Eric Pohlkamp To Sign ELC: Full Breakdown of San Jose Sharks’ New Defense Prospect

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Eric Polkimp is expected to sign its ELC in turn pro.

For Locked On Sharks, your daily podcast on the San Jose Sharks, part of the Locked

On Podcast Network, your team, every day.

Hello, my name is JD Young.

On today's special episode of Locked On Sharks, we're going to discuss Eric Polkimp, where

he fits in with San Jose now that he's expected to turn pro.

What does his tapes say?

What are the sharks going to be getting and where does he, you know, what will he bring

him to San Jose?

But first we're going to start with Eric Polkimp and the news that he is turning expected

to sign his ELC, what that means and kind of just dive into Eric Polkimp a little bit

here.

So Eric Polkimp, the San Jose Sharks, fifth round pick from the 2000 and 23 draft.

He was fifth round pick, 130 second overall.

He just turned 22, just keep in mind there, just one second with that.

So he is expected to sign his ELC.

I would expect it to be sometime on Thursday, a good friend, Shang Peng of San Jose Hockey

now reporting that he is not expected to make his NHL debut.

So they will not quote, quote, burn his first year of his ELC contract.

So what will get to that stuff here in a minute.

We're going to kind of, if you don't know who Polkimp is or maybe you just watched him

in the national championship, we're going to, you know, kind of do a little bit of a deep

dive here on Polkimp for you as I've watched several of his games going back to his days

in Bidmigie State.

So let's start with Eric Polkimp and kind of get to know him here.

So Polkimp, like I say, is 22, he's a right handed defenseman, five foot 11, six foot,

some are right around there, 205 pounds, he was born March 23rd, 2004, he's from Minnesota,

he's a, so he was actually eligible to be drafted in the 2022 draft, did not get picked

then, of course.

So he was drafted in the following season and the following of the 2023.

So he was an overager when he was drafted, worked his way up, spent a couple of

seasons in the USHL, where he played with the Cedar Rap, a rap, Cedar Rap is Ruff Riders,

his final season, he 51 points and 59 games, including 16 goals and 35 assists that season,

he was also named the USHL defenseman of the year that year and was also a USHL first

team, all start team that year.

After USHL, he went over to Bemidji State, playing in the NCAA there, where he had 32 games

played at 11 goals, 13 assists in 24 total points for Bemidji State and if I recall correctly,

like they just missed making the first and fourth tournament that year, and he had a pretty

big season that year.

He also played in the world, juniors that season, where he won gold.

He was playing with Will Smith in that 2023-24 team.

So he had seven games with air, one goal, two assists, three total points, didn't play

much as like it got to kind of the metal rounds there, but still was a part of that team.

And the guy who, when you like kind of go into like the summer, when they were, you know,

the impresser in the summer camp and then was like a little bit of a surprise that he

made the team.

But this is the guy who like any time he's given an opportunity, he continues to make the

most out of it.

So after a season at Bemidji State, transferred to the University of, hit the portal, transferred

over to the University of Denver, where last season he played with, of course, they had

Zeeb William, who is a top pick in the 2024 draft class.

So Zeeb William, who kind of got like all the shine because Zeeb William is a very good

player.

44 games over Paul Camp, and that year with 11 goals, 24 assists and 35 total points, playing

about 23 minutes a night.

So despite Paul Camp, or despite the Zeeb William on the team, he was still playing a ton

of that season.

He, thoughts of him turning potentially pro after that year, but he said I wanted to go

back and win a national champion.

That was the whole reason he went back to school, was to try to win a national championship.

Mission accomplished for him.

This season with the University of Denver, he had 43 games, 18 goals, 21 assists, 188 shots

on goal.

I also played just about 24 minutes a night, led the nation when it came to production

from a defenseman with goals, also led the nation when it came to shots on goal.

He had a absolute stellar season for the University of Denver.

Looking at his entire career, he had Denver in the two years, 87 games, 29 total goals,

45 assists, 339 shots on goal.

Again, no defenseman Eric Paul Camp here.

So he is a player who likes to shoot the puck.

He shoots it off and he has an absolute howitzer of a shot.

So if you just saw him at the national championships, those two games don't really, like the frozen

Ford doesn't really do justice to Paul Camp because he was dealing with an injury.

He's dealing with something, a hand injury and a foot injury and there's pictures of him

on social where he's got like his finger taped up and stuff like that, so which would

for a player who very much thrives on their shot, if your hand is not 100%, would definitely

kind of throw things off there.

So, going back to his, so really quick and before I finish, so at Denver, this year his

award, so he won a, he was, he had a lot of awards this year.

So he was a hat trick finalist, so one of the three finalists for the Hobie Baker, which

is the given out to the best player in college hockey every year, like Mackinac Celebrini

wanted a couple years ago.

So he was a Hobie maker award finalist, of course he won a championship, he was an all-American

this year, he was on the NCHC alternative team, he was the best offensive defenseman in

the NCHC as well, like this is the guy, like he he racked up the awards this year as one

of the best players in college hockey, so a player very like, very good at what he does.

NHL Foley on Twitter does a great job of kind of like creating graphics and, you know,

to help kind of break down what players do and stuff like that, and especially in the

collegiate rank.

This was only through 32 games for Polkamp, but it's growing 97% tile goals for 60, 90th

percent tile assists for 60s, 81% tile, and I do think the assists, like especially

early on Denver had so many freshmen on the team that it took a little bit for some

of those guys to get going, so he had to really kind of carry the load scoring wise early

on the season until those freshmen came along.

In the tournament like those freshmen forwards really started to kind of carry their own

and Polkamp didn't have to do as much of the offensive lifting there, so his transition

break-ins, 95% tile break-outs, 81% tile, Puck play, he's 76% tile, 80% tile on the

retrieval, 54% tile on his takeaways, setups, his individual expected goals for 4% for

60, 97% tile, shot assists for 60, 93% tile, slot attack, like he gets pucks to the slot,

96% tile, slot shots for 60, 90s, like he is an offensive defenseman who is able to

create, but that isn't all that Eric Polkamp is, like he is a well-rounded two-way defenseman

and even at his size at 5 foot 11, like he is an absolute like, of course he's not tall,

but he is stocky and big and he holds his own very much in the kind of Dimitri Orlov

silo, a play of where again like Orlov's not the biggest player, but like Orlov plays

an extremely physical game and like that is the kind of shark's comp, but if Orlov had way

more offensive skills is kind of the shark's comp to go with here, so what does Orlov bring

offensively to defensively? We're going to talk about that as I'm going to discuss,

you know, Orlov Polkamp, what he's done watching his games, what I expect from him and then we'll

talk about kind of his contract and where he fits and kind of what's next for Polkamp here in just one

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All right, do of course want to thank you for making the locked on sharks your first or maybe

your second listening of the day. If you haven't checked out the every day or club now is a perfect

time to do so. You get ad free audio episodes of locked on sharks as well as access to our group

chat with me. They wonderful group of listeners of the show. It's super fun to have a great time

over there. So tap the link in the show notes or head over to a locked on shark set super cast to

learn more. So what does Eric Polkamp bring? So let's start with the offensive game, right? And

again, if you watched the national championship or you watched like the the game against Michigan

or the game against Wisconsin, I don't think that's a true what you've seen from Eric Polkamp,

one, right, dealing with an injury, David Carl, the head coach for University of Denver has

spoke about like how, you know, he kind of laid it out there and played, definitely played hurts

to try to win and help a team win a national championship, right? So if that's your only viewing,

you're not getting the true Polkamp experience credit to those teams who also did a great job,

especially on the power play of selling out to try to stop Polkamp because and because they did

that that allowed other players to get some opportunities, which they of course took advantage,

right? Back to the kind of a lot of the freshmen on the team who were working their way through,

and you know, we're able to make an impact in those, I think a lot of it's because of the focus

on Eric Polkamp and what he does so well, but let's run the offensive zone, right? And he has an

absolute missile of a shot. Um, this like and he gets it off quick so much so where on the power

play, they would have him down in the OV office instead of on the like normal defenseman where

you're on the point and you're trying to like running it from the point there. A lot of times

they would put him in the Ovechkin office and hope to get the the plan was to get him a shot,

not to say that he can't run the power play. He can very much still, I think, run the power play,

but that was probably there was time for that was that was his job was to just launch as many

one-timers as he can, but he doesn't need to rely on just on the one-timer. So he is a player who

is not afraid to shoot the puck. He will shoot the puck whenever he gets an opportunity to,

and I think that's exactly what the sharks need, especially on their power play, is a player who

can and will shoot the puck because if more people are paying attention to what he is doing and

have to respect what he can do from the blue line with that shot. And I think

I wouldn't be surprised if he has one of the like top three harder shots on the sharks like right

now. Like I think Maclin has the hardest shot and I know for I was got a pretty hard one as well,

but his shot is is already up there even at 22, just because I think his size despite his size

is 6 foot. He's so compact and he's so built that he can get like get a lot of power behind it. But

what he should do especially on the power play is because teams will have to respect that

it's kind of like the Darren Raddish for Tampa right where it's so hard and so fast of a shot

that you have to respect that. It opens up more lanes for other guys around. So that is kind of the

hope that you're having with him, but he's great at shooting, great at shooting for rebounds.

That puck is in the use, you know, he's not going to do like the canyone kind of like, you know,

make people look silly, but I you know at the blue line like he's not feeling like that, but he

does a great job of kind of dealing with pressure at the point there. And I think again that because

his shot they're going to respect him and what that brings and I think it's just going to be a

much different dynamic for the sharks when he when he finally makes his his pro debut and hopefully

gets a chance to run the power play there. So in his own zone, especially what you see a lot is

he's an able willing physical defender. I think he will be best suited with a defender

sub partner who is a little bit more stay at home in front of the net like stay at home in front

of the net and allow pole camp to kind of be the chaser a little bit right where if you have like

two defensemen and one who's more willing to kind of get into those net front battles and try to

clear their crease that way. Then you have the other defenseman who's a little bit more active

and trying and pursuing and trying to get push people off. I think he's a little bit better at that

especially with his size not to say that he can't he's a physical and willing and able net

front type of player but I think especially when you get to the NHL. I think you're going to want

someone with a little bit bigger like just a bigger region size with to play with him would be my

you know I actually think Mook Medullin would actually I think be a really solid defensive

partner for him. So but he does a good job he's physical there's a player still remember from

last year when they were playing um they're playing Boston College and Ryan Leonard who's like

big to like he's a big boy power forward type of player and he did not take anything from

Ryan Leonard in front of the net like that is like he was very much uh won that battle and

was willing to go into those areas and keep the crease clear and stuff like that. So I do think like

I said though once you're playing some bigger physical we're kind of bigger physically imposing

players in the NHL that's giving an area where I think he'll need to like he might have a little

bit of a problem with his again his size at just you know five foot eleven six foot but again he's

really sturdy and powerful. So I think he's pretty strong along the board to win plenty of board

battles in those areas as well and his I think a really kind of underrated part is his trend his

ability to transition the puck and at Denver he got a little bit like he was a little bit more

you know kind of just up and out of the glass sometimes or a little bit more kind of just

you know passing to create the transition which is fine it definitely works right but

when given the opportunity he would take off and you would see that transition game of him

to try to generate and create offense and especially I think earlier on this season at Denver

where again he had to be a little bit more proactive in generating offense but as the forwards kind

of caught up and kind of got into the system here he didn't have to do it as much so I'm curious

to see especially when he goes pro here how he kind of balances that where he's gonna I think

going to be given some opportunities to carry the puck through the neutral zone and kind of set up

to play that way but when you're on the ice with guys like celebrinians like that like I think

you'll be able to kind of step out of the way and let others do it as well so I think it'll just be

you know give him an opportunity to you know just another option for San Jose with their ability to

just their inability I think to get the puck cleanly out of their own zone so I think that I

think that's going to be one of his sneaky like qualities when he after he kind of gets his foot

his feet under him professionally so I think like the big the of course the big things he's

gonna have to work on is you know getting you to the pace and stuff like that he's an excellent

transition defenseman as well even if you go back to his scouting days or like back to his

reports from you know going in at the USHL so pole camp this is from elite prospects pole camp

defensive rush like an NHL tight gap on and off the puck poke checks time just as the opponent

experiences the puck and you see plenty of that especially like his Bemidji say days where like

as soon like he'll be you know skating backwards tracking tracking then basically as soon as his

foot the back foot hits that blue line he'll just basically stand up and just take like just

take the body and knock dudes off the puck like he is extremely good at that so and again like he

can hit like he's a he will quickly become a shark's fan favorite I have little doubt once he gets

out there so but yeah he's gonna need to work on I think for him right is gonna be in front of the

net play especially because of his size and I think just getting used to playing the NHL pace

and stuff like that but I don't have a worry for that I think he's going to be especially again

playing with Denver with David Carl that's probably the best coach who's not in the NHL right now

and if he ever wanted to go to the NHL he would probably be a pretty pretty high up there when

the coaching rankings for David Carl so where does he fit what is his contract gonna look like

all that fun stuff we'll break it down here in just one second if you have a look at your

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all right um where does Eric pole can't fit so Chang paying of course uh he's reporting that

not going to be making his NHL debut which again i if he didn't sign right away

it was kind of made pretty clear that he was not going to sign his uh debut so not going to make

his NHL debut this this season so his contract will be for the 2627 season because Eric

pole camp is already 22 his ELC will be for two seasons so he'll be uh assigned for the 2627

season and the 2728 season where he'll become in rfa after that um so two seasons for pole camp

the new uh ELCs so his ELC will be one million and 25 thousand dollars uh that'll be his salary

for uh the you know those two years right and you as part of the new cba like the ELCs you're going up

the vet minns contracts are going up everybody's getting paid more money because the of course the

cap is exploding right now so um that's going to be his his contract here so i do one i do expect

again don't know but there's just a gut feeling uh kind of just reading the tea leaves here

i expect him to sign a amateur tryout to go play with the barracuda and we see this all the time

with players where they will sign their contract for the following season right there where so

this contract will kick in on july 1st uh 2026 he will officially be part of the books right

because that's when the new lee year starts so that's when his contract will start

he'll sign an amateur tryout which allows him to play with the sanose barracuda right now

and not count towards his contract here this gives him an opportunity to kind of get his feet

wet uh get to go play some barracuda games and get him kind of ramped up a little bit faster here

the one thing is his injury at this point right we don't know how long and stuff i mean he was

clearly well enough to play in the national championship y'all be it was not at a hundred percent so

they're probably gonna let him heal up a little bit here and then uh maybe he plays

i mean maybe he gets in a regular season game here but i think a more realistic option is he

probably jumps in during the playoffs for the barracuda so again don't know as a i'm recording this

literally like at after midnight right now wanted to get this out for you guys uh but

probably a little bit more if he's gonna be signing that when he's when he signs and when he

actually has his amateurs so i do think for pole camp he's gonna be especially on a barracuda

team that is uh just getting crushed by injuries right now um so they are dealing with a ton right

of course lukka canyoni who's currently up with the sharks at the moment we'll see what happens uh

with that but nolan alan is expected to return here soon uh he's the quickest and this is from

madison montez uh who does a great job covering the barracuda as well you have mtis have led who's

out week to week you have lukka's karson who's out week to week um so right there and then we

can you any there's your there's four of your there's your four top defense soon between kenyoni

is up in the nhl nolan alan uh haveled karson that's like four of your five maybe in jett woose like

your uh like and he even left left last game as well with an injury so if he joins like that's

that is another massive piece for the barracuda where he's going to probably run the suming kenyoni

gets back um he's probably gonna run the second power play unit uh for the barracuda and he's gonna

play big time minutes on a barracuda team that i think if they can get healthy enough on the blue

line can make a deep playoff run as for sharks i think they're gonna give him every opportunity to

try to make the team next year i think a lot of it might depend on how we play like it's gonna

depend on how he plays right but i think especially coming from the ncdl blade i think that's a much

easier pathway than like i guy like sam dickens and right coming from juniors where uh it's just

and it's i mean again dickens is 19 like uh poll camps 22 so but i do think for poll camp like

i think it's a again we don't know they're gonna do we have a long summer here but as of right now

where it stands i think you'd have to say it's pretty favorable that he's going to break camp with the

sharks uh next season unless he has a really poor uh preseason or efforts and and stuff or

again depends on what they do this summer but uh i could see him being one of those open unite

players for him if not it might be a call and graph type of situation where he spends half the season

down with in the a hl and kind of just irons out the rest of his game and then he gets called up

around christmas new year's time and becomes a full-time NHL or just exactly like calling graph right

where graph came in i know graph got some games at the end of the season but right he he

polished out his game in the a hl and he's been excellent ever since in a 20 goal score so

and in the NHL i think he's gonna get an opportunity to run the sharks power play i think he's

probably gonna be a middle you know probably a middle paired defenseman uh which would be a big

boost and i think he's gonna really help the sharks offensive game from the blue line so i'm

really excited about pull camp i know he's a fifth round pick and stuff um but i do like he just

he provides something a little bit different that the sharks don't have right and i again i think

orlobs defensive skills combine with a much more offensively gifted player and i i think you can see

the path to him being in the NHL and being the NHL for a pretty long time so uh you should be

really excited like you should be excited about pull camp and what he's gonna provide uh provide

the sharks here again you you gotta let him this i don't think he's gonna be like a hit the ground

running type of player but i think he can really help kind of uh add some add some answers to the

sharks blue line going forward so uh that's me for me uh make sure you're following along wherever

you get podcasts and of course you can watch on youtube as well we'll have a preview for these

sharks jets last game of the season while we're reaction to it as well uh and then we we start

the offseason i i have the content calendar like already kind of uh been piecing it together here

i'm really excited about the offseason so uh yeah again make sure you're following along uh follow

show twitter facebook instagram tiktok follow me uh twitter and blue sky my fri hole

till later bye friends

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