Sharks Should Pass on Stenberg and Use Their Draft Pick to Get Chase Reid

The San Jose Sharks may not have made it to the playoffs this spring, but it was clear that general manager (GM) Mike Grier was building something special. The franchise already has a formidable front three of Will Smith, Michael Misa, and Macklin Celebrini, who was impressive this season with 115 points in 82 games.

But the Sharks’ luck doesn’t end there, as they hold the second-overall pick at the NHL Draft for the second year in a row. San Jose is hungry for postseason hockey, but for that, they need to make a decision come June. Who should the Californian side pick to strengthen their roster at the 2026 NHL Draft?

The consensus remains that the Toronto Maple Leafs, with their No. 1 draft pick, will choose Penn State’s Gavin McKenna. That pushed forward the question of whether the Sharks will choose the clear number two forward of this draft pool, Ivar Stenberg, or if they will go for an unexpected but defensively smart option in Chase Reid.

When you look at the condition the Sharks’ back end is in, it is clear that Reid proves to be the clear answer. But Stenberg’s stats have been so good that the final decision becomes a lot more muddled.

The 18-year-old winger put together one of the best draft-eligible seasons by a Swede in recent Swedish Hockey League (SHL) history, posting 11 goals and 22 assists in 43 games with Frölunda HC. He is strong with the puck, intelligent in all three zones, and projects as a legitimate first-line NHL forward. Most scouts still regard him as the second-best player in this class, not far behind McKenna. If Grier is going purely on talent, Stenberg is a reasonable answer.

The Forward Pipeline Is Already Loaded

The problem is not whether Stenberg is good enough. It is whether adding him solves anything the Sharks actually need solved. San Jose allowed the third-most goals in the NHL this past season, a number that reflects years of prioritizing offense in the draft while the back end lagged.

A forward, no matter how talented, does not fix that. Another elite winger makes the Sharks more fun to watch and harder to outscore, but it does not make them harder to play against. What the Sharks need at this stage of their rebuild is a defenseman who can anchor a top pairing, quarterback a power play, and grow alongside Celebrini and Misa for the next decade.

The two best right-shot defensemen in this draft class are Reid and Keaton Verhoeff, and the consensus among scouts points clearly to Reid as the more complete prospect of the two. San Jose needs a right-shot blueliner above almost anything else. This draft has one at the very top of the board.

There is also a timing argument worth making. Top-pairing defensemen do not become available at the top of the draft every year. San Jose missed out on Matthew Schaefer at last year’s draft, and the class ahead does not appear to offer the same quality at the position. If the Sharks pass on Reid here, they may be waiting several years before a blueliner of his caliber is available to them again.

Why Reid Is the Right Choice

Reid is the best defenseman in this draft class. The 18-year-old from the Ontario Hockey League’s (OHL) Soo Greyhounds stands 6-foot-2 and combines elite skating with high-end puck skills, two-way engagement, and the confidence of a player who knows exactly how good he is.

Scouts have praised his ability to drive play at both ends of the ice, and his power-play instincts project him as a future quarterback on the man advantage at the NHL level. In a poll of NHL executives and scouts conducted by The Athletic’s Corey Pronman (from ‘Scouts and execs project 2026 NHL Draft’s top 10: Who goes after Gavin McKenna?’ – The Athletic, 5/25/2026), every evaluator surveyed expected the Sharks to select Reid with the second-overall pick.

The consensus pointed to San Jose’s desperate need for a high-end defenseman and the tight grouping of talent in this tier of the draft. Reid is not universally ranked second overall on personal boards. ESPN’s Rachel Kryshak ranked Reid as the fourth-best player and the second-best defenseman, but the fit with the Sharks is difficult to argue against.

Grier’s Best-Player Dilemma

It would be unfair to call this a straightforward decision. Grier has been consistent about his best-player-available philosophy, and there is a real version of this where Stenberg’s World Championship form tips the scales. The Sharks also know that Celebrini’s supporting cast matters enormously to how quickly this team competes, and another elite forward accelerates that timeline.

But building a contender requires balance, and history is full of examples of teams that loaded up offensively and stalled because the back end could not keep up. San Jose has an opportunity to avoid that path entirely by adding a franchise-caliber defenseman at the top of the draft, the hardest kind of player to find any other way.

Stenberg will be an excellent NHL player. There is no question about that. But for a team in the Sharks’ specific position, spending the second-overall pick on another forward would be the wrong call. Reid fills the need that actually stands between San Jose and contention, and that is exactly what a pick this high should do.