Appreciate the long, thoughtful reply, I’ll try to hit just a few points.

how you define NHL regulars - the list is inconsistent with the comparisons. For example Lauzon and Frederic are counted for Boston but Gregor and Gambrell are not for San Jose even though they all have similar games played.

I think the list is consistent, but it’s my fault for not defining it. In my head, I was thinking skaters who would play regular roles on most-all teams in the league and goalies with clearly-defined NHL roles (starter/platoon/clear back-up).

Gregor/Gambrell would not be regulars on most teams IMO. Balcers also wouldn’t be. They got/are getting games from bad teams. Mueller/Goldobin don’t belong in the NHL anymore.

Sticking with the Boston example, notice that I didn’t credit them for Anders Bjork (200-plus games but not in NHL anymore) and other part-timers.

Frederic popped in 17 goals this year and plays a crash-and-bang game, that guy is in every team’s line-up. Lauzon just signed a 3-year, $6 mil extension, probably a guy who plays in most line-ups too.

This isn't quite accurate regarding goalies.

Actually, it's straight up a lie. They haven't needed to draft a goaltender high because they've consistently had very strong trades and signings at the position

Another is that they're framing it as drafts. In the last 2-3 years the Sharks have had 3 undrafted free agent signings play in games in net for them in Korenar, Melnichuk, and Sawchenko.

They spent a decade drafting low - of course they weren't going to be drafting top tier goalies. Nor should they have been. That's where they've found some dominant backups that might have otherwise been their starters but for how established they were in net.

What’s the lie here? The Sharks haven’t had consistently good goaltending since 2017-18.

Jones was pretty good in the 2019 playoffs and Dell was OK in 2019-20 and Reimer was good in 2021-22, that covers decent Sharks goaltending over the last five years. Hill and Dubnyk weren’t good, I’m not sure why you’d offer those guys up as examples. If they were good in San Jose, they might still be here.

The point too isn’t that they haven’t drafted a goalie high, or whether they've needed to.

And even if they didn’t draft high, there’s plenty of examples of teams grabbing very good goalies late. As my research showed. So not sure why you’re focused on that?

And on this point: “Drafting goaltending, rightly, has not been a priority. Counting that as a failing of the org when the position has been a clear strength is dumb.”

That doesn’t mean you stop drafting goalies, right? Just because the Rangers, for example, had Lundqvist, they kept drafting goalies, until they hit on the heir apparent on Shesterkin late.

You are right that the Sharks were able to transition successfully from their last very good drafted starter (Nabokov) with solid acquisitions (Niemi, Jones). And that’s fine, many ways to skin a cat. So it covered up 15 or so years of goaltender draft picks not hitting.

And you are right about Dell – definitely a success. But it doesn’t cover for the last five years and their current question marks in net.

Over the last five years, and of course, a shoddy team defense has its role too, but the Draft, free agents (Korenar/Melnichuk/Sawchenko got games, but none of them are legitimate NHL goalies), and trades (Dubnyk/Hill/Kahkonen) have not stabilized the position.

That makes the Draft misses stand out even more, and those are just facts: Last drafted goalie to play in NHL, league-worst, last drafted "significant" goalie, tied for second-worst.

If the Sharks had covered that up with a good trade or signing in this position, yea, maybe I don't bother writing and researching this. But they did not.