For the last 21 years (12 with The Hockey News) Dobber and the team have reviewed each team from a fantasy-hockey standpoint and graded them.

The 22nd 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 – Mike Hoffman, Filip Zadina, Kevin Labanc, Alex Barabanov, Calen Addison

Incoming – Tyler Toffoli, Alex Wennberg, Macklin Celebrini, Barclay Goodrow, Carl Grundstrom, Ty Dellandrea and Jake Walman

Impact of changes –

The bottom line with all the changes made is that this is still best described by shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic, turning this upcoming season into Shark fodder.

The team finished second-last in the league in goals for, and last by a long shot in goals against. There were some improvements, but with the players that left, on top of those like Anthony Duclair, Tomas Hertl, and others that were dealt at the trade deadline, it's not a huge improvement on paper versus where the team was at the start of last year. Macklin Celebrini does bring a new dimension, alongside possible promotions from other young players, but as we saw with Connor Bedard in Chicago, rookies can only do so much, even if they are one of the best of their age group.

Last season's deadline swap in net that brought in Vitek Vanecek at the expense of
Kaapo Kahkonen gives some new blood in net, supported by Jake Walman and the defensive presence of Goodrow. However, new goalies have a tendency to take a while to adjust to a fresh set of defencemen in front of them, which could make the shot barrage a recipe for disaster with Vanecek.

Ready for Full Time –

Right away, between Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith, the Sharks have two excellent young centres that are both ready to start playing with the pros. Temper your immediate expectations though, because 55 and 40 points respectively would probably be considered successful seasons.

On the back end, Henry Thrun made a solid impression last year in 51 games, while Shakir Muhamadullin has shown last year that he should be the next name on the list. In three games with the Sharks he put up one point, five Hits and 11 Blocks, to go with an even rating (noteworthy on the Sharks). The addition of Jake Walman might push him off of the opening night roster, but he's not far away.

Fantasy Outlook:

This team was atrocious last year, and haven't really gotten better this year. It could be that with a new coach and some internal growth, that this team takes a step forward, but realistically even a step forward puts them three steps behind any playoff contender. They only had one player pace for over 60 points (Mikael Granlund), with William Eklund and his 45 points the second-highest scoring player returning for the Sharks. That does bode well for his upside and some of the other young players, that there is a scoring vacuum that will pull their totals upwards. As the old adage goes "someone has to score on a bad team".

Generally though, this is not a team to hitch your wagon to, or even be banking on improvement for most players. At most I would say having one Shark on your roster shouldn't hurt too bad, be it Toffoli, Celebrini, Walman, or other, but any more than that and the plus-minus will be a team killer, not to mention the scoring droughts that you will see. Avoid as best you can.

Grade – D+ (last year was a generous C-)