For the last 20 years (12 with The Hockey News) Dobber and the team have reviewed each team from a fantasy-hockey standpoint and graded them.

The 21st annual review will appear here on DobberHockey throughout the summer. This is not a review of the likely performance on the ice or in the standings, but in the realm of fantasy hockey both for the season ahead as well as the foreseeable future. Offensively, will the team perform? Are there plenty of depth options worthy of owning in keeper leagues? What about over the next two or three years? These questions are what we take into consideration when looking at the depth chart and the player potential on that depth chart.

Enjoy!

Gone – Erik Karlsson, James Reimer, Steven Lorentz (plus Nick Bonino and Timo Meier at the deadline)

Incoming – Mikael Granlund, Mike Hoffman, Anthony Duclair, Filip Zadina, Will Smith, Jan Rutta, Mackenzie Blackwood

Impact of changes – Well when you subtract the first 100-point defenceman in decades, and replace him with cap dump players at forward, and a bottom-pair defenceman, it's not great. Anthony Duclair should help fill a little bit of the void left up front by trading Timo Meier at the deadline, while replacing James Reimer with Mackenzie Blackwood is really just trying to slap more duct tape on the issue.

This team is going to be very bad, especially at preventing goals. The Sharks and Chicago goaltending are the two to stay the farthest away from this season. Luckily in fantasy we focus more on the scoring, and at least they have a few fantasy-relevant players up front. The power play will slump without Karlsson and Meier, but it does mean more of the share of points to go around for Tomas Hertl, Logan Couture, and others.

Ready for Full Time –

William Eklund hasn't yet gotten more than a nine-game trial, but with the extra roster space and some more development under his belt at the AHL level, he looks like a good bet to make it as a full-timer this year. He's a pure scorer, and of the 2021 draft crop, he was the top draft pick in many fantasy prospect drafts that year. Injuries have delayed him a little, but the high-end skill is still there. A spot on the top power play unit would do wonders for him this season.

On the back end, there are about three locks for spots, and then seven or eight more names that could be in the mix. Included in those names are youngsters Shakir Mukhamadullin, Henry Thrun, and Leon Gawanke. They may each individually have less than a 50% chance of making the team, but one of them should, and they would be the favourite to then run the top power play unit, as none of the incumbents are all that adept at running one.

Fantasy Outlook:

All in all, it's shaping up to be a pretty bleak year for the Sharks, both in the standings and for fantasy purposes. There are a few of the top players that will be worth owning (but not paying to acquire) in standard sized leagues.

In some heavier-minute roles, Mario Ferraro and Radem Simek may be able to provide some peripherals upside in the Hits and Blocks categories. Outside of that though, they will be worth avoiding because of limited scoring upside, low plus-minus counts, and lack of any outlook for a jump in trade value.

Grade – C- (last year was C+)