The San Jose Sharks’ season is inching closer and closer. The first part of the preseason will get underway on Friday, when prospects take the ice for the Rookie Faceoff in El Segundo, CA. One player who is very confident heading into the tournament is Ethan Cardwell who is ultimately hoping to see his name on the Sharks’ opening night roster this season.
Fighting for an NHL Roster Spot
With the abundance of additions to the forward group that Sharks general manager Mike Grier made over the summer, a lot of prospects have been lost in the shuffle heading into camp. Cardwell is undoubtedly one of those players. He’s going to have to outperform quite a few experienced NHL players if he’s going to earn a spot on the roster, but he’s confident he can do so. “I’ve been putting in the time and stuff this offseason, like the goal for me right now, going into this camp is to crack the Sharks out of main camp and not look back.”
After spending the summer in the Toronto area, Cardwell recently returned to the Bay Area and participated in the Sharks’ first practice for the Rookie Faceoff on Wednesday (Sept. 11). He noted that things feel different around the team this season. “It just feels like a completely different vibe around the rink these days. Everyone seems a little bit hungrier, it seems like we’re a team that wants to win and doesn’t want to settle for showing up to the rink and being okay with losing. Not that we were last year, it’s just kind of the way things went. But, I think things are a lot different this year, and it just feels different. The practices are more intense, and there’s a sense of more competition out there. Hopefully, that leads to good things for us.”
Cardwell is entering his second professional season, after a strong performance with the San Jose Barracuda in the American Hockey League during the 2023-24 season. The Oshawa, Ontario native scored 23 goals and assisted on 20 others in 71 games. Those are certainly impressive numbers for a player who was in their first professional season, and considering he just turned 22 years old, he still has plenty of time to develop even further as well.
Embracing a Leadership Role
As one of the more experienced players on the Rookie Faceoff roster, Cardwell is looking forward to embracing more of a leadership role this time around. “It’s going to be fun. It’s probably my last Rookie Faceoff. I’ve done a few now, so I should know the ropes, but I’m definitely looking forward to the opportunity of being an older guy and leading this younger group.”
Some of the players that Cardwell will look to mentor during the Rookie Faceoff will be 2024 first-round draft picks Macklin Celebrini and Sam Dickinson, who will don Sharks’ colors for the first time in a competitive setting this weekend. When asked about the two newcomers to the organization, Cardwell joked “I mean, they’re definitely not too bad of players…They’re pretty incredible out there, the way, the things that they can do with the puck and the way they see the ice, and on top of that, their compete level. I mean, everybody looks at them as high-skill players, but it doesn’t come easy. They work at it every day, and you can kind of tell that in practice, and they play hard and they’re there for a reason, and they’re going to put on a good show this weekend, I’m sure.”
Weirdly enough, the Sharks’ opening game will be the first competitive exhibition game for the recently relocated Utah Hockey Club. Cardwell acknowledged how exciting that aspect of Friday’s game will be stating, “It should be interesting. I have a few buddies who will be playing on that team, so to be able to see them in the Utah colors, it should be an exciting day for their franchise to kind of kick things off.”
Related: Sharks’ Collin Graf Faces Uncertainty Heading into Training Camp
At 22 years old, Cardwell has plenty of time to carve out a spot at the NHL level but he’s ready to make that dream a reality now. The 2024-25 season likely won’t be one that Sharks fans look back fondly on, as it’s likely to consist of quite a few more struggles. However, it could be a major step forward in Cardwell’s career. Over the next few weeks, he’s going to have to work hard if he’s going to find himself on the Sharks’ opening night roster, but he has the right mindset and work ethic to make it happen, no matter what it takes.
