The San Jose Sharks hold the fourth overall selection at the upcoming 2023 NHL Entry Draft, marking the sixth time in their 32-year franchise history that they’ve picked in the top five. However, each of the first five times took place in the early years of the organization, as the Sharks have not had a top-five pick since 1998.
As a quarter century has passed since the last time San Jose made such a high draft choice, it’s an appropriate time to revisit the previous choices. Here’s a look at the careers of the five players the Sharks have selected in the top five.
1991: Pat Falloon (2nd Overall Pick)
Right wing Pat Falloon was the San Jose’s first-ever top-five pick, as well as the first draft selection in Sharks’ history. Unfortunately, the chance for the Sharks to obtain a franchise cornerstone in their inaugural draft didn’t pan out. Falloon had a solid rookie season with 25 goals and 59 points but never eclipsed either of those totals in the rest of his nine-year NHL career. He played just over four seasons with the Sharks before being traded to the Philadelphia Flyers and went on to suit up for three additional teams.
Falloon had a handful of decent seasons but never reached the production expected of a second-overall pick and is generally regarded as a bust. The fact that he was picked in between Hall of Famers Eric Lindros and Scott Niedermayer makes the selection even more disappointing.
1992: Mike Rathje (3rd Overall Pick)
The year after drafting Falloon, the Sharks held another top-five pick. Unlike the 1991 Draft, the front office drafted for defense by taking blueliner, Mike Rathje. He is the first long-term success for the team among their early first-round picks, playing 671 regular-season games across 11 seasons in San Jose as a steady, consistent defensive-minded defenseman. He also delivered a number of strong performances in the playoffs, most notably in 1995, when he scored five goals in 11 games to help the seventh-seeded Sharks reach the Western Conference Semifinals.
1996: Andrei Zyuzin (2nd Overall Pick)
With their next top-five selection, the Sharks went defensive again with Russian Andrei Zyuzin. Sadly, his career arc resembled Falloon’s more than Rathje’s. After a promising rookie year in which he posted a plus-eight rating, he struggled to establish consistency for the rest of his career. He played one more season in San Jose before spending time with five different NHL franchises across the next nine years of his career. He bounced between the NHL and the minor leagues, never playing more than 66 NHL games in a season. He played his final game in North America at 30 years old and finished his career with four seasons in Europe.
1997: Patrick Marleau (2nd Overall Pick)
Forward Patrick Marleau left very little room for debate in the discussion of the Sharks’ most successful top-five pick. He played 22 of his 24 seasons for the team, scored over 500 goals, broke the NHL record for games played, and found himself at the center of many of the greatest moments in franchise history. Appropriately, he became linemates with Joe Thornton, the only player in the 1997 Draft taken ahead of him, and the two teamed up to help bring the Sharks to their greatest levels of success and turn the organization into one of the league’s best.
Related: Patrick Marleau’s Top 5 Moments as a San Jose Shark
San Jose drafting Marleau marked a turning point for the Sharks as a franchise and hockey as a sport in the Bay Area. With this past season’s jersey retirement and a likely Hall of Fame induction coming soon, his importance to the NHL continues to live on.
1998: Brad Stuart (3rd Overall Pick)
Defenseman Brad Stuart enjoyed a long, successful career, but much of it came with other franchises, most notably the rival Detroit Red Wings. He won a Stanley Cup in Detroit, then opposed the Sharks during playoff series in 2010 and 2011. In fact, one of Stuart’s biggest contributions as a Shark was serving as one of the return pieces in the trade that sent Thornton to San Jose from the Boston Bruins.
But that’s not to say that Stuart didn’t make significant contributions to the Sharks in his time with them. He played the first five full seasons of his career with San Jose and posted 39 regular-season points on the first Sharks team in franchise history to reach the Western Conference Final. And he brought his journey full circle: towards the end of his career, four teams and seven years after the trade, he returned to the Sharks and provided a veteran presence for a pair of playoff teams.
Sharks Have New Opportunity With 4th Pick
The Sharks’ history of drafting in the top five shows how difficult the draft can be to predict. No-brainer picks can struggle, and high-risk players with high ceilings can be hit or miss. The wrong choice, especially at such a high spot, can seriously slow or halt a franchise’s trajectory. But as the drafting of Marleau shows, the right pick can alter a team’s path dramatically for the better. With this year’s draft containing a number of seemingly game-changing players at the top, the Sharks have a chance to make one of those selections that set them on the right track for years to come.