College Sports
Grading Every Team’s 2025 NHL Draft Class
There were rumors that the Sharks might do something unorthodox at second overall, but sanity won out and GM Mike Grier took the runaway best player available in Michael Misa. Misa is impossible not to notice quickly in any given game. He’s quite the skater and he has a lot of octane in the tank. […]

There were rumors that the Sharks might do something unorthodox at second overall, but sanity won out and GM Mike Grier took the runaway best player available in Michael Misa.
Misa is impossible not to notice quickly in any given game. He’s quite the skater and he has a lot of octane in the tank. Misa layers a lot of different talents together in ways that lead to his line controlling play. He has a separation burst and the stick skills to separate from checks. He slings wrist shots into the corners of the net. He finds high-difficulty passing lanes in motion. He is also lethal in pressuring in the defensive zone to create turnovers and then blowing past defenders in transition.
Sometimes Misa tries to do too much and, despite his point totals, I would have liked to see him dominate more. Scouts also wonder if he’s better suited for the wing. In any case, San Jose already looks good at center with Celebrini and Smith and Misa should be a great two-way forward.
Joshua Ravensbergen is a good value at 30th overall and, with how deep San Jose’s prospect pool is, they could afford to take a risk on a big, athletic goaltender. Haoxi Wang, taken 33rd overall, is also a high-upside flyer. The 6’5″ defenseman skates like the wind and shows good shutdown potential, but is still figuring out the offensive side of the game. Cole McKinney has a strong defensive foundation to his game and, with a little offensive jump, could develop into a middle-six center.
The Sharks didn’t do anything beyond the scope of what was expected of them with the draft picks they had, but they didn’t throw away any value, either. A deep prospect pool gets deeper.