The San Jose Sharks and Nashville Predators have swapped young forwards, with San Jose receiving Egor Afanasyev while Nashville has received Ozzy Wiesblatt (Twitter link). Afanasyev moves west as a pending restricted free agent, while Wiesblatt still has one year remaining on his entry-level contract.
Rather than try and find a new deal with the Predators, Afanasyev will now prepare for new challenge – joining a Sharks team rife with opportunity. Formerly a second-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, Afanasyev has spent the last two seasons flirting with NHL ice time, though he’s only managed one goal across 19 games in the NHL. He’s proven much more impactful in the minors, posting 54 points, split evenly, in 57 games this season. The year marked a notable step forward for Afanasyev, taking the leap into strong AHL scoring after just 26 points last season. He’s a burly power forward, who’s taken noticeable strides towards adding agility and finesse since his draft day. Afanasyev also addresses a lack of depth at left-wing for the Sharks, something that could earn him a quick track to the lineup.
The Predators upgrade on their draft capital with this swap, taking in the 31st pick in the 2020 NHL Draft in Wiesblatt. But despite his higher standing than Afanasyev, Wiesblatt hasn’t found nearly the same success since turning pro. He totaled just 17 points in 50 AHL games this season – two points higher than his 15 points last year but still below expectations. Wiesblatt rekindled his scoring a bit during a midseason loan to Nashville’s AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals, where Wiesblatt scored six points in 16 games. Nashville must have liked what they’ve seen, and will now have full control over Wiesblatt’s development as he looks to vindicate his first-round status.
SJ drafted Ozzy 3 picks before JJ Peterka
lmfao
Another highly touted (by the Preds) forward who is cast away. A 5 year old throwing darts at a draft board would do better than the Preds scouts at drafting forwards.
is the problem scouting or development? Tolvanen seemed to turn out ok after he was set adrift
A bit of both I suppose. I expect Tomasino to be next to get shipped off for a weak return.
@Gbear — I was hoping you’d chime in here. This reminds me of a short, indirect back and forth I had with Louie DeBrusk regarding organizational patience. I suggested that the definition of patience was no longer standard (relatively), but now variable. As in, some teams will have less patience for some younger players and will pitch them overboard earlier than many of us think they should. Or, they will stubbornly hang on to a player that they aren’t reaching with their development, hoping that “next year will be better” with him (Puljujarvi). And you said the magic word — scouts. This reeks to me as yet another example of what Burkie refers to as “snapshot scouting”. And, they should never skimp on the psych tests. They need to have a better idea on what the young prospect thinks about things, in general, and their organization if they draft him.
@Mac – The Poile era continues to pay negative dividends. Whether Trotz breaks from that tradition remains to be seen. As long as Jeff Kealty is in charge of scouting/player development, I have no confidence that anything will change in the drafting department.
That’s a pity. Hopefully Trotz is making things better. I thought they were going to trade Saros and retool instead of trying to make the playoffs, I don’t understand the plan there.
I think we’re all confused at this point. :/
Gbear as a Predators fan I feel you. Poile was ready for a viking funeral years before he was finally eased out the door. But – this team has had precious few high draft picks over its 25 year history, and few of those were spent on forwards. Go back in time – they’ve had two top 5 picks. One was David Legwand, in a year without any good forwards taken after him. Another was Seth Jones, who was probably the correct pick. Elias Lindholm went right after him, Bo Horvat went 9th. Maybe? In 1999 they took a schmoe named Brian Finley, but no one taken after him was inspiring. That draft was pretty terrible. The next year they drafted sixth and took Scott Hartnell, which if you look at the next 10-15 picks was a bullseye. 2002 they drafted 6th again, and picked Scottie Upshall. And yet again, that pick stacks up well against the dog show of that draft.
The next forward they took early (15th) was Radulov. Can’t fault that pick, even if the dude wound up being a flaming butthead. Colin Wilson seventh overall in 2008 was probably a miss, but not because there were many good forwards taken later in the first round. They picked Fiala 11th – good pick! Yakov Trenin at #55 was their highest pick the next season, another good pick, and well-developed albeit slowly. Tolvanen was handled stupidly, I agree. But he’s not a game changer, and is about to get expensive. If anything, criticize Poile for taking Askarov at #11 instead of Seth Jarvis, who was the obvious pick then and now.
The most talented players in the NHL come from the top five picks, and the Predators have hardly ever had one of those picks. The Stanley Cup Finals this year fully demonstrates this fact: McDavid, Nugent-Hopkins, Draisaitl, Barkov, Ekblad, Bennett, Reinhart, Tkachuk… Nurse 7th overall, Bouchard 10th overall, Broberg 8th. Virtually all those players are playing for the team that drafted them. Even Tkachhuk was traded for Huberdeau, another top 5 pick.
The Predators are mired in mediocrity because of the strategy they’ve employed over the entirety of their existence. They’d have to hit on later picks like the Lightning – Kucherov in the second round, Point in the third, and then dumping Drouin (#3 overall) before anyone realizes how badly you missed. And to be fair, the Lightning have had their share of Stamkos (#1) and Hedman (#2). Re-tooling on the fly simply does not work if your goal is to acquire top-end talent, and acquiring top-end talent is (with some exceptions, I’m sure) the most reasonable way to be Cup-competitive. I would blame the Predators’ general strategy before I would get narrow about the team’s inability to develop forward talent. They need to accept reality and tank for a couple of seasons.
Without going thru the entire Preds draft history, a look at the 2021 draft is great example of their scouts blowing it. They could’ve drafted both Wyatt Johnston and Logan Stankoven but instead drafted two guys who had 48pts and 39pts in Milwaukee last season. The Jeff Kealty era has just been too many misses and too few hits.
The best forward they’ve ever drafted is probably Arvidsson. Only one to hit the 40 goal mark in their history. In fact, I’m having a hard time of thinking of another Preds forward draft pick hitting even 30 goals (neither Legwand or Radulov did so). That is an abysmal failure by any organizations standards.
I think Grier is doing a great job acquiring young NHL ready talent for his team Dallendrea and Afanasyev are NHL ready talent that will definitely contribute to their team next year.
They’re going to Love Egor, the kid brings it every single night, and I could see him having a breakout year of utilized correctly
Even if Afanasyev sticks as a bottom six grinder, this is a massive upgrade over Weissblat for the Sharks. Sort of like when the Sharks traded away Coyle, this is gonna be one of those games Nashville might kick themselves over.