All the buzz surrounding the Silvertips this week has surrounded Nikita Scherbak, and with good reason as the 19-year-old winger acquired from Saskatoon is expected to give Everett’s offense a big boost.
But the Tips hold the rights to another 19-year-old European who’s a first-round NHL draft pick, defenseman Mirco Mueller. What’s going on with him?
Mueller, who was taken 18th overall in the 2013 NHL draft by the San Jose Sharks, has been considered a candidate to play for the Sharks at 19 since before Everett’s training camp began in August. The two-year veteran from Switzerland bypassed Everett’s training camp and preseason, instead electing to head straight to camp with the Sharks.
Where do things stand with Mueller and the Sharks now? San Jose had another round of cuts Monday, and Mueller is still there. The Sharks are down to nine defensemen, so they’ve just about reached their opening-night total, and Mueller is right in the mix for making the team. It’s unclear whether the Sharks will keep seven or eight d-men to start the season.
What do the preseason games suggest? The Sharks played Los Angeles on Tuesday, and Mueller was second on the team in ice time at 21:19. He saw time on both the power play and the penalty kill, but finished a minus-2 in San Jose’s 4-1 defeat. Here’s what one first-hand witness had to say:
19 y/o Mirco Mueller (cough cough, fellow @WHLsilvertips alum cough cough) getting looks in all situations. Looks fine. 7:37 TOI in 1P.
— Jon Rosen (@lakingsinsider) October 1, 2014
If Mueller makes the Sharks’ opening-night roster — San Jose opens next Wednesday at L.A. — it doesn’t mean he’s gone for good. He can play in nine regular season games before his rookie contract kicks in. Even after that he can still be sent back, but once a year of a player’s contract is burned teams become reluctant to reassign him to juniors.
But because he’s 19 and was drafted from the WHL, Mueller has just two options of where to play this season: He either sticks with the Sharks, or he has to be returned to Everett.
If Mueller is returned to Everett, then the Tips have a conundrum. When the Tips traded for Scherbak, it filled Everett’s two European roster slots (center Ivan Nikolishin is the other). Mueller being sent back would give Everett three, one more than allowed, so one would have to be traded.
Who would go? That’s hard to say. But considering Scherbak was acquired to address the team’s biggest need, which is offense, it’s hard to see the Tips parting with either Scherbak or Nikolishin, who is the team’s leading returning scorer. So one has to think trading Mueller would be a serious possibility.
That would present an interesting scenario. On the one hand, most teams have their Euro situation settled, so it would be difficult to find a team with roster space. On the other hand, experienced first-pairing defensemen like Mueller are perhaps the most sought-after commodity in the league. And an odd situation in Swift Current, where star Finnish defenseman Julius Honka isn’t returning under controversial circumstances, leaves the Broncos perhaps in the market for a player of Mueller’s exact description. It’s possible Everett could get quite a return for Mueller, perhaps even recouping the draft picks it surrendered to get Scherbak.
But it’s all moot as long as Mueller is still in San Jose, and as things currently stand that may be the way it remains for good.
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