On NHL Draft Night, The San Jose Sharks Had Plenty of Options, But They Wanted Laila Edwards

The San Jose Sharks didn't expect to be picking second at the 2026 NHL Draft.

They expected to be around number nine, which meant they hadn't given much thought to who would announce their pick. Then, the Sharks moved up.

Suddenly, they had the second overall selection and a chance to do something a little different.

The league had already established a tradition of having a recognizable name announce some of the top picks. When the Sharks knew they would be selecting early, they started kicking around ideas.

Macklin Celebrini came up in conversation. So did Patrick Marleau. The Sharks even considered bringing in a Bay Area musical artist.

There was logic to all of them. Celebrini was the organization's most recent first overall pick and just had a record-setting sophomore campaign. Marleau remains one of the most important players in franchise history. A local artist would have connected the draft to the broader Bay Area sports and entertainment scene.

But none of those ideas quite felt right.

Then someone at the brainstorming session had another idea: “Duh, why don’t we ask Laila?”

Laila Edwards had just been selected fourth overall by PWHL San Jose, as their first draft pick in franchise history. She was one of the biggest names in women's hockey and was about to begin her professional career in the Bay Area.

For the Sharks, she also felt like the kind of choice that fit the moment.

“Those [other ideas] felt not disruptive enough, and one of our mantras is we like to try things other clubs wouldn’t necessarily do,” said Jonathan Becher, President of Sharks Sports & Entertainment, to The Hockey News, about the names on the board before the suggestion of Edwards was made.

Edwards certainly qualified.

She was not a former Shark. She wasn't a traditional celebrity brought in to create a moment. She was a young hockey player who had just been drafted by the new professional women's team in San Jose, and if you ask Becher, he believes her profile is only going to grow.

“She’s going to be the face of the Bay, she might eventually end up more famous than Macklin one day.”

That was enough for the Sharks to make the call.

The request went out that afternoon. Edwards wasn't convinced it was real.

“She was like there’s no way you’re asking me this and thought we were punking her,” said Becher as he recalled the conversation his team had with the Bay’s newest hockey star.

Regardless, she agreed to announce San Jose's second overall pick. Then, after doing it, Edwards asked if she could stay and announce the Sharks' next selection, too. So Edwards announced both.

The decision also gave San Jose a chance to connect two of the city's hockey worlds without making the moment feel forced. Edwards was there because she was a rising Bay Area sports figure, not simply because she played for the PWHL.

The Sharks had been looking for something that felt a little less predictable.

They found it in a player who was about to start a new chapter of her own in San Jose.

The best part came when Edwards actually walked onto the stage.

Becher was recording the moment at SAP Center when two people started hitting him on the head.

He didn't understand why at first, as the Sharks hadn't even announced their pick yet.

“I was like ‘you don’t know who we’re picking yet’ and they were like ‘no, we’re excited about who’s doing the picking’,” said Becher about the excitement in the Tank as Edwards came on the screen.

The crowd wasn't waiting to see which prospect the Sharks would select. It was already reacting to Edwards.

That was the moment the organization knew it had made the right call.

The Sharks could have gone with the obvious choice. They could have leaned on a franchise legend or their young star. 

Instead, they put Laila Edwards on the stage. And before the Sharks announced a single pick, SAP Center had already given her a pretty loud welcome.