San Jose Sharks NHL Draft 2009

With the end of the 2009 Entry Level Draft for the NHL (finished off by the San Jose Sharks with the 207th overall pick), the Sharks have made a couple of interesting picks given that they didn't have a single first round pick due to the Dan Boyle trade.

With their two second round picks, the Sharks loaded up on defensive defensemen, but both with different styles. First, at pick 43, San Jose selected William Wrenn. He was the captain of the Under 18 US team, which won the gold medal in 2009. He's similar to a young(er) Marc-Edouard Vlasic, as he doesn't really put up the points but early scouting reports indicate he's most comfortable in the defensive zone, as he has good puck movement out of the zone and good decision making, something that plagued the Sharks down the stretch in 2009. Assuming Wrenn joins the team within a couple of years and gets to feel Coach McLellon's system, his offensive points should also boost up like Vlasic's.
At pick 57, the Sharks chose who I think is their best draft choice and most NHL ready in Taylor Doherty. He's a massive 6'7" and 218 pounds (if you want an idea about how massive that is, Douglas Murray is 6'3" and 240). He'll probably need to put on a few extra pounds of muscle if he wants to establish himself as a top intimidating defenseman at the NHL level and compete with the Chris Prongers and Zdeno Charas, but a good off-season workout should establish that easily. Just like Wrenn, he's more well known for his play within his own zone, moving the puck out, and making smart decisions.
Oddly enough, both players selected the Anaheim Ducks as their favorite teams, so it will remain to be seen how they get along with the San Jose prospects and starters.

With the fifth round, 147th overall pick, the Sharks selected Philip Varone. He's a slightly slower Torrey Mitchell, in the sense that he doesn't have the same skating speed that made Mitchell one of the top short-handed scoring threats a couple of years ago, but he is great at being a penalty killer, a two-way forward, and has lots of grit. He averaged a little under a point per game in the regular season, but improved in the playoffs as he had 19 points in 14 games. However, he did fall in the rankings coming into the draft, as he was previously ranked at 90th overall before falling to 172nd. So either the Sharks took a gamble, or they had a huge steal with this pick. More likely than not, however, Varone will not play next season and they will develop him in the minor leagues to get a better grasp of what they selected.

To round out the day, the Sharks traded a 2010 6th rounder to select a center Marek Viednesky at the 189th pick, and with the final pick of the draft, they chose another defenseman in Dominik Bielke.

Historically, the Sharks have always leaned towards defensemen during drafts, which has been paying dividends in the previous seasons with the rise of Vlasic and Murray. They also chose a few defensemen last year, so there is a few questions as to why they spent both their second round picks on defensemen. Even if Rob Blake isn't going to resign, they have plenty of young guys in the minor leagues. Still, Wrenn and Doherty are as solid as any pick in terms of defensemen, and I'm really excited to see Doherty on the ice to wreak havok on power forwards (especially since Anaheim traded Pronger for Lupol).