Confirmed with Link: Sharks sign F Collin Graf to ELC

[Juxtaposer]

Wasn't Dan Boyle an ncaa undrafted FA?

You aren’t wrong, but a generously 5’10” offensive defenseman going undrafted in the 90’s isn’t shocking at all. There’s no way a guy like Boyle, would have gone undrafted in today’s NHL. He’d have been a mid-late rounder like Cagnoni and probably wouldn’t have played four years of college hockey.

 

[Hodge]

What I like the most about this signing is Graf is still only 21 years old. Typically NCAA free agents who get overhyped then inevitably flame out are 23 or 24. This is like retroactively getting an extra 2021 draft pick, and one who is tracking quite well in his development.

 

[tiburon12]

You aren’t wrong, but a generously 5’10” offensive defenseman going undrafted in the 90’s isn’t shocking at all. There’s no way a guy like Boyle, would have gone undrafted in today’s NHL. He’d have been a mid-late rounder like Cagnoni and probably wouldn’t have played four years of college hockey.

Yea I just couldn't remember if he got drafted but never signed or just went undrafted

 

[TheBeard]

What I like the most about this signing is Graf is still only 21 years old. Typically NCAA free agents who get overhyped then inevitably flame out are 23 or 24. This is like retroactively getting an extra 2021 draft pick, and one who is tracking quite well in his development.

Plus it's almost like Quinn is forced to play him instead of letting guys waste away on the Cuda.

 

[Jargon]

Plus it's almost like Quinn is forced to play him instead of letting guys waste away on the Cuda.

I’m not sure if that is as much Quinn’s decision as it is Grier’s? I don’t know. I also think they’ve been fairly good about giving MOST guys chances - it’s just for some reason Gushchin is not that guy.

 

[TheBeard]

I’m not sure if that is as much Quinn’s decision as it is Grier’s? I don’t know. I also think they’ve been fairly good about giving MOST guys chances - it’s just for some reason Gushchin is not that guy.

I don't know how much communication there is nor what their particular agreement is in terms of final player personal on the club. I don't doubt they're in agreement with slow-playing a lot of guys (Quinn's got a reputation about being stubborn with kids and Grier obviously isn't interested in anything that could provide a positive spark at least for this season), but in my mind Quinn probably wouldn't be so keen on suddenly having someone he doesn't really know thrust upon him at this stage in the season. Maybe he doesn't care anymore. Who knows? I do know I'd rather see just about anyone than Studnicka again.

 

[hohosaregood]

Some, not a ton. He’s got enough skill that he could be a scorer, but he also has enough size and off-puck acumen that he could potentially succeed in a checking role. He doesn’t seem like a “top-6 or AHL type”, I don’t think.

No NCAA UDFA is ever all that, but Graf is on the higher end of guys worth signing.

I had a funny feeling we’d get him, but I usually don’t take my “funny feelings” all that seriously when it comes to the Sharks.

I felt like there was a solid chance with all the college guys we have in the FO like Scott Fitzgerald who's generally known in Hockey East circles as a recruiter. But DW era Sharks rarely tapped the college market for the top free agents so I wasn't getting my hopes up lol.

 

[OrrNumber4]

I felt like there was a solid chance with all the college guys we have in the FO like Scott Fitzgerald who's generally known in Hockey East circles as a recruiter. But DW era Sharks rarely tapped the college market for the top free agents so I wasn't getting my hopes up lol.

To be fair DW, his teams couldn't guarantee the ice time like Grier's teams...

 

[Hodge]

To be fair DW, his teams couldn't guarantee the ice time like Grier's teams...

They absolutely could since none of those teams ever had any depth but for better or worse DW went shopping in the Euro UDFA pool instead of the college one.

 

[Shark Finn]

Guy signs with a bottom feeder. Must like losing, huh.

 

[The Nemesis]

Wasn't Dan Boyle an ncaa undrafted FA?

There are a lot of historical UDFA college guy success stories, but many of those are also quite old, from the time where the NCAA in general was underutilized as a source of prospects and more guys were likely to be ignored.

Back in the day you had the likes of Adam Oates, The-Goalie-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named (BOOOO!!!), Brian Rafalski, Curtis Joseph. Slightly more recently came the wave of Dan Boyle, Marty St. Louis, and a couple others that are either less impressive (Tyler Bozak? The Tanev brothers? Matt Read?) or who I just flat out can't remember. And Torey Krug as the outlier recent big success.

But in the last 10 or so years the "best unsigned guy in college" hype train has picked up. He wasn't UDFA, but I feel like this started with Justin Schultz spurning the Ducks and people going nuts over him. And since then it always feels like there's this coveted top-shelf "everyone will want to sign this guy" player that's highlighted every year and most of the time it amounts to nothing.

Here's a list from 2013 that was tracking signed UDFA (or at least unsigned FAs including graduates spurning their draft team):

NHL College Free Agent Tracker [Updated April 17]

The college free agent signing season has begun. With teams looking to fill out organizational depth or adding key pieces to their future, the college free agent has become one of the more economic…

unitedstatesofhockey.com

The list is, I tihnk, chronological but I distinctly remember that the #1 guy on College FA ranking boards was Danny DeKeyser. He was alright for a couple of years then regressed to being an acceptable depth guy. Also note that the same list included praise for the Sharks signing Troy Grosenick, Eraiah Hayes, and Rylan Schwartz. And we know how that turned out

Outside of Nate Schmidt and sort of DeKeyser, that whole list is a big fat load of nothing or "slightly better than nothing"

Here's that same blog's 2014 list:

NHL College Free Agent Tracker 2014 (Updated 4/24)

With the college hockey season winding down and some teams already done for the year after missing out on the postseason, the NCAA free agent season is upon us. Undrafted players currently too old …

unitedstatesofhockey.com

This is a less glittering list than even the previous one because there's Trevor van Riemsdyk and then honestly #2 might be Ryan Carpenter by the Sharks.

Here's a 2015 list in 3 parts from Last Word on Sports because the previous blog either stopped doing this list or I just can't find it (and the seems to have died in 2019)

2015 College Hockey Free Agents: Part 1

A look around the NCAA at the top College Hockey Free Agents. Top of the list is Casey Bailey of the Penn State Nittany Lions.

lastwordonsports.com

2015 College Hockey Free Agents: Part 2

The NCAA season has come to a close and tournaments are in full swing. NHL teams are salivating at the chance to sign the top college hockey free agents.

lastwordonsports.com

College Hockey Free Agents 2015: Part 3

Part three of our College Hockey Free Agents 2015 series features two of the top prospects in goalie Matt O'Connor and defenceman Kenney Morrison.

lastwordonsports.com

What do we have to work with here? Drake Caggiula? Evan Rodrigues? What a murderer's row.

LWOS 2016 list: Top 2016 College Hockey Free Agents

Still Drake Caggiula because I guess he didn't sign the year before. Matt Grzelcyk, Troy Stetcher, Alex Lyon...

Obviously there are legit NHL players in here and getting a guy who's even halfway useful without spending a draft pick is a win. But if we're supposed to hold our breath on drafted prospects because of the unlikeliness of them succeeding then UDFA college guys are probably going to require you to hold until you turn purple and pass out.



Just thought I'd bring things down because that's what it's like to be a Sharks fan right now

 

[Juxtaposer]

There are a lot of historical UDFA college guy success stories, but many of those are also quite old, from the time where the NCAA in general was underutilized as a source of prospects and more guys were likely to be ignored.

Back in the day you had the likes of Adam Oates, The-Goalie-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named (BOOOO!!!), Brian Rafalski, Curtis Joseph. Slightly more recently came the wave of Dan Boyle, Marty St. Louis, and a couple others that are either less impressive (Tyler Bozak? The Tanev brothers? Matt Read?) or who I just flat out can't remember. And Torey Krug as the outlier recent big success.

But in the last 10 or so years the "best unsigned guy in college" hype train has picked up. He wasn't UDFA, but I feel like this started with Justin Schultz spurning the Ducks and people going nuts over him. And since then it always feels like there's this coveted top-shelf "everyone will want to sign this guy" player that's highlighted every year and most of the time it amounts to nothing.

Here's a list from 2013 that was tracking signed UDFA (or at least unsigned FAs including graduates spurning their draft team):

NHL College Free Agent Tracker [Updated April 17]

The college free agent signing season has begun. With teams looking to fill out organizational depth or adding key pieces to their future, the college free agent has become one of the more economic…

unitedstatesofhockey.com

The list is, I tihnk, chronological but I distinctly remember that the #1 guy on College FA ranking boards was Danny DeKeyser. He was alright for a couple of years then regressed to being an acceptable depth guy. Also note that the same list included praise for the Sharks signing Troy Grosenick, Eraiah Hayes, and Rylan Schwartz. And we know how that turned out

Outside of Nate Schmidt and sort of DeKeyser, that whole list is a big fat load of nothing or "slightly better than nothing"

Here's that same blog's 2014 list:

NHL College Free Agent Tracker 2014 (Updated 4/24)

With the college hockey season winding down and some teams already done for the year after missing out on the postseason, the NCAA free agent season is upon us. Undrafted players currently too old …

unitedstatesofhockey.com

This is a less glittering list than even the previous one because there's Trevor van Riemsdyk and then honestly #2 might be Ryan Carpenter by the Sharks.

Here's a 2015 list in 3 parts from Last Word on Sports because the previous blog either stopped doing this list or I just can't find it (and the seems to have died in 2019)

2015 College Hockey Free Agents: Part 1

A look around the NCAA at the top College Hockey Free Agents. Top of the list is Casey Bailey of the Penn State Nittany Lions.

lastwordonsports.com

2015 College Hockey Free Agents: Part 2

The NCAA season has come to a close and tournaments are in full swing. NHL teams are salivating at the chance to sign the top college hockey free agents.

lastwordonsports.com

College Hockey Free Agents 2015: Part 3

Part three of our College Hockey Free Agents 2015 series features two of the top prospects in goalie Matt O'Connor and defenceman Kenney Morrison.

lastwordonsports.com

What do we have to work with here? Drake Caggiula? Evan Rodrigues? What a murderer's row.

LWOS 2016 list: Top 2016 College Hockey Free Agents

Still Drake Caggiula because I guess he didn't sign the year before. Matt Grzelcyk, Troy Stetcher, Alex Lyon...

Obviously there are legit NHL players in here and getting a guy who's even halfway useful without spending a draft pick is a win. But if we're supposed to hold our breath on drafted prospects because of the unlikeliness of them succeeding then UDFA college guys are probably going to require you to hold until you turn purple and pass out.



Just thought I'd bring things down because that's what it's like to be a Sharks fan right now

I would be thrilled if Graf had a career like Evan Rodriguez, who is absolutely a useful depth player. But I do remember the absolute insanity of the Jimmy Vesey Sweepstakes (tm).

Btw the name “Rylan Schwartz” activated me like some sort of sleeper agent and I had to do a lap around my living room between meetings.

 

[coooldude]

Hey, if all he is, is a free pickup for a Carpenter level AHL career, great. If instead he becomes an asset in some future trade, great. There's basically no downside here.

 

[cheechoo]

Matt Gilroy absurd hype after winning the Hobey Baker was another one. And he was just awful.

Justin Schultz had one of the greatest comebacks ever. His hype was like that of a top five pick coming out of college and refusing to sign with the Ducks. He was pretty much expected to be an Adam Fox / Quinn Hughes type of talent.

Signs with the Oilers, gets relentlessly abused and labelled as a cone / bust and then goes to Pittsburgh and plays real minutes on two cup winning teams. Pretty cool for him, even if sadly one of them came at our expense.

 

[Hodge]

Bozak would actually be an amazing outcome and sounds like he and Graf might be similar players stylistically.

 

[The Nemesis]

I would be thrilled if Graf had a career like Evan Rodriguez, who is absolutely a useful depth player. But I do remember the absolute insanity of the Jimmy Vesey Sweepstakes (tm).

Btw the name “Rylan Schwartz” activated me like some sort of sleeper agent and I had to do a lap around my living room between meetings.

Clearly you don't like Evan as much as you like Micheal Haley given that you remember how to spell the latter's name correctly but not that it's "Rodrigues" with an "s"

So what does that say about how much you like Rodrigues? Or Haley?


Meanwhile, for the memes:

 

[The Nemesis]

Matt Gilroy absurd hype after winning the Hobey Baker was another one. And he was just awful.

Justin Schultz had one of the greatest comebacks ever. His hype was like that of a top five pick coming out of college and refusing to sign with the Ducks. He was pretty much expected to be an Adam Fox / Quinn Hughes type of talent.

Signs with the Oilers, gets relentlessly abused and labelled as a cone / bust and then goes to Pittsburgh and plays real minutes on two cup winning teams. Pretty cool for him, even if sadly one of them came at our expense.

Matt Gilroy! That was the big name I was forgetting.

 

[Juxtaposer]

Clearly you don't like Evan as much as you like Micheal Haley given that you remember how to spell the latter's name correctly but not that it's "Rodrigues" with an "s"

So what does that say about how much you like Rodrigues? Or Haley?


Meanwhile, for the memes:

View attachment 845987

F***, I can’t believe I misspelled that. I even remember liking ERod in college hockey—he was the third wheel on a line with Charlie Coyle and Matt Nieto at BU all those years ago, and I remember thinking I wouldn’t had drafting him.

 

[LadyStanley]

 

[Hodge]

Frankie's sources come through once again.

 

[Pavelski2112]

Frankie's sources come through once again.

Seravalli is basically Eklund at this point

 

[timorous me]

Frankie's sources come through once again.

Frankie is one bitter douche. It's going to be pretty hilarious to watch how long he keeps trying to burn Grier at every chance he gets.

 

[Juxtaposer]

Frankie's sources come through once again.

Yeah I saw that when I searched Graf’s name on twitter… Frank is really going full douche.

 

[Patty Ice]

To be fair DW, his teams couldn't guarantee the ice time like Grier's teams...

Good point but also there was Tom Preissing off the top of my head that had NHL success at a similar stage in the Wilson era.

 

[timorous me]

I'm no expert in the world of undrafted college free agents--I'm a Sharks fan, after all--but I can't help but feel a little extra hope in this case because Graf not being drafted originally was totally logical with his size at the time. And honestly, how many of these guys who are actually skilled like he is grow 5 inches and 50+ pounds through their first three years of college?

If anything, there might be more upside to his game than some have given him credit for because with his size--I believe Jux mentioned this--he's not some all-or-nothing small pure scorer who couldn't move down in the line. But being a decently-sized player is still something fairly new to him, so give him some time to learn how to play better and take advantage of not being a small guy (says the small guy, lol).