San Jose Hockey Now’s Sheng Peng provides updates on Nikita Okhotiuk, Henry Thrun, and Shakir Mukhamadullin, explaining where these three recently acquired Sharks defenders rank among the team’s prospects.
- Editor's Note: Sheng Peng will be a regular contributor to NBC Sports California’s Sharks coverage. You can read more of his coverage on San Jose Hockey Now, listen to him on the San Jose Hockey Now Podcast, and follow him on Twitter at @Sheng_Peng.
When’s the last time that it felt really, really good to be a San Jose Sharks fan?
It probably hasn’t been at any time this year. Sure, Erik Karlsson is having a season for the ages. But a 0-5-0 start – and trading homegrown star Timo Meier – cast a pall on this campaign.
Really, it’s been a depressing four years for Sharks fans, going back to letting Joe Pavelski walk in free agency in the summer of 2019.
But there was, I think, a brief ray of light in these otherwise dark ages.
Let’s go back to Oct. 16, 2021. The Sharks beat the Winnipeg Jets 4-3 on opening night at SAP Center.
Rookies Jasper Weatherby, William Eklund, and Jonathan Dahlen were making their NHL debuts.
San Jose Sharks
Weatherby, straight from the University of North Dakota to San Jose’s second-unit power play, scored his first-ever NHL goal.
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The seventh-overall pick of the most recent Draft, Eklund, notched his first-ever NHL point.
