Reacting To San Jose Sharks GM Mike Grier’s Pre-Draft & Free Agency Press Availability
Mike had his availability with the media and gave us a couple little tidbits for free agency in the draft and some more so we’ll get caught up on that today your locked on sharks your daily podcast on the San Jose Sharks part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day hello welcome to locked on sharks Z Premier hockey podcast covering your favorite team in the Bay Area my name is JD young caretaker at The Reef also the co-host of western conference Tuesday on the lock on NHL Channel want to thank you for making lock on sharks your first listen probably part of the lockdown netork we cover your team every day if you want to be an everyday or all you have to do is just foll wherever you get Podcast or you can watch this on YouTube as well and today we’re going to be reacting to some of uh to Mike G’s press availability SP about 45 minutes taking questions from the media we covered a whole range of things including the draft uh we also talked about free agency what some of his plans are for there and get caught got caught up on some other kind of news and notes and uh expectations for guys who will or won’t be here next uh season so let’s start with the draft because that is uh the most pressing issue and um I have cut some clips from the free agency all these clips are via the San Jose sharks so thank you to the Sharks for sending out the availability but um so what we’ll we’ll do here in a second is we’ll talk about I’ll kind of play the clip and I’ll give my thoughts and reactions on kind of what Greer was saying so before we get to all that though do want to let you guys know that today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel make every moment moris playoffs wind down the Sports Stop sporting like we want them to but this summer FanDuel is hooking up all customers with a boost or a bonus daily that’s right there’s something for everyone every day all summer long visit fanduel.com lockon to get started so let’s get started with Mike Greer and Mike reer was asked well we know M celebrini um he didn’t say cbr’s name in this but we’ve we know Mike Mike’s been talking about celebrini for a while actually did he was asked about celebrini but uh at some point but we all know it’s Ma on celebrini everybody in the world knows it’s Ma on celebrini um but of course for sharks and sharks fans all the Intrigue starts at at 14 so when micro ear was asked well what are you g to what’s the plan at number 14 or we know of course the Sharks do need um kind of a blue chip defensive prospect or are you going to be best player available or what are you kind of planning on doing so here is what mik career was asked um with the 14th pick what what they aim to do um I think we’re for the most part we’ll probably be best player available then where we are at 14 well we’ll see how our board shapes up here after we get to Vegas and have our final meetings and and shape everything up and see how things look and line up but most likely at 14 we we’ll still be at uh best best player available and that’s the right move um at 14 there’s still Premier Talent left on the board whether it is a forward or defenseman um I know a lot of sharks fans are like just pick the best defenseman but if there’s a forward who slides um you know in Becca senica you know whatever you think on Cole Eiserman like if you I think for the Sharks you have to go best player you have to continue picking best player available because yes while we feel really good about especially the forward depth guys don’t pan out you have to give yourself some insulation and when you’re picking a lottery pick I think the best strategy is to go best player available because it just gives you more flexibility done line it’s not like you can’t trade somebody you never know who’s going to become available via trade and with all the assets and the war chests of picks slash prospects the sharks have if a young awesome defenseman becomes available Mike Greer is going to be able to strike whether it’s moving prospects Andor picks to get that your roster building through the draft is one way to build your roster but there’s you know a lot of pieces to it and I think continuing to just pick best player available regard the sharks have plenty of needs okay um so whether it’s a defenseman or forward or like just pick continue to pick the best player available especially while you’re picking lottery picks here if you’re in the back of the first that’s a different conversation you may be swinging for upside maybe you try to kind of fill hole like there’s a little bit different strategy but when you’re picking top 15 you just you always pick best player available and you figure it out later on because guys don’t pin out guys will maybe what you what you think are holes now in five years may not be holes when these guys are starting to kind of make a real impact so uh Greer was also asked on if the Sharks will move up at 14 and uh here’s what he said yeah I mean it’s it’s never uh it’s always hard to move up um but you know I think we’ll explore both options really we’ll explore EXP are moving up trying to move up um if the price isn’t too high um and then you know we’re also open to trading back and and getting more assets and um if that made sense too so um we’re kind of open-minded at 14 um I think no one’s it’s kind of a draft this year that’s kind of all over the map I don’t think anyone’s really sure how it’s going to go um so um you know obviously if there’s a player there that we really like um at 14 we’ll take him and maybe we’ll if there’s a player that’s sliding down the board maybe we’ll try and move up and try and get him or you know if we feel like there’s a big pocket of players that we we like maybe we’ll slide down and gain get some more assets so um you know we’re open open-minded to the whole scenario to all the different scenarios and um um kind of looking forward to to seeing how things shake out mik care just like me looking forward to seeing how things shake out but I’m again I I think for sharks right they’re not just going to move up just to move up if they feel like somebody is there that can be kind of a franchise changing type of player uh whether that’s I know myself and a lot of shks fans are very much on the uh z buam uh like just ready to give it all up for Z buam there is that but we we don’t know how this thing’s going to kind of shake out for the Sharks and maybe they feel like there could be you know one of the top six defenseman and or maybe they don’t like any of the top six defensemen or there’s just so many variables to how this thing plays out and you know I would be I think where the sharks are at I could see trading down but I I think you need to just get Blue Chip assets and especially if since you have two picks in the top you know what 12 or top 10 picks of the second round while getting some more assets would be nice I think you need to to try you just need to get good players uh from from the sharks so point of view and I think there’s going to be a pocket of defenseman if if you’re kind of if you do go forward there’s gonna be a pocket of defenseman either in the late first where I think it’s easier to move back into the first round especially with what the sharks have um at their disposal um than it is I think to move up into the top 10 and we don’t really see top moves up into the top 10 very often so uh we’ll see what happens there for for the sharks um if they do are able to move up um but wouldn’t hold your breath so I asked Mike Greer on trying to find a goalie in the draft and he uh he gave me a really good answer I would say um you know we were definitely hoping to add one last year and a couple guys kind of got snaked right before our pick so um you know this year I think it is something um you know we’ll definitely try try and add a goalie at some point in the in the draft so yeah the Sharks I asked him the same question last year are you going to try to draft a goalie he wanted to draft a goalie remember there was a huge run of goalies at the end of the second beginning of the third and they kind of missed out on on that run there um I wouldn’t be surprised if the sharks are one of the first teams to pick a goalie and whether that’s at 42 especially if that’s your fourth pick or maybe you move down or maybe you take you try to move back up into the beginning of the third round um the sharks have a lot of picks and a lot of flexibility where if they want to move things around like they’re able to do that um and don’t get caught up on kind of trading future picks for the Sharks because they’re going to still be acquiring picks over the next couple years right um like there’s there’s still going to be sellers at the trade deadline uh whether it’s a guy like granin or VTech vanich or McKenzie black would or one of their defense like there’s there’s there’s ways to manufacture draft picks and I wouldn’t get caught up on you know because draft picks that get moved around like crazy during draft day and then they spend the rest of the year hoarding them like acorns so don’t get caught up on like oh man he traded a a future you know fourth round pick or something like that to move up like th those picks are easy for GMS especially a GM like like my career who has you’re still in kind of selling mode right um th those picks are easy to replace for the sharks at some point so um but yeah I think for the draft you know for what we’ve kind of learned from from Mike Greer is we know it’s going to be celebrini they’re going to pick the best player available whoever they think the best player available is and um their list is going to be very different from the Public’s list right um and you know like Greer seems very he’s going to work move around the board we’ve seen him do that in the past couple dra both his drafts of him kind of working the board moving up moving down whatever you know it kind of plays out for him so um and hopefully they continue at goalies as the sharks look for the goalie of the future so uh we’ll get into gre’s conversation on free agents and kind of what he needs to do U kind of what they’re looking to do and kind of how much they’re willing to spend and all that fun stuff uh so we’ll get to that here in just one second I love sports I love them so much I never want them to stop but with the playoffs winding down we get fewer games and the sports aren’t sportsing like I want them to but fandal lets me keep the sports going whenever I want all I have to do is open the app and dream up bets anytime I’m in the mood and this summer bandles hooking up all customers with a boost or a bonus daily that’s right they got something for everyone every day all summer long so head over to fanduel.com lockon and start making the most of your S Summer FanDuel official sports betting partner of Major League Baseball all right um so let’s talk about some of his free agency you know discussions and and kind of what the shark’s doing you know Greer was pretty honest about like you know you heard a lot of compete and toughness he talked about Barkley good why why they did that and you know kind of wanting to add some of that competing toughness but he also kind of mentioned what some of their free agent shopping list looks like for for the first so we’ll start with that yeah I I mean I think you mentioned a little bit we still um got to add some keep looking add some character and compete the group um you know we do need some scoring um on the wings most likely and maybe you know maybe some Center some center help to take some some pressure off of you know Granny and will and stuff like that so um you know we want to be flexible I think we’re in a good spot where some of our centors have the capability to play Wing too and move up and down the lineup so um a little bit of scoring um and some some compete compete as well so so yes to compete and stuff and he’s always that’s been kind of his thing right playing in your- face hockey but um mentioning Will Smith as a center one thing right he’s not gonna mention celebrini because celebrini is not here yet but uh the expectation is celebr is going to be here in playing Center um so yes I I I could see what and I think though having some Center depth especially for Logan Couture and we’ll get to Couture here in a little bit um having that backup plan that insurance for cotor if he is not uh able to go but scoring on the wings is something that we have talked about especially if you want if you’re going to have celebrini and Smith here you need to have some veteran guys who can play on their wings or maybe slide to Center um and I think that is going to be something that the sharks are going to look that that is the best way to support your young players is by putting them with other good players and I think that’s where the sharks are going to be kind of looking to do maybe not top shelf stuff but finding some quality NHL players who just kind of raise the floor for for everybody here um with that and so U GRE was asked also kind of what type of contracts are they going to kind of dishing out these long-term contracts and uh he put the kind of the kabash on that so right I don’t think we’re we’re at that um point in time where we’re ready to do that um you know I think we’ll we’ll still be interested in some players in in free agency but you know hopefully we’ll you know probably be in the one you know the one fouryear range if we do get into some term I don’t I’d like not to go over you know four years with anyone but um you never know when when July 1 comes around but but that would be the plan kind of more shorter term stuff which again makes sense if you look at the Sharks kind of their futur ean’s going to as weird as it sounds right ean’s going to need a new deal in two years and yes I know the mark Edward vastic money comes off the books then but uh if celebrini and Smith are the players you think they are they’re going to need new deals in three seasons and um it’ll be very interesting to see I think one of the big things will be how Mike Greer treats these type of guys if you do the bridge thing like the Doug Wilson thing where you kind of keep kicking the can down or do you go the route of like guys like kale Mar who get kind of the big deals or like the way the send up kind of done where they get big deals betting on these guys to continue to get better and better um I think it’s gonna be a big thing for Greer as some of these guys mature uh you know I expect if celebrini is is even half as good as what we expect him to be like I he’s going to be like an 8 by whatever person right um but if Will Smith and Eckland and some of these guys are they going to kind of are they going to play the bridge game with them or they going to just kind of pay them and kind of try to hold them through their Prime so it’s gonna be one of the really intriguing things with how they work out the contracts but um you know GRE trying to find some of these guys who can kind of help bridge when talent-wise bridge the gap while you’re waiting for your Smiths your Muses your halin all these other guys to kind of get ready to make their impact so um yeah I I I fully expect I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s willing to go and he kind of mentioned it to like especially living in California and the Sharks being bad you might have to pay a little bit more salary-wise to get these guys to come here um but I think he’s really trying to kind of keep the term below that four years and give himself some roster flexibility as young players start to um make their impact so I wouldn’t be surprised again he’s willing to pay a little bit more but TR try to keep the term a little bit lower here so um and then I asked him about the blue line and trying to add add a piece to that so here’s what Mike G said on on getting a a puck moving defenseman on on the blue line yeah no I think we’d like you know if possible we we would like to move a add a puck mover back there um you know help us get out of our end a little cleaner help run the power play um as you know there’s too many times last year we had to go with the five forward look so um you know hopefully we’ll be able to add someone who can can move a puck a little bit cleaner and uh and run a power play which is again we kind of some of the guys they’ve been linked to you know like a guy like Shawn Walker I I said like an Alexander kerer which is a guy I would be really interested to to try to uh sign if I was Mike if I was the Sharks if I was mik Greer um also like they yeah no very much uh thing but you know like mik is going to open the pocketbook a little bit he needs to add a puck moving defenseman and uh we’ll we’ll talk some odds and ends and some of the players who probably aren going to be here next year uh in a little bit but um right I mean we all watched the Sharks last year like how many times did it uh the the Sharks just struggle to get the puck out of Their Own Zone um while nobody that they’re going to get as going to be Eric Carlson or anything like that and I know a lot of people love their defensive defenseman but you you need someone who can start the transition that’s where the shark struggled that was I think the one area where the shark struggled with so much last year was just getting the puck going in in the other direction um and they’re they’re gonna have some new pieces right um and we’ll get to kind of some some of the new things but don’t I I would not be surprised if that is like one of the first moves the Sharks do is you know getting a getting a scoring Winger like a legitimate scoring Winger um and then getting a puck moving defenseman a guy who can get the puck going the other way and really help out one this young defense Corp right um some of the players are going to be back um and to help the young forwards um so they’re not having to spend 20 minutes A Night In Their Own Zone that we kind of saw last last year it’s just them spending so much time in their own Zone and try to get a cleaner game and uh you know just just get the get the puck going at a better rate so uh we’ll talk about some of the kind of odds and ends we’ll talk uh give us so G gave us an update on Lan Couture he also gave us an update on Shakir Muk Madan kind of the expectations for Shakir Muk Mulan uh we’ll talk about some of the guys who we kind of talked about the rfas and ufas and all that so we’ll get to that here in just one minute all right uh we’ll talk about the rfas and ufas um I didn’t clip this part because it was kind of a lot of different questions but basically uh the big the big news out of today was Kay and Addison uh will not be getting a qualifying offer this is something I brought up a little while ago and like just the numbers game and I don’t think Addison kind of made the most of his opport Unity with the sharks right he got a lot of power play time and those opportunities but um kin Addison is not going to be getting a qualifying offer with the sharks um defenseman Ty emberson will be a night um emberson was great last year uh his only knock was he just wasn’t healthy all season and um but I really liked what I saw out of Tai emberson um right-handed defenseman showed especially defensively um real Knack defensively and um we we know the Sharks need some help on the right side um would not be surprised though if like a guy we’ll talk about here in a minute and Shakir Muk Mullan like Ty Emerson feels like a perfect partner for Shakir Muk Mullan um Muk Mullan who you know is a little bit more offensive leaning um of the two but I think Tai Emerson could be a really solid just kind of steady partner for him um and yeah I’m really happy to to hear that Emerson’s going to be getting a qualifying offer he did also mention other uh that Zaden um and gluc cunan are both kind of in the mix to to come back um he did say basically all the ufas they they mentioned like Bailey and as potential guys to to come back uh but they he expects them all to go to free agency so it’s probably going to be like second wave a free agency type of thing where maybe they’re out there for a couple days he can kind of give them a low you know kind of a a vetman type of contract and say like hey if you want to come back and compete you don’t have any offers out there we’re more than happy to have you back and I think a guy like Bailey who played really well with the sharks but he was supposed to be a big piece for the Barracuda um and I wouldn’t mind having him back kind of in that same role where playing on the Barracuda and if you need him to kind of come up to take care take the place the place some bottom six minutes totally fine by me so um with Shakir M Jan I asked M kind of what’s the uh how Muk M Dolan’s doing and kind of the expectations for him and here’s what Mike had to say about that so Sha’s healthy um he’s back home um I’m not sure when he’s coming back if he’s maybe uh August coming back but um he’s healthy um working out training well uh he won’t be at Dev Camp um so we’ll we’ll see him when he gets back here in August sometime and uh you know I think we have we have high hopes for him but at the same time um you know like all the other young players he’s gonna have to earn his way up and um you know if he has a good camp and he’s ready then then great for us but um if he needs more needs more time in the American League um then that’s that’s fine with us as well so it’s it’s it’s on the player but uh we’re really excited really excited for him so yeah that’s got to be kind of the answer I expected for him but um the way if Muk Madan hits the ground running and the way he was playing before he got hurt um and even in his short time with in the NHL I I I think he’s an NHL player I talked about yesterday on uh when I kind of did my rankings of the the Sharks prospects and I have him third in the prospect pool like I I just I think he’s he’s at that stage now where he needs to be playing NHL games and if he doesn’t make the the team out of camp like don’t panic um I had somebody ask me are we worried about Muk mullan’s development it’s taking it’s like he’s played one season in in North America and he was an AHL Allstar like uh mug Mullan is fine he’s well on his way like the the further you are away from Center Ice the more time it takes you to develop right forwards you you there’s a little bit more leeway with their defensively um defenseman right you you have to really get the Nuance of playing defense down um and I think there’s some room to grow there for Muk Mullan but I really think his defense has really grown a lot in the P you know especially compared to when he first got here to now um or before his injury and then goalies of course take a long time because there’s just so much technically that that goes into playing at goalie um and just the Reps that are needed to to kind of become a master at that but um no don’t worry about Muk M and I think he’s going I think he’s has it depending on what the shrikes do here in free agency but like I it’s hard for me to not think of Muk Mulan as one of the six best defenseman uh potentially on the shark’s roster so um I expect him to be there at least until the end and then maybe he starts the season with the Barracuda but he’s going to be playing NHL games next year um and he’s going to probably get a really good look um at at some point next year too so if he doesn’t make the roster um right out of camp but I kind of think he does to be honest so even though I know this team’s gonna be super young but it’s better just have all these kids kind of learn together right and Muk Mullan I thought really really played well on the Barracuda team that was very up and down last year I thought he was kind of one of their steadiest players um definitely had his ups and downs of course but um night in night out I thought he was usually one of their best players um kind of watching them all season long so and then finally here we’re gonna talk about the captain Logan gure uh asked about kind of where he’s at and what the expectation is for cotor um kind of going into the offseason into training camp yeah I talked to cooch last week he’s working out hard um you know I think he he feels pretty good so um and I think he’s optimistic about everything so we’ll we’ll just see how the rest of the summer goes how he keeps training and um you know be back back here in July sometime to start skating and and we’ll just kind of take it from there but right now I think he’s enjoying uh being with his family and being with his young son and and um and training and and trying to get healthy so um you know I think he’s he’s feeling good we’ll just have to see how it goes once we get into the later months of summer so I I think kind of going from there they’re hoping that he’s okay but I think Greer’s plan planning on if he’s not available and that’s that’s I did a whole podcast on potential cotour Insurance players I think that’s the way Greer needs to go with this especially if you go back to um you know the earlier clip on kind of their needs finding a guy who can play center or play Wing if they need to or kind of feel like that especially if you have Couture granin Smith um celebrini and you’re there including and then Nico Sturm and kind of some of the other guys there um but having some insurance for coor isn’t the worst thing in the world and you know you kind of hope for the best plan for the worst in this kind of thing and I think that’s the The Way Greer is going here you hope coach can kind of recover enough to to be an impact player still um because I mean when in the six games he was here he made an impact I mean maybe you know I think I know he only had one point but uh just the way the guys red around him the the Sharks played a better brand of hockey with Logan Couture on the ice and that is kind of baby steps here right is we we want we want better hockey this year um just one to watch more and I think two just again with all the young players on this team to kind of start to kind of build those expectations and and what the sharks are want to start to become so um that’s going to be it for me today so we had plenty of MiG career reaction stuff um again thank you to the Sharks for for sending out all the clips or sending out the the Big Clip and it’s able to kind of cut those up so um yeah uh Greer was I thought Greer was great you know very typical Greer little bit of little bit of the the snark to them on some of the questions but uh overall you know um gave us a little bit of breadcrumbs there so um so yeah that’s going to be it for me today we’ll be back tomorrow with the Bob is going to put out his list so we’ll talk kind of break that down look at potential options for the sharks at 14 look at who’s going to be potentially there for the sharks at 33 um all that fun stuff so make sure you guys follow along for that uh then we’ll look at some mock drafts and later this week looking at Mack dra to see who’s available for the Sharks uh kind of where other people have uh the Sharks picking at 14 and potentially available at 33 and then I will on draft day release my kind of guys I’m banging the table for it 14 last year I did a was last year two years ago I did a whole episode like why the Sharks need to draft Brad Lambert I still feel right about my Brad Lambert love um but I’ll do kind of my my three guys who I’m like banging the table these if they’re available at 14 these are one you need to draft one of these three guys so um and then of course draft coverage from Vegas uh so I’ll get you guys cover that so plenty of of content coming this week and then we’ll get you guys ready want free agency stuff the the follow on Monday as well so make sure you follow along wherever you get Podcast and of course you can watch on YouTube as well follow the show on Twitter Facebook and Instagram at lock shark especially on Instagram I’m going to be posting kind of behind the scenes stuff on the lock on Instagram so um stuff from Vegas um as well so all that good stuff um follow me on Twitter at my fry hole till tomorrow bye friends [Music]
San Jose Sharks General Manager Mike Grier met with the media for his pre-draft and free agency availability. Start with Grier’s thoughts on the NHL Draft, what the Sharks are expected to do with the 14th pick of the draft, and why going “Best Player Available” is the best strategy. Grier also touches on moving up or down from 14 and picking a goalie in the draft. Then, Grier discusses what the Sharks need in free agency and what is on Grier’s shopping list. Grier also discusses what type of term he will look to hand out in free agency and the need for a puck-moving defenseman. Finally, get caught up on some of the players who are currently on the roster but are looking for a new contract. Then, discuss Shakir Mukhamadullin’s health and expectations for next season and Logan Couture’s future.
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