NHL Draft: Sharks find out where their second first round pick will land
The San Jose Sharks now know where their second pick in the first round of this year’s NHL Draft will be.
With the Dallas Stars being eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs on Thursday, the Sharks now also own the 30th overall selection to go with the No. 2 overall pick they earned as a result of the NHL Draft Lottery on May 5.
The Stars were beaten 6-3 by the Edmonton Oilers in Game 5 of the Western Conference final, losing the best-of-seven series four games to one. The Oilers will now face the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final that starts Wednesday in Edmonton.
The 29th and 30th overall picks in the first round go to the teams that lose in the conference finals. The Carolina Hurricanes were eliminated by the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference final on Wednesday, and since they finished with fewer points (99) than the Stars (106), they will pick 29th overall.
The Sharks will also select 33rd overall in this year’s draft after they finished this season with the fewest points in the league (52).
The Sharks acquired Dallas’ first-round pick in February as part of the trade that sent forward Mikael Granlund and defenseman Cody Ceci to the Stars.
The Sharks will now also receive a 2025 fourth-round selection from the Stars, which originally belonged to the Winnipeg Jets. If Dallas had advanced to the Cup final, that pick would have been upgraded to a third-rounder this year.
As of now, the Sharks own nine picks in this year’s draft, including five in the first three rounds.
Forwards thought to be available late in this year’s first round include Jack Murtagh (USNTDP), Cameron Schmidt (Vancouver, WHL), Ivan Ryabkin (Muskegon, USHL), and Milton Gästrin (MoDo, SHL). Defensemen expected to go in that late first-round, early second-round range include Haoxi Wang (King, OJHL), Henry Brzustewicz (London, OHL) and Blake Fiddler (Edmonton, WHL).
Although Granlund and Ceci are not advancing, several ex-Sharks are on the Cup final teams.
The Oilers have forward Evander Kane and defensemen Jake Walman and Ty Emberson. Walman was traded by the Sharks to Edmonton on March 6 for a conditional 2026 first-round draft pick.
The Panthers have forwards Nico Sturm, Jonah Gadjovich, defenseman Jaycob Megna, and goalie Vitek Vanecek.
In separate deals in March, shortly before the NHL trade deadline on March 7, the Sharks sent Sturm to Florida for a 2026 fourth-round pick and Vanecek to the Panthers for forward Patrick Giles.
The Panthers beat the Oilers in seven games in last season’s final to win the franchise’s first Stanley Cup.