Sharks’ Young Guns on Losing Granlund’s Leadership

And the San Jose Sharks move on.

On Saturday, the Sharks sent alternate captain and leading scorer Mikael Granlund, along with No. 2 defenseman Cody Ceci to the Dallas Stars for a 2025 first-round pick and a 2025 conditional fourth.

Granlund also paced San Jose forwards in Overall, Power Play, and Short-Handed Ice-Time Per Game, just one of two players, Jack Eichel the other, to lead his team’s forwards in that troika of key categories.

“He did everything for us. PK, power play, 5-on-6, 6-on-5,” Macklin Celebrini said. “He’s such a smart player. It’s tough to replace a guy like that.”

But Granlund’s most-lasting impact on the Sharks might have been his leadership and mentorship of young forwards like Celebrini, William Eklund, Fabian Zetterlund, and Will Smith through back-to-back trying seasons.

“He works hard everyday. He shows the young guys how to work,” Eklund, who broke out last year mostly on a line with Granlund, said.

“Meant a lot, I think just little stuff,” rookie Smith, who enjoyed the majority of his 5-on-5 production this season with Granlund on the ice, 10 of 18 points, said. “Every day, we’d go out before practice and work on [stuff].”

Eklund echoed that: “Those small things in the game. He’s really good at talking and understanding what was going [on]. Before practices, he would always be out there, working [his] craft out there, and get better.”

Off the ice, the kids knew that they could always turn to “Granny” too.

Smith says Granlund took him aside during training camp to let him know that his door was always open.

“You kind of ask advice. What do you think? What he thought? What could be done differently? Those kinds of things, slow learning, learning opportunities throughout like plays and games,” Macklin Celebrini said last month. “He’s great like that, where he doesn’t always think he’s right or his way’s the only way. He’ll talk to you, see what you saw, he’s pretty understanding when it comes to different plays.”

“He’s been kind of a dad,” Fabian Zetterlund said last season. “Even off the ice, I learn something new every day from him.”