The first round of the 2022 NHL Draft in Montreal has wrapped up, and it was a crazy draft so far. Who I and most everyone else thought would be selected first overall by the host Canadiens, Shane Wright, fell to fourth overall to the Seattle Kraken. It was the first time two Slovakian players went first and second overall: LW Juraj Slafkovsky first overall to the Canadiens and D Simon Nemec second overall to the New Jersey Devils. In addition, the Canadiens made a few big trades, which consisted of sending Alexander Romanov to the New York Islanders and acquiring Kirby Dach from the Chicago Blackhawks. Lastly, the Blackhawks stockpiled draft picks after trading away two of their top young players, Alex DeBrincat and Kirby Dach.
As for the Sharks, Mike Grier made his first moves as the Sharks’ new GM. San Jose initially had the 11th overall pick in this year’s draft, but traded down to acquire picks 27, 34, and 45 from the Arizona Coyotes in a somewhat surprising move. The Coyotes then used the 11th overall pick to select C Conor Geekie. The Sharks front office is putting their faith in their scouts and this year's draft class being fairly deep by trading down, which hopefully works in their favor.
With that 27th overall pick, the Sharks selected C Filip Bystedt from Linkoping of the Swedish Hockey League. A tad underwhelming considering who was still available on the draft board around the time of the 27th overall selection, but it was still not that bad of a selection. Bystedt previously scored 49 points in Sweden's junior league, two points in 15 games with Linkoping in the SHL, and three points in six games to help Sweden win the 2022 IIHF U-18 World Championship. Hopefully Bystedt turns into something great for the Sharks and is seen as a sleeper pick in the not-too-distant future.
Another important aspect of the Sharks' 2022 Draft is the unfortunate fact that one of their longtime scouts and former defensemen passed away beforehand, specifically Bryan Marchment. A moment of silence was held before the start of round one in Marchment's honor, and new GM Mike Grier gave a heartwarming speech and condolences to the Marchment family before the Sharks' first pick of the night was announced by Doug Wilson Jr.
The 2022 NHL Draft resumes this morning at 8 am PT with rounds 2-7. The Sharks' ten remaining picks in this year's draft will be summed up in the next post after the rest of the draft has completed, so be on the lookout for that sometime later today.
Sources: ESPN, NBC Sports Bay Area/California
Get your CPF Merch here: CPF Store
No comments:
Post a Comment