In October 2022 the San Jose Shark organization honored former general manager Doug Wilson with an emotional tribute.
Wilson stepped down as general manager in April 2022. For 19 seasons he held the role and for many Sharks fans those seasons ended with one common theme, disappointment. In all fairness to Wilson he did not mind making a splash when it came to acquiring talent. He traded for Joe Thornton from the Boston Bruins, Dany Heatley and Erik Karlsson of the Ottawa Senators, and Brent Burns from the Minnesota Wild.
Still the best San Jose managed was one Stanley Cup Finals appearance in Wilson’s 19 seasons.
With the lack of playoff success, Wilson was incredibly poor at recognizing talent in the draft. Take a look at all the first round picks in his tenure. One thing that is easily noticeable was the number of years were the Sharks did not have a first round pick.
2003: Milan Michalek RW 6th overall pick, 91 goals, 123 assists, 214 points
Steve Bernier RW 16th overall, 42 goals, 39 assists, 81 points
2004: Lukas Kaspar RW 22nd overall, 16 games played, 2 goals, 2 assists, 4 points
2005: Devin Setoguchi RW 8th overall, 267 games played, 84 goals, 75 assists, 159 points
2006: Ty Wishart D 16th overall, zero games played
2007: Logan Couture C 9th overall, 911 games played, 318 goals, 368 assists, 686 points
Nicholas Petrecki D 28th overall, one game played
2008: Zero first round picks
2009: Zero first round picks
2010: Charlie Coyle C/RW, 28th overall, zero games played
2011: zero first round picks
2012: Tomas Hertl C, 17th overall pick, 199 goals, 239 assissts, 438 points
2013: Mirco Mueller D 18th overall, 52 games 2 goals, 4 assists, 6 points.
2014: Nikola Goldobin RW 27th overall, 11 games, 1 goal, 1 assist, 2 points.
2015: Timo Meier RW 9th overall, 451 games, 154 goals, 162 assists, 316 points.
2016: Zero first round picks
2017: Joshua Norris C 19th overall, zero games played
2018: Ryan Merkley D 21st overall, 39 games played, 1 goal, 5 assists, 6 points.
2019: Zero first round picks
2020: Ozzie Wiesblatt RW 31st overall, zero games played
2021: William Eklund LW, 7th overall, 13 games played, 0 goals, 5 assists, 5 points.
Other notable draft picks from the other rounds were Marc Ed0uard-Vlasic, Justin Braun, and Kevin Labanc. So in total Wilson managed draft six players in 19 seasons who really made an impact with the franchise.
Keep in mind the man Wilson replaced, Dean Lombardi did much better when it came to the draft. Who in his tenure selected Marco Sturm, Patrick Marleau, Scott Hannan, Brad Stuart, Jonathan Cheechoo, Douglas Murray, Ryane Clowe, and Christian Ehrhoff.
That is more players for Lombardi that made an impact in significantly less time with the organization as general manager. It also speaks volumes that the Los Angeles Kings who hired him won two Stanley Cups with him.
Overall it is fitting that this year Wilson got celebrate, yet it is not shocking the franchise is in the running for the no.1 overall pick in the NHL draft.
Beyond the draft, Wilson gave certain players contract extensions that were at best questionable. Burns is the best example of that, also re-signing Couture and Hertl were also misses. Both needed to get dealt, yet now the franchise is stuck with their bloated contracts.
The Sharks also gave Karlsson a contract extension as well. He did struggle with injuries in his three seasons prior to this year, yet in 2022-2023 he had his best season in the NHL, with 25 goals and 75 assists for a total of 100 points so far with two games left to play.
While the 100 plus points are impressive, it is better news for Grier. Who is likely going to acquire several key young players or picks during the off season. There were rumors swirling around trade deadline about Karlsson being traded yet nothing came to fruition.
For Grier though it is likely going to take him several seasons before the Sharks franchise makes the playoffs. He can once again thank Wilson for that.