If this was Sam Dickinson’s last game at the Junior Hockey, the defense of the San Jose Sharks prospect helped ensure that he and his team went to the top.
Dickinson had three assists, including two in a second dominant period, to take London’s knights to a 4-1 victory over the Medicine Hat Tigers in the final of the Memorial Cup Junior Hockey Championship Tournament.
Dickinson, task 11 in general for sharks in the NHL 2024 Draft in Las Vegas, had six assists in five memorial cup games and was a selection of all tournaments, since he and his teammates obtained redemption after losing in the final for a goal against Sagnowew.
“It’s my family. These guys are my brothers,” Dickinson told journalists later. “We have one leg together, for me, three years, some types four years together. It seems that it is a perfect ending for this group. It is (how) it should have come out.”
Dickinson probably had a strong case to be the MVP of the Memorial Cup, but that honor was for the Knights striker and Toronto Maple Leafs Easton Cowan.
But the gentlemen were deep, and Dickinson’s teammate and his fellow Sharks prospects, Kasper Haltunen, had two goals and two assists in five games in the Memorial Cup.
Halttunen, born in Finland, selected 36 in general by sharks in 2023, was appointed MVP of playoffs of the Ontario Hockey League this year, since he had 21 points, including 15 goals, in 17 games after the postcard to help Winsk in London. Halttunen had nine goals in five games in the victory of the London Ohl championship series over Generals Oshawa.
“That is his game. He scores great goals. He has always done it for us,” Dickinson said on Halt Tuning. “It’s so exciting that I have such a guy to play with which to play for much longer.”
Halttunen, who turns 20 on June 7, will undoubtedly be in San José next season, either with sharks or AHL with the barracuda.
Dickinson, he thought, will play next season with sharks or return to London for another year at OHL, as he turns 19 on June 7. The Canadian player or born in the United States came from an important junior hockey that needs less old in December. 31 In any year given to be eligible to play at AHL.
Dickinson, he thought, seems to be ready to start his career at the NHL.
Dickinson, which appears in a robust of 6 feet 3 and 210 pounds, played in the best defense couple in London and was used in all situations when the knights crossed the OHL in the regular season and the playoffs.
“Don’t worry. Turn on your TV next year, he will play for the San Jose Sharks,” said TSN hockey analyst Craig Button on the network after Sunday’s game. “I have no doubt about that. He is so good. It’s so advanced.”
Dickinson, the OHL Year defender, is an elite skater with tremendous offensive skills, having registered 91 points in 55 regular seasonal games and 31 points in 17 OHL playoff games with a deep team in London,
“I think (Dickinson is) the nearest player I have seen in this NHL tournament,” said former NHL goalkeeper Marc Denis, an analyst at the French-Canadian sports network RDS, in Bradcast in Sunday TSN. “And the use of a defense is in the attack, constantly like him, you think it is a free spirit, right? A lone wolf. He is so mature in his game, says the right things, does the right things, and that is important for a defender.
“It has an intermittent green light, I have said the whole tournament. But it is really intelligent.”
Sharks have six defenders signed with unidirectional contracts for the next season, including Shakir Mukhamadullin, who was signed at a one -year agreement and $ 1 million last week.
Other signed include Marc-Douard Vlasic, Mario Ferraro, Henry Thrun, Timothy Liljegren and Vincent Descharnais. Other defenders such as Luca Cagnoni, Jack Thompson and Lucas Carlsson also saw some time with sharks this season.
Even so, nobody among the shark blueliners picture has the same combination of size and offensive skill as Dickinson, who probably needs to demonstrate that he can be a defender capable of helping the NHL list. Sharks will probably begin the season with seven defenders or Deight.
Althegh Dickinson has another year of electility in the Junior hockey, TSN analyst Frankie Corrado, who had a seven -year professional career, Dering said: “I’m not sure you will go next.
“We knew that when he arrived this year it was last year of many boys. So he was actually a last dance son of things,” Dickinson said. “We knew that this was a child of the end for the nucleus we have built for three years. Therefore, it is incredible to finish it like this.”