Morehouse: How do the Sharks scout Russian players? What does “best available player” mean? Draft mistakes? (+)

Believe it or not, director of amateur scouting Chris Morehouse hopes the day will come when the San Jose Sharks will be able to trade draft picks.

“My job is to execute Mike Grier's plan with the Sharks,” Morehouse told NHL.com's Adam Kimmelman and Mike Morreale in an insightful interview early last week, “laying that foundation and getting to a point where Mike can start trading all of our picks.”

Essentially, the takeaway is that after five years away from the playoffs, San Jose is putting their future on the line to win now and do it again.

“I wish we didn’t trade everybody every year,” Morehouse told San Jose Hockey Now with a laugh, “but if we get to that stage and we can get to that stage; [scouting] The staff also made a big contribution.”

SJHN caught up with Morehouse at the Scouting Combine in Buffalo last week.

Morehouse was understandably coy about the San Jose Sharks' specific plans for the 2024 draft, but he did offer some insight into how they will approach the “Russia factor” in the coming weeks, whether they will draft based on positional need, whether they will select the best player available and why combine interviews are valuable.

They also discuss the moment when, to quote “Arrested Development,” Scout realizes, “I've made a huge mistake.”