The San Jose Sharks Found Their General Manager In Mike Grier
By Jim Lynch
The San Jose Sharks have their new general manager. The team announced on Tuesday that they have hired Mike Grier, a former Shark, to be the next general manager in the franchise history.
This is a big announcement in the NHL as Grier will be the first Black man in NHL history to hold the position of general manager. Grier has plenty of experience and is going to be tasked with turning around the San Jose Sharks.
Grier played for 14 seasons in the NHL for the San Jose Sharks, Edmonton Oilers, Buffalo Sabres and Washington Capitals. The former forward was drafted in the ninth round of the 1993 NHL draft by the St. Louis Blues. Not many ninth-round picks play for over 1000 games, but Grier did. He also played in over 100 playoff games but he never won the Stanley Cup.
Another cool piece of this hiring has to be that Grier is not even the first in his family to serve as a General Manager of a major team. His brother, Chris Grier, is the general manager of the Miami Dolphins and has been since 2016. That experience to be able to lean on is definitely going to benefit the San Jose Sharks.
San Jose has nine picks at the upcoming NHL Draft including their first-round pick which will be 11th overall. Grier might have just been hired, but one would expect he has an idea of who he wants to take with the team’s first-rounder at 11th overall.
The draft is in just a couple of days so Grier does not have a lot of time to settle into this position as GM. He also has plenty of work to do this offseason with players like Alexander Chmelevski, Jonathan Dahlen, Noah Gregor, and Nicolas Meloche all looking for extensions. He also has some work to do with the goalie situation and a Martin Jones buyout on the books through the 2026-27 season.
The Sharks might not be in the best position in the league, but with a new general manager, hopefully, they will be able to round the corner and become a top team after a rebuild with Grier.