Defenseman Jack Thompson is staying on the San Jose Sharks roster after all. After reassigning Thompson yesterday evening to their AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda, the organization announced they’ve recalled Thompson while sending goaltender Yaroslav Askarov back down to the AHL.
Thompson has been an effective blue-liner for the Sharks in his second year with the organization. He’s scored two goals and five points in 13 contests while averaging 15:55 of ice time per game. He’s third behind Jake Walman and Timothy Liljegren amongst defensemen with a 46.6% CorsiFor% at even strength and leads Sharks’ defensemen with a 92.7% on-ice save percentage in all situations.
He won’t land on many lists of top prospects for San Jose but Thompson is already developing into a serviceable two-way defenseman. He may even see his ice time climb to around 18 minutes per night should the Sharks move on from pending unrestricted free agents, Cody Ceci and Jan Rutta, by the end of the season.
With all due respect to Thompson and his solid start to the year, the headline of this transaction is surely Askarov. He’s not only the top goaltending prospect in the Sharks pipeline but remains one of the best goaltending prospects in the league.
San Jose acquired Askarov this past offseason for a package including Vegas’ first-round pick in 2025 and former first-round pick of the 2023 NHL Draft David Edstrom. Askarov debuted with the Sharks on November 21st due to an injury to netminder Vitek Vanecek.
He played phenomenally in two starts, managing a 1-0-1 record while posting a .927 save percentage and 1.96 goals against average. San Jose wants more seasoning in the AHL for Askarov where he’s already collected a 6-3-0 record for the Barracuda this season with a .939 SV% and 1.92 GAA. The team will likely wait closer to the 2025 trade deadline before making Askarov a full-time NHL netminder after peddling pending UFA’s Vanecek and Mackenzie Blackwood on the trade market.
Thompson is a fantastic kid with a fantastic family! This kid has worked hard his whole life to get here! So happy to see him having success at the highest level!
Askarov needs to be playing in the NHL full time, now. It’s hard to think the Sharks are doing anything but throwing games by not playing their best goaltender on a regular basis.
This take makes absolutely no sense. He was brought up because Vanecek had a day-to-day injury. The plan was always to develop his skills in the A this season, presumably until the trade deadline. Askarov knew this from day one before the Sharks even finalized the trade. Yes, he’s super talented. But how many talented goaltending prospects have been ruined by taking on too much work too soon? The way the Sharks are managing this makes perfect sense to me.
Vanecek is a replacement-level goaltender, and certainly not a 1A NHL netminder.
Askarov has already had two full seasons in the AHL, with 48 and 44 games played, respectively, and was an All-Star last year. He’s not learning anything new in the AHL, the Sharks are just content to eat another season and get back in the lottery.
The Sharks are misusing Askarov, He should be in the bigs now!!!!
Thanks for convincing me that the Sharks are doing the right thing with Askarov.
The sharks need to trade Blackwood and Vanecek first. They have value and cutting one of them wouldn’t make sense. Askarov does need to be up, but they need to trade one of the others first.
I don’t think that Askarov asked for a trade away from the Preds (not playing in the NHL), just to be relegated to the AHL with the Sharks. He knows that he’s better than both those goalies. Sharks are walking on thin ice, in my opinion. They should be playing their best players in position. This looks like a play for another high pick to me.
I’m kind of an arm-chair expert on this, watching Wolf up close and personal. Flames are playing their young rookie and reaping the rewards. Sharks are just tanking. I watched Wolf the last 3 years in the AHL and especially this year, he is clearly to good for that league. Askarov is of the same ilk in my opinion.
Another former Bolts prospect in Jack Thompson doing pretty well. Not surprised but good for him. I think Thompson will be an effective defenseman overall in his career.
I don’t know if Thompson would had a chance to play on the main roster with the Bolts if he wasn’t traded for Anthony Duclair since Tampa is actually little backlogged in right wing defensemen.
As for Blackwood and Vanecek, both would be serviceable (& improved) backups for teams as I don’t think either are true starting goaltenders. I actually think Tampa could be interested in either but more so in Blackwood to replace the dismal service of Jonas Johansson as I feel Blackwood would be better on a more solidified team