I love this... - Sharks make HUGE change

Yesterday at practice the Sharks debuted a new top line and that involved the number two overall pick Evar Stenberg skating with Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith. The defense also got shuffled too and I absolutely love it in this video where I'm going to tell you why. The source is Sheng Peng from San Jose Hockey Now. His post from practice has more than 2,000 likes because it starts with lots of changes and then lists every line. Stenberg, Celebrini, Smith, Marchment, Misa Graf, Sherwood, DeLandre, Toffoli, Goodrow, Estopchuk, Gaudet, and on defense, Nurse and Trouba, Dickinson and Kesslering, and Allen and Orlov. The two big changes to me are obviously Stenberg joining the Will Mack line as the top line. I'm very excited for that. And also, Dickinson paired with Kesslering. I think that both these changes are going to be great for the Sharks, and going into tonight's game, it's going to be fun to see these guys together, and I think they're all going to be dangerous. We start with the why, because the Sharks are 6-5-1 here to start the year, but they also allow 3.5 goals a game and about 30 shots a game, so there was definitely some shakeup coming in the lineup to try to correct that. The offense is not the problem. San Jose scores 3 goals a game, and the power play is 6th in the NHL at 26.8%, so the team scores, it just gives up too much. Here's how the last eight games went. A loss to Edmonton, a loss to Boston, a shootout win in Nashville, a shootout loss in Detroit, a loss in Toronto, an overtime win in Montreal, a 6-2 win in Regulation in Ottawa, and a 6-4 loss to Boston on Saturday. Up, down, up, down, a rollercoaster season. This is a team that needs a change, and obviously we're seeing that now with Stenberg being tested with Willa Mack on the top line, and I absolutely love it. Here's how the top spot opened. On October 22nd, the morning skate, the top line was Chernyshov, Celebrini, and Smith. And on Monday, coach Ryan Rosovsky said Chernyshov and Alex Stenberg remain week-to-week. Evar Stenberg, the 19-year-old, the second overall pick in this year's draft through 12 games, has 9 points. And he's doing it just averaging over 15 minutes a night. Now the catch, 7 of those 9 points came on the power play. 2 goals and 5 assists. At even strength, he has 2 points in 12 games. And he is at minus 8, the lowest on the team. That is the whole case for this move. He is a good player who just hasn't had the most dangerous players on his line at 5-on-5. That all changes tonight, because he's playing with the big boys, Celebrini and Smith, and I'm excited about it. Macklin Celebrini had 115 points in 82 games last season. This season, he has 15 points in 10 games, 1.5 points a game, and he plays 22 minutes and 42 seconds a night. Will Smith, the fourth pick in 2023, has four goals and eight points in 12 games, and he scored 24 goals last season. And here is what the line has to work with. Celebrini has fired 40 shots in 10 games, four a game. Smith has 33 shots in 12 games. Stenberg has 18 shots in 12 games and three of them went in. He is not shooting enough yet and now he is next to a center who creates a shot almost every time he touches the puck. Look at Celebrini's point per game year by year. 0.90 as a rookie, 1.4 last season and 1.5 right now. He keeps getting better and the wingers around him keep getting better as well. And look at who was on this line. Celebrini picked first in 2024. Stenberg picked second in 2025. And Smith picked fourth in 2023. That is three top four picks on one line. And their average age is 20. And they already have the power play. San Jose's power play is sixth in the NHL at 26.8%. Celebrini has eight power play points. Stenberg has seven. Now put those two together five on five with Smith, who already has a goal on the power play. This is why I love it because we all know Evar Stenberg is a star in the making he's playing really good hockey through the start of this season and i think a lot of his five on five you know not being successful five on five has been due to his teammates not being able to bury the chances that he's been setting up for them but now playing with the best center in the building every night he's going to be getting more chances and putting up more points because he's going to be with the best players on the ice every night and that's why i really love it behind them we have Marchment, Misa and Graf Misa was the second overall pick back in 2025. Right now, he has six points through 12 games, and he's only averaging 13 minutes a night. Then, Sherwood, Delandrie, and Toffoli. Tyler Toffoli has nine points in 12 games, tied with Stenberg for second on the team. And the fourth line is Goodrow, Stopchuck, and Gaudet. The point is the depth that this team has scoring-wise. Last year, Celebrini was carrying the load offensively all himself. But now, we have guys like Celebrini, Smith, and Stenberg all in the top six forwards now that can create offense as well as Misa. And then, we also have veterans like Sherwood and Toffoli who have been generating great offense early. And I think that's the reason why the success offensive-wise has been this season because they have so many great scorers throughout their lineup this year. Is it perfect? No. We'd like to see maybe Marchment and Grav have better seasons at this point. But now, playing with a guy like Michael Misa, who can make players around him a lot better, I think this line will start to take off, hopefully starting tonight. Now the defense. Nurse and Trouba, Dickinson and Kesselring, Allen and Orlov. The one I find the most intriguing, though, is Dickinson and Kesselring. Here's what the old pairs did. Nurse and Kesselring played 148 minutes at 5-on-5 together. The Sharks scored two goals, and they gave up seven, and had 39.7% of the shot attempts. Dickinson and Trouba played 138 minutes, 2 goals for, 5 against, and 43.6% of the shot attempts. 50% is even. So both pairs here, you can clearly see were losing when they were out there on the ice, but I really like this change, and it's not random at all. Dickinson is 20 years old, the 11th pick in 2024, and he plays 18 minutes and 50 seconds a night. Kesselring is 26, 6'5", 215 pounds, and he plays 19 and 18 seconds a night, up from 13 and 24 seconds last season, and neither of them have scored yet. Dickinson has zero goals and two assists in 10 games with eight shots. Kesselring has zero goals and two assists in 12 games with 12 shots, so the next step for this pair is shooting. Meanwhile, Trouba leads the defense with eight points, so putting him with Nurse gives the Sharks a veteran pair that already produces. Here is one thing to watch. When we checked Dickinson earlier this month, his takeaways were in the 93rd percentile, and his giveaways were in the sixth. He steals the puck and gives it away, a big right shot next to him could help cover that. And look at the other pair. Nurse is 31 and Trouba is 32. They play 21 minutes and 2 seconds and 22 minutes and 7 seconds a night. That is a veteran pair for the hardest matchups and a young pair with real legs. I think that is a smart way to split it. Do I think Dickinson and Kesselring will be great together? Yeah, I really do because obviously you got Kesselring who can kind of, you know, be that defensive guy on this line and really shut down plays and allow Dickinson to jump more up into plays and create more offensively like we've seen out of him in the London Knights when he played the juniors. So hopefully this starts to unlock Dickinson a little bit more, and I think Kesselring, out of all the defenders this season, has looked the best in my eyes. So I think putting them together is going to be a recipe for success here in San Jose. And then Allen and Orlov on the third pair. Nolan Allen is a plus three in seven games, the best plus minus on the team. Dmitri Orlov has five points in 12 games and if you want more breakdowns on the Sharks like this go down below and hit the subscribe button because we're going to be here every day talking about the Sharks and tonight we're going to be doing a watch along here on the channel for the Buffalo Sabres game so go down below hit the subscribe button put the notifications on so you know when we do go live tonight and when we go live with new videos so here's where I land I think Stenberg Celebrini and Smith is probably the most dangerous line the Sharks have had in years having three top four picks in a line three guys that are just offensive juggernauts it's only going to be a recipe for success and they're going to tear apart Buffalo tonight and I really believe in Dickinson and Kesselring together I really think that they're going to really help each other become better players and I we need Dickinson to have a good year and I think he's been solid so far this season and I think just moving him onto a new line with the younger guy and Kessinger will really help him you know get some more chemistry with his D partner and these guys will just have a great rest of the season for us and we find out quickly Buffalo tonight Vancouver on Thursday Ottawa on Saturday Calgary on Monday then a trip to Los Angeles on November the 4th five games and nine games and four of them are at home and the real story of this video is that practice actually matters being actually being able to switch up the lines in a practice get to see how it will be just you know obviously on a scrimmage against teammates is very valuable and we're seeing that Ryan Worsowskiseen something out there yesterday and he was like yeah let's make this change and let's go into buffalo test it out or go into our link to go into the game against buffalo at home returning from the road trip and let's let's try to go out and make it work and see if it can get us a win obviously this is a small sample size here obviously we only seen them together in one practice so far but if Stenberg and dickinson can really lock in and take that next step the sharks won't be a six five and one team for very long so i want to know your guys thoughts What do you think down below in the comment section? Let me know what you think about Stenberg moving to the top line. What do you think about the Dickinson and Kessinger line? Love to hear from you guys down below in the comments. And that is it for another episode of Sharks Digest. If you enjoyed, go down below, hit that subscribe button. It's completely free to do so. Like I said, we will be live with a watch along tonight. Hope to see you guys there. As always, I've been your host, KC. Keep your stick on the ice.