Is Eric Pohlkamp’s Arrival About to TRANSFORM the Entire San Jose Sharks Power Play?

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Shark's defense across with Eric Polkamp is the missing piece to make their power play

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Today we're going to be talking about Eric Polkamp, the San Jose Sharks defensive prospect

at the University of Denver.

We're going to talk about if he's ready to make it the jump.

Look at what the tape says from Eric Polkamp as well as discussed why I think he is the

missing piece for the shark's power play to really kick it into the next gear.

So let's get started by discussing one Eric Polkamp will kind of just quick reminder

of who he is and why I think he is, why he's worthy of talking about, especially for

the sharks this season.

So Eric Polkamp is a former fifth overall pick in the 2023 draft.

He was an overager that year, that year.

So he could have actually gone to the 2022 draft.

Polkamp is 21, he'll turn 22 here in a couple of weeks, he's 5 at 11, 210 pound right-handed

defenseman who's playing at the University of Denver.

This is a kid who's been kind of overlooked a lot and continues to do great things.

He was the USHL defenseman of the year as well as the USHL first all team or all star team

as he played on the team USA world juniors and got one gold medal for them as well.

Started his college career at Bemidji State before transferring to the University of Denver.

If you don't know anything about college hockey, the University of Denver is a premier program

in the entire country here and he's put up a last year that he played behind Z-Buyum.

Might recognize that name.

He had pretty solid numbers last year, 44 games, he had 11 goals, 24 assists and 35 points.

This year though with Z-Buyum gone, he has taken his game to the next level.

So this season in 37 games he has 17 goals, 19 assists with 160 shots on goal.

He is the leading goal score among defenseman for the NCAA.

And it's a legitimate Hobie Baker award-winning candidate.

There is a more than a good chance that he could A be a finalist and be

win the whole thing as the best player in college hockey.

You know, Mackleys Elbrini won that as well.

There's plenty of good players have won the Hobie Baker.

So he's a junior so he has the opportunity.

If he wants, well he can sign basically at any time,

but if he did want to go back to college, he could go back.

But I feel, as we'll talk kind of over the next, you know,

the rest of this podcast that he is going to be ready to make the jump to the NHL and

become a, I think it can be a nice piece for the San Jose sharks on their blue line for them.

So just a little more kind of what pole camp is as a player.

So if you go back to his draft, to his D plus one year where he was actually drafted,

looking at his elite prospects, he was rated as a C-rated player, especially as an over-ager.

They rated him 4.5 is skating, a 5.5 is shooting, 4.5 for passing, a 4 for puck handling,

4.5 for hockey sense, a 5.5 for physical that's out of a nine.

Like nine is like your super, super elite high, high end type of skill.

And one is, you know, kind of like not, they're not a hockey player basically.

So like five is kind of in the middle, right?

They gave him like his attributes were a hammer.

He's a physical player and he is a lethal shooter.

And if you watch pole camp for more than 10 minutes, you're probably going to see both of

those skills on display and especially when it comes to his shot.

He is a guy who does not, like he is a gunslinger.

I'm going to shoot this thing as often as I can from wherever I can.

And it's been working out pretty well for him.

And we'll get to that a little bit more here in a minute.

But definitely a player who will be much, I think, a huge addition to the sharks when he comes to,

you know, when he's actually signed.

So he can sign basically what just as a quick reminder, right?

He can sign his ELC at any time.

Most likely will be whatever university of Denver season is over.

Once he signs his ELC, he will burn the first year.

As soon as he plays one game, he will burn the first year of his contract.

He doesn't slide because since he's signing his contract after he's turned 20,

you don't slide those, that's the slide rules, right?

You know, like for guy, for younger players, once you play those nine games,

if you sign your ELC before you turn 20, you're able to play nine games before you can kind of commit your first year.

Doesn't work like that with a little bit older prospects here.

So once he signs, he will, you know, and plays the game, he will burn the first year of his contract,

which is part of doing the business with these college players.

So like call and graph rate is, as an example, player who the shark signed, you know, as a free agent,

burn the first year of his contract.

So he can get to free agency faster, Camlin, same thing last year, right?

Play signed, play the first, you know, sign and play the, you know,

handful games of the sharks.

They do that so they can get to their first year of their contract faster.

So expectation with pole camp is he will, you know,

should sign with the sharks after the season because he doesn't really need to go back.

But how good is he been for the University of Denver?

It's pretty awesome.

NHL fully on Twitter has a, does a great job with kind of,

especially prospects and their graph, you know, kind of creating graphics for them as well.

So he is a, in his 32 games, he when he pulled this 32 NCAA games played 97th percentile,

when it came to scoring goals for 60, 99th percentile assists for 60, 81st percentile setups,

creating offense there, individual expecting goals for 60, 97th percentile shot at 60, 93 percentile.

His transition game 94th percentile break ins 95 breakouts for 60, 81 percent.

Slot attack getting slot passes to the slot to help your, you know, create offense there, 99th percentile.

His puck plays 76 percentile takeaways and retrieval takeaways at 54 percent retrievals at 80 percent defense, 40 second percentile.

Shoplux is 70th puck battles at 24 percent for, for pole camp.

So he is one of, if not the best defenders in all of college hockey right now and has put on an absolute show this year for a very good University of Denver team.

And has been kind of, right, you wondered how he would do.

Now, see, Williams gone and he would have to kind of take the reins.

He has taken the reins and he has run with it on a, again, a very good University of Denver team.

I think they're ranked 7th or 8th in the nation right now and are, are a legitimate team to win a championship this year at Denver.

So there's a player who very much believe he is ready to make an impact in the NHL right now.

So what does the tapes say?

So we're going to discuss that next.

We'll talk about what I have witnessed in my recent viewings of pole camp.

We'll talk about his offense.

We'll talk about, we'll talk about all three phases of this game.

And then we'll talk, of course, about why I think he's the missing piece on the shark's power play.

So we'll get to that here in just one second.

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So Eric Polkamp, what have I seen watching his recent games?

So view the couple of his games really watched his game over the weekend here.

Against the University of Miami, Ohio, especially specifically his game on Saturday.

So where he had a goal in an assist in that game.

But the let's start with the offense.

We'll kind of work our way through.

So we'll start with the offensive game, a game where he had nine shots on goal.

And I lost track of how many shot attempts he had in this game.

Very much came out with a purpose, excuse me, with a purpose to get the puck on the net as often as he can.

Squirtle goal, absolute beautiful goal, rocket of a shot, had an assist where came off a shot on goal.

The goal was unable to corral it.

He had two guys in front of the net there that were able to kind of put it away on a dirty goal there.

That is what Eric Polk, like he is not afraid to let this thing fly, which is great to see.

But like he's also very good at creating offense.

And you know, we just went through kind of some of his stats and some of his micro stats there.

You see him being able to write shoot for the rebound.

Shoot to try to score, right?

Of course, shoot for the rebound, but also building in those play the passes and kind of those slot passes well to try to keep the defense honest.

So there's again, there's a guy who want to, I think he's the top in the end, in the NCAA.

If not among the leaders, when it comes to actual shots on goal is a get a player who as a defenseman will let it fly.

And as I've talked about Polk camp throughout this year, like this is a team that you know needs their defense to kind of step in and help kind of create offense for them at Denver.

Because it may be some of their forge are still kind of coming along here a little bit.

So the defense is asked to generate a lot of offense for University of Denver in Polk camp.

He goes with it definitely goes with it there.

So he you see him jumping up and kind of making smart pinches.

He's not reckless about it.

He's definitely more of he hangs out at the blue line.

He's not like you're not going to see him up there all the time.

But he'll make the smart pinches.

He'll, you know, especially when he kind of gets in the transition.

He'll not afraid to go in there and for check and stuff.

But definitely more of a I'm going to hang around a blue line type of player and try to play responsible defensively.

Will sometimes as we transition into his neutral zone of transition game.

Will sometimes get himself out of position where again, right?

You like to see the aggressiveness and him creating off and trying to create offense and trying to generate offense.

And he does a really good job, I think with his breakouts for the most part, right?

He's going to have the occasional like flip it into the neutral zone and it'll get intercepted or kind of

puck up off the glass.

But majority of time his he looks to skate to create the breakout and then his skating opens up the passing, right?

He's not just kind of standing flat footed and just slinging the puck up the boards like he tries to get to the open ice and

tries to generate space for himself and force teammates to have clean breakouts.

And that is something that the sharks will definitely benefit from when pole camp eventually makes the jump here.

So, but right sometime in the his transition game, like he's not afraid to go coast to coast.

You see it in this last game against the university of Miami where he goes coast to coast and goes in it and he tries to split to defenseman and then does a

we almost gets it done and then kind of goes into a puck battle along the boards there, but occasionally right when you have these offensive defenseman,

you're going to leave yourself in a vulnerable position and he is just like that on every other, you know, on occasionally where I've seen him.

I think he's gotten a little bit better over as the season has gone on, but I've seen him kind of early on this season or kind of in the middle of the season where he is a,

you know, tries to do a little bit too much and then leaves himself in a spot where now he's not trying to defend a two on one or he's trying to kind of get back and

a two on one situation. So that happens with a lot of defenseman, it's not just air pole camp for himself.

So, but yeah, I like his breakouts for the most part. I like his transition game. I think that he's going to be a big part of helping that with the San Jose sharks here when he ever he eventually makes the jump.

So defensively, it's, it's a little bit hard to, you know, with pole camp and with University of Denver, especially in this last game where they outshot the other team.

Like at one point, it was like 32 to 10 shot attempts in the second period. And as the game wore on like Miami kind of got back into it a little bit more.

At least when it came to the shot attempts, but they spent so much time in their offensive zone, right, and that that's always the questions with these guys is your team, the teams that you are on typically you spend a lot of time in the offensive zone.

How are you when you're on zone and pole camp, I think is a willing and active defender like he's he's not going to be the stand in front of the net and just kind of clear the path. That's not his game.

He can do it, but right, he's he's five foot 11 to 10. So he's he's a little bit more stocky. He's not like, you know, a player who's just going to sit there and just like clear the path. He's not like a Vinny day or an A's or someone like that who's just going to be six foot seven. I'm just bigger than you.

I'm just going to move you out of the way that that's not his game. But I think he's an active and willing defender.

He goes out to challenge players. He will, you know, block shots. He had a couple nice block shots in this game.

But yeah, he'll go out and kind of challenge them. He's not just going to kind of sit back and passively wait for stuff to happen.

And right, there's there's been it with that style of defense. There's benefits and there's, you know, kind of cons of that where you're going to beat sometimes because right sometimes this is the other team or the other player just makes a good play.

You know, you're going, but I like that instead of just kind of sitting there and waiting for something to happen, right, is putting the pressure on the other team to try to make a good play and try to make a play that beats you. So I think for him, it's going to be very much about having the right partner.

And I think having a bigger kind of linkier partner would make a lot of sense, especially maybe someone like, like a Shakira, Mukama, Dolan, right, Mukama, Dolan is a left handed and then pole camps are right handed.

But like Mukama, Dolan who can move can skate and can also, you know, is a little bit bigger and and like here. And I think can does a little bit better job of kind of playing in front of the crease.

And having a guy like that where you have pole camp kind of be your more active, you know, kind of going out to challenge. Well, I think Mukama, Dolan can be a little bit more stay at homey.

Makes sense to me, at least in my eyes of how those two players play, but then you have two players who can also move the puck, defend like out of the defensive zone and who aren't afraid to carry the puck going forward.

Yeah, pole camp like he's he's he's like any time he was on the ice, especially in that game, you knew when he was on the, he was the best player in that game, I think, like pretty easily like any time he was on the ice, he was noticeable, he was taking shots, he was trying to, you know,

and the best of three series here, he was trying to end this series early. And, you know, for Denver, there's some playoff implications and stuff like that. But, you know, he came out and he, I think, played an extremely good game in all three areas of the ice here, especially in his last game against University of Miami.

So, I think he's ready. I think he's ready. So, where does pole camp fit in? Why do I think he is the missing piece on the shark's power play here? And we'll kind of talk about some of that other stuff and kind of a look at the potential timeline of when we can see pole camp making a jump. So, we'll get to that in just one second.

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Eric Polkamp. I think is the missing piece on the shark's power play.

Right, we've had a lot of John Klingberg. We've had to meet you were alive on the power play, but what Polkamp does differently is his shot.

And it is an absolute rocket of a shot might be one of the best shots in the sharks system right now between him and Holtanen.

You can argue which shot is the best shot in the system right now. Camlin's got a pretty good shot as well, but especially on the blue line. He is hands down the best shot on the blue line for the shark system.

It might be the best shot in the entire like NHL was included.

So that is why I think he is the piece on the shark's power play because his shot will keep the other team honest right now.

Orlov who has very much more of a distributor right kind of the prototypical point guard of let me just get the puck moving from, you know, from Will Smith to Celeb Reini or for.

You know, like let me just keep the puck moving right and takes his shots occasionally to try to keep him honest but it's right it's just, it's very, it almost feels like it's formed for with with him with Orlov just kind of doing his thing right.

And with John Klingberg, he's not afraid to let it loose.

But how often do we see from Klingberg where it feels like kind of a week

falling away rister from him that kind of just gets gets into the mess, right?

I think with their poll camp, his shot is so devastating and so hard and so fast

that is going to have to make the other team actually account for it, right?

And I think the biggest, the best example of this is look at the Tampa Bay Lightning with Darren radish

who's been running their power play this season because of Victor headman's injury.

Darren radish has an absolute cannon, right?

We as sharks fans have seen it, right? That thing is a cannon of a shot.

So I think poll camps got a cannon like that.

Probably not there, but like, can it be, I don't know what's below it.

I don't know how to, how it's there, whatever, could it be like right below it?

Then you're, you're extremely big gun rankings.

I think so. And I think that will make a huge difference because teams will have to respect that.

And I think it's going to open up space for celebrity and for Smith.

And it's spent in particular, right?

Where teams aren't going to be able to kind of crowd those guys because they're the only

know that those are your real threats.

It gives you another legitimate threat on the power play with poll camp here.

And I think the Tampa Bay Darren radish formula is your kind of best case study for it.

Of why I do think he will could and will and should make a difference on the power play.

And like poll camp like he's going to have his ups and downs and everything like that is you would expect to come jump in.

Everybody's played Kawasaki at a, you know, prestigious University of Denver with one of the best coaches.

If not the best coach, not in the NHL in David Carl.

So it's not going to be like he's jumping in, you know, like trying to make the jump from juniors to the NHL.

Like I think it's, it's a much easier transition from college hockey to the NHL.

So, you know, and like I, I do think he, I think he can come in and help, right?

He can come in and help right now for the shark.

So when can we see him?

And that's this very much is like your in a spot where you're, what you're rooting for University of Denver

to lose, to be honest, I'm trying to pull up their actual like hockey tournament dates right now.

So, all right.

So the official bracket.

So University of Denver, like they're going to get into the final or into these, the frozen four here.

So it's your 16 teams here and we don't have dates.

Unfortunately, I'm trying to see if I can pull up to date.

So, if they get to the very, very end is going to be like beginning of April,

like we're like a month away type of thing where he would sign.

And the shark, remember the NCAA or the NHL schedule ends.

I think it's, the sharks played the last game, the 18th summer, 17 to 18 for them.

So, but it's going to be a little, so it is going to be a little bit for, like it's going to be him kind of coming at the end,

like very, very, very end of the season, most likely to kind of jump in here.

So I'm pulling it up.

So the last, here we go, last game would be Saturday, April 11th.

His team makes it to the very, very, very end of University of Denver,

makes it to the end of the season and is playing for the championship.

If not, it could be anywhere before that.

April 9th is the kind of semi-finals, and it takes place at T-Mobile here, the final games here.

But so, yeah, it is going to be one of those things where if he signs, he probably comes in,

if he, they make it all the way, he's going to come in for like a week and then if the sharks get to the playoffs.

Now, the sharks are in a position where they're getting, like they're still fighting for a playoff spot.

I think it's more likely that he signs right now.

If they don't look like they're going to make the playoffs, maybe he doesn't sign right away,

and they sign them in the off season, and so he can play, they could always do the kind of Thomas Bordeaux thing

where if they don't think they're going to make it to the playoffs, you can sign them to an amateur tryout

where he can play with the Barracuda, and then he would start the season with the sharks.

But most likely, what's going to happen is, right, he wants to get to his next contract as soon as possible.

So I would expect him to sign his ELC as soon as he is done at University of Denver and then join the sharks right away.

If he does that, not eligible to play with the Barracuda, just like Cam Lund did last season.

So, but I think he's ready.

I think he is the, I think he's the piece on the blue line that'll really help the sharks, especially on the power play.

Like I would bring him in and I would just give him the power play right now.

If you're not going to do it for Canyone, do it for Polkamp, and I think he can elevate this power play

and kind of maybe be the shot in the arm that it needs going into the playoffs here.

So that's going to be it for me today.

We'll be back tomorrow.

Let's make sure you guys are fun, along with me.

You get podcasts, and of course, you can watch on YouTube as well.

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