Former Red Wings draft pick gets second chance with Sharks
SAN JOSE — Zach Gallant may have entered the Sharks’ development camp last week on a tryout basis. But he definitely made his presence felt, particularly in the waning moments of the prospects’ scrimmage at SAP Center.
Right at the end of the game, before a few thousand fans in attendance, Gallant, 20, got into a brief, but spirited fight with fellow forward Lean Bergmann — a rare event in those type of games. Gallant wound up on top of Bergmann, 20, of Germany, and connected with a couple of right hands before the linesmen intervened.
“Hey, you know what, (fighting’s) still part of the game and it’s not outlawed,” Barracuda coach Roy Sommer said after Friday’s scrimmage. “Actually, Gallant was walking by and I said, ‘Quit picking on the Europeans.’ He said, ‘He asked me.'”
Gallant also scored a goal in the shootout, and his performance all week was impressive enough to earn a contract, one of a handful of deals the Sharks announced Tuesday.
Gallant and 18-year-old Artemi Kniazev, one of the Sharks’ second round draft picks last month, signed entry level contracts. The Sharks also added two players that should compete for NHL jobs in training camp, signing defenseman Dalton Prout, 29, and forward Jonny Brodzinski, 26, to one-year deals.
Gallant, listed at 6-foot-2 and 195 pounds, was a third round pick by the Detroit Red Wings in 2017, but was left unsigned. He was among more than a dozen players on a tryout at the Sharks’ development camp.
“There’s a lot of things you can’t control, and I can’t control whether I’m getting a contract or not,” Gallant said last week. “I’ve got to make sure I’m putting the work in every day and try to earn it.”
He’s not necessarily known for the rough stuff, having just 44 penalty minutes in 30 games — along with 25 points — with Peterborough of the OHL in an injury-filled 2018-19 season. But he also showed in the fight with Bergmann that he could handle himself in certain situations.
“Sticking up for yourself is always something I’ve tried to do,” Gallant said. “when stuff like that happens, you’ve got to deal with it.”
After Peterborough’s season ended, he joined the Toledo Walleye of the ECHL, and was part of their postseason run to the final with 12 points in 24 playoff games. Gallant will return to Peterborough for a fifth season, and again be the Petes’ captain. Ryan Merkley, the Sharks’ first round draft pick last year, will also likely be back with the team that is expected to do big things in the OHL next season.
“It was a lot of fun,” Gallant said of the camp. “Getting to know the management, and everybody within the organization. It’s been awesome.”
Prout, listed at 6-foot-2 and 195 pounds, has played in 262 career NHL games with Columbus, New Jersey and Calgary Flames, and gives the Sharks a physical presence on the right side of their defense, Assuming the Sharks only keep seven defenseman to start the season, Prout figures to be the team’s sixth or seventh blue liner.
Brodzinski, a fifth round draft pick by Los Angeles in 2013 and a Group 6 free agent, has spent the last four seasons in the Kings organization. He played in 35 games with the Kings in 2017-18, but a shoulder injury he suffered in an exhibition game last September kept him out of action for over four months.