San Jose Sharks’ Forward and Defense Prospects in Very Different Places – The Hockey Writers –

As the San Jose Sharks prepare for an upcoming season in which they have genuine hope for the playoffs for the first time in years, they’ll need to make some crucial personnel decisions. This obviously impacts players throughout the organization, but perhaps none more than San Jose’s prospects trying to establish roles as NHL players. They have this offseason to prove themselves, at which point the Sharks will solidify a large portion of their roster.

With that being said, not all of these players are on equal footing, and the divide can mostly be grouped by position. San Jose’s forward and defense prospects are facing wildly disparate situations, which will massively impact the ways in which their summers play out.

Sharks Forward Prospects Could Struggle to Fit

Throughout the Sharks’ surprisingly successful 2025-26 season, numerous forwards cemented themselves in the NHL. Former prospects Will Smith, Collin Graf, and Igor Chernyshov proved to be potentially huge pieces of the team’s future. In addition, the team signed Alexander Wennberg, Ty Dellandrea and Kiefer Sherwood to contract extensions. While San Jose’s offense made huge strides throughout the season, it also means that some players who expected to be Sharks now have very uncertain outlooks.

Quentin Musty was once one of the Sharks’ most-promising forward prospects. Three years removed from being drafted, he now faces an uphill battle to work his way into an increasingly deep group of wingers, especially if the Sharks draft Ivar Stenberg. Similarly, Filip Bystedt was Mike Grier’s first-ever draft pick as Sharks general manager, indicating how highly the franchise thought of him. Though he played very well in the minors this season, his ceiling on the current roster appears to be as the fourth-line center, and even that might be a stretch as the Sharks established a solid pool of centers during the season. Ethan Cardwell, Kasper Halttunen, Cam Lund, and others will encounter similarly difficult paths to the highest level.

At this point, these players’ roles within the organization have changed. A lot of San Jose’s forward prospects might be more useful to the team as trade chips than NHL contributors. This new status ultimately makes sense given where the Sharks’ positional needs lie — but it demonstrates how volatile the NHL can be and how much the franchise has changed over the last few seasons.

Sharks Defense Prospects Have Prime Opportunity

In contrast to the Sharks’ glut of forwards, San Jose’s defense is far less certain, as only two defensemen who spent the majority of this season with the Sharks are under contract for next season. Even though an NHL roster has fewer spots for blueliners than forwards, the Sharks’ defense prospects will have a better chance to prove themselves.

With potentially four or five spaces available, tons of players who either haven’t sniffed the NHL yet or have barely done so may get their look next season. Luca Cagnoni, Mattias Havelid, and Leo Sahlin Wallenius will look for callups from the minors, while Eric Pohlkamp hopes to make the jump from college. Even Shakir Mukhamadullin, a pending restricted free agent who played a career-high 50 NHL games this season, could use the new openings to take on a bigger role.

The Sharks haven’t developed their defensemen as quickly as their forwards, and the unit has struggled as a result. But that trend is also providing room for some of their prospects to make huge strides in their career this offseason, and they have to seize that chance.

Sharks Finalizing Their Impact Players

In the last few seasons, the Sharks have undergone a lot of roster turnover. However, as they hope to solidify themselves as playoff contenders next season, large portions of their lineup should become a lot more set. This means that they’ll use this offseason to determine which players they can rely on consistently. As a result, the clock is ticking for many of their long-standing prospects to make an impression. All of them will get a chance, but the amount of room that the forwards and defensemen have to work with are very, very different.