Here’s every NHL team’s player to watch break out this year
By Paul Grant
San Jose Sharks: Joakim Ryan
Joakim Ryan is the kind of player NHL scouts love to see play in the league and play on the top pairing.
And that’s exactly what the seventh-rounder from way back in 2012 is going to get the chance to do this season, his second in the teal and black of the big club. Looking at the projections heading into the season, as the roster stands now, caveat, caveat, Ryan is penciled in to start alongside the one and only Brent Burns. That’s a lot of minutes and a lot of responsibility for a fella who took a somewhat non-traditional route to the NHL: born in New Jersey and yet somehow managed to play for Sweden in international competition. Hmm.
Anyway, not only will playing with Burns on the regular help his breakout, Ryan, 25, is also due to eventually see some extra time on the power play, where that cool savvy will afford him well. The speedy (and beardy) Ryan sees the game well and could be one of those superlative-reliable guys in the mold of teammate Marc-Edouard Vlasic, only with better wheels.
This all goes out the window if the Sharks obtain Erik Karlsson, but absent that blockbuster, Ryan will be flying for the Fins (as in shark fins, not a misspelling of people from Finland).