San Jose Sharks 2020 NHL Draft Profile: F Seth Jarvis

The San Jose Sharks have a slight chance of landing Seth Jarvis in the 2020 NHL Draft.

The San Jose Sharks could get lucky in this year’s draft and land 18-year-old forward Seth Jarvis. Jarvis is considered a top-15 draft prospect, however with how deep the 2020 NHL Draft class is, he could fall to the second half of the first round.

After an alright 2018-19 season with the Portland Winterhawks of the WHL in which he scored just 39 points (16 goals, 23 assists) in 61 games, Jarvis took a huge leap forward scoring 98 points (42 goals, 56 assists) in 58 games.

Strengths

Jarvis is a very good, explosive skater. He doesn’t have the greatest speed, however, he’s very quick with a great first step and acceleration.

In addition to his excellent acceleration and first step, he also has very good edge work and agility that allows him to change speeds and directions pretty quickly. This makes him hard to defend on the rush and one-on-one.

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With great balance and a strong lower body, Jarvis is hard to knock off the puck and check in general. Along with all this skating skill, Jarvis also has great vision, passing, anticipation, and hands. With his stickhandling ability, Jarvis can make moves and passes at top speed.

His hand-eye coordination and quick, soft hands allow him to score in tight by punching in a juicy rebound or making a move to deke out the opposing goalie. Jarvis is also good at redirecting shots from his teammates.

Jarvis’ stickhandling ability also allows him to change angles to create new lanes to make one of his tape-to-tape passes. Of course, doing this also takes great anticipation to know where his teammates are going to be and vision to see these lanes.

Additionally, Jarvis has a great hockey IQ as well. He knows how to use a backed up defenseman as a screen for his shot and how how to find open ice for himself.

Jarvis’ greatest offensive feature is his arsenal of shots. Every one of his shots is powerful, accurate, and comes with an impressively quick release. He has several ways he can score, whether it be from in tight or from the top of the circles.

Besides offense, Jarvis is also good defensively. He’s an aggressive forechecker that causes the opposing defense to turn over the puck.

Jarvis is also good at supporting his defense down low and can be seen on his team’s penalty kill getting into shooting and passing lanes by using his anticipation and quickness.

An underrated skill that Jarvis has is the ability to quickly move the puck up ice and start the transition for his team into the offensive zone. This helps support his defense and creates more offensive opportunities.

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Weaknesses

Jarvis’ biggest issue is his size. At just 5-foot-10 and 172 pounds, Jarvis can have issues defending down low against players that are bigger and stronger than him. With a lack of strength and size, Jarvis also has issues winning battles along the boards.

Another weakness of Jarvis is his top-end speed. It isn’t bad, but as I said earlier, he isn’t necessarily fast. If he could become a faster skater, it would really put him over the edge as a great hockey player.

San Jose Sharks Prediction

Jarvis is ranked No. 11 by NHL Central Scouting (NA Skaters) and eliteprospects.com, No. 12 by McKeen’s Hockey, No. 16 by Future Considerations, No. 18 by Consolidated Ranking, and No. 29 by ISS Hockey so I really don’t see him being drafted any later than 20.

However, there is that slight chance he does fall and if he does the Sharks should definitely eat him up. But Jarvis’ draft stock seems to be rising so this chance is getting slimmer and slimmer.

In regards to Jarvis’ potential, he projects as a top-six NHL forward. Although he’s mainly listed as a center, due to his size, he’ll most likely play wing in the NHL.

Jarvis will also probably need another year or two in the minors to bulk up a bit and clean up his game.