It’s probably not totally fair to Mike Grier to call the 2022 NHL Draft his first, though that’s also not to say he was unprepared. For a squad only fully assembled in the preceding days (not to mention dealing with an unexpected tragedy), the San Jose Sharks front office performed like a well-oiled machine.
However, it’s worth keeping in mind that this was still a draft that was largely strategized without a permanent general manager in place. The picks were not made with the confident swings of the Doug Wilson era, and the much-more conservative draft than usual will likely produce steady results of forgettable role-players.