really into this Macklin Celebrini movement. He said that Cele (Macklin’s nickname), was the main reason he signed with the Sharks this offseason meaning he really believes in him.
This is what Tyler said.
"Today was obviously something special. It was the first day of camp and he was flying out there, one of the best players on the ice, for sure. I think the goal for him is he wants to be the best player on the ice every day. So far, he accomplished that today."
-Tyler Toffoli
On August 23rd, the Sharks traded for goaltender Yaroslav Askarov, who’s an A+ prospect. He’s 22 and signed an extension already for the 25-26 campaign, paying him 2 million per season for the next 2 years. So, they have him locked up until the 27-28 season.
Sam Dickinson:
Lastly, the most underrated move of all the moves the Sharks made this offseason, drafting Sam Dickinson.
Sam is a defensive player which is exactly what the Sharks needed as most of the defensive players for the Sharks are old and leaving the team very soon. Drafting Dickinson here was key, also locking up a part of the defense position for a little while.
Saw a Reddit here explaining Dickinson’s play better than I can. Check it out: https://www.reddit.com/r/SanJoseSharks/comments/1dqym6i/sam_dickinson_scouting_report/.
The San Jose Sharks are in a prime position to become cup contenders next year. Mike Grier and the San Jose Sharks team are doing an amazing job rebuilding this team and let’s hope for a great year for the SJ Sharks.
Speaking of which, after watching a bit of highlights and games Celebrini played, I know his game style so to speak. Are you interested in a deep-down analysis of the San Jose Sharks prospect?
Give me Tofoli back
#TheFutureIsTeal