No one is expecting the San Jose Sharks to contend for a Stanley Cup this season. The organization has been accumulating prospects and draft capital, and it's only a matter of time before some of those assets start bringing the Sharks back to relevance. The question for the Sharks as they entered this 2025 training camp is whether the battles will include two of their brightest prospects, Michael Misa and Sam Dickinson.
The Sharks loaded up on veteran roster players this season to help supplement some of their young stars. It was a good idea to bring some veterans in with larger cap hits. Those contracts help the Sharks get to the salary cap floor, and they give some of the veterans a chance to prove to a contender that they still have some gas left in the tank.
Six of the seven defensemen on their projected roster are on the last year of their deal, while Dmitri Orlov has two years remaining on his. Orlov, John Klingberg, and Nick Leddy on defense are three players who could be trade chips at the deadline, while Jeff Skinner and maybe even Ryan Reaves are those players up front.
Where the Sharks will encounter problems with this strategy is when some of their top prospects can claim jobs during training camp. Misa and Dickinson look ready to play starting this season, but now San Jose could have to eat some one-way contracts in the American Hockey League.
Michael Misa looks ready to step in for Sharks
Misa is in a rare situation for the Sharks as it would typically make sense to return a recent draftee to the Canadian Hockey League to play their third year of junior hockey. The third junior season for a prospect is usually the best for their development as they become a leader on the team and are comfortable enough to dominate their league.
Misa's situation is rare because he is one of the few in the history of the CHL to be given exceptional player status. This status allows the player to join their league a year early, which means Misa has already played his third year in the Ontario Hockey League.
Misa has been over a point-per-game in each of his three seasons and won the Memorial Cup with the Saginaw Spirit in 2023-24. He didn't perform as well as some expected during that championship-winning season. However, his exceptional status made people forget that he was still only as old as the rookies around the league and was still a season out from his draft year.
His draft year in 2024-25 made it clear that he had passed by the junior ranks. Misa was given the captaincy of the Spirit and ran away with the league's scoring race, recording 134 points in 65 games. As is the case for OHL teammate Zayne Parekh and the Calgary Flames, there is no reason for Misa to return and dominate for another season. If he earns his spot out of camp, the Sharks will have to make room at the cost of one of their veteran forwards.
Sam Dickinson is another OHL grad who conquered everything
If all else fails, the Sharks have some serious championship-winning DNA entering their system from their top prospects. While Misa was part of the historic Memorial Cup team in Saginaw in 2024, Dickinson enters camp as the leader of the 2025 Memorial Cup champion London Knights.
While Dickinson dominated from the back end during the regular season, scoring 91 points in 55 games, it was his contributions during the playoffs that led people to think he had outgrown the OHL. Dickinson recorded 31 points in 17 games while playing against the other team's best offensive players. London absolutely dominated the competition and then finished the job by defeating 2026 top prospect Gavin McKenna and the Medicine Hat Tigers in the Memorial Cup.
Dickinson was also the OHL Defenseman of the Year and CHL Defenseman of the Year. He carries a pedigree into camp that rivals all the defensemen on the Sharks' roster with the only caveat being that they are all veterans, which makes it hard to decide who will get placed on waivers or sit in the press box if Dickinson makes the opening night roster.
While Dickinson should easily grab the seventh defenseman role, it isn't easy to see who would come out of the lineup between Klingberg, Orlov, Leddy, Mario Ferraro, Timothy Liljegren, and Vincent Desharnais. Desharnais seems like the most likely, with Leddy moving over to his offside on the right, allowing Dickinson to play his strong side.
The Sharks aren't going to keep Dickinson in San Jose to sit in the press box, so he will have to knock one of those defensemen out of the top six.
