The Sharks will be signing defense prospect Eric Pohlkamp to his entry-level contract in the coming days, Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now reports. The deal will begin next season, so he won’t play in tonight’s season finale against the Jets.
San Jose has been littered with top draft picks over the last few seasons. This far into a rebuild, though, it starts to become clear what later-round selections they might be hitting on. Pohlkamp appears to be one of them.
Selected in the fifth round in 2023, the 5’11” righty was passed over entirely in the draft the year prior. Now 22, he’s spent the last three years in the NCAA – one with Bemidji State, two with Denver – where he’s developed into a star. As a junior this season, he was a top-three finalist for the Hobey Baker Award and took home a national title with the Pioneers, leading the team in scoring with a 18-21–39 line in 43 games.
While Pohlkamp is undersized, he doesn’t play like it. He’s put on enough muscle to hit the 205-lb mark and is frequently laying into opponents. A legitimate two-way threat that the Sharks lack at present, there’s a non-zero chance he’ll step into an NHL role out of the gate in the fall.
Pohlkamp sits at #5 in San Jose’s prospect pool, one of the league’s very best, per Scott Wheeler of The Athletic. He’s the top-ranked right-shot prospect in the system and arguably their second-best up-and-coming rearguard overall behind 2024 11th overall pick Sam Dickinson.
There’s a 20-plus minute upside in Pohlkamp’s game with play on both special teams units. He ended the season with both hand and foot injuries, Denver head coach David Carle told Wheeler, so it’s not looking like he’ll join AHL San Jose for its playoff run before joining the Sharks for training camp in the fall.
Pohlkamp’s deal, when announced, will be a two-year pact running through 2027-28. He’ll be a restricted free agent at that point under team control until the 2031 offseason.
Sharks need more bite! Sign Olesiak.
They got a good one