Perhaps you just like Samuelsson considerably more than me. But I don’t see a probable #3. I see a likely #5 and potentially a #4 at best.
There are always defensemen with top-3 potential available in the late first and second rounds. Olli Maatta, Brady Skjei, Mike Matheson, Shea Theodore, Brett Pesce, Brandon Montour, Thomas Chabot, Travis Dermott, Brandon Carlo, Rasmus Andersson, etc. just in the 2012-2015 drafts. Hell, half of #1D in the NHL weren’t even drafted in the top half of the first round. But you know why the Sharks have never drafted and developed an offensive #1D? Because they never take risks. All the D they take in the first three rounds are the Muellers, the Dohertys, the Petreckis, the Wrenns, the Seftons and the Wisharts. It’s like they developed one top flight defensive D drafted in the early second round and have spent every pick they’ve used on D trying to get the next Vlasic. The riskiest guy in there was Petrecki, but he was still a physical giant who barely put up points in the USHL. The couple times they’ve deviated from the pattern in the first three rounds have yielded our best D prospects: Roy and maybe Bergman, who still aren’t great (although in Roy’s defense I think he’d be a good player if he could stay healthy), and hopefully Ferraro. Our best D prospects have come from the late rounds, where they aren’t afraid to take “risky” guys. The best D we’ve developed since Vlasic more than a decade ago are Braun, Demers, Irwin, Ryan, DeMelo. Guys drafted in the 6th and 7th rounds.
Mattias Samuelsson would be more of the same. No thanks. I’d rather take Wilde and have him completely bust than take Samuelsson and watch him become a decent #4-5. Because then I’ll know we tried. It’s why I still support drafting Goldobin over any of the guys taken behind him that might turn into decent third liners.
Why draft a Mattias Samuelsson in the first round when you can draft a Joakim Ryan in the seventh round?
