Those of you familiar with my work at my previous place of employment know that I like to chime in from time to time with 10 observations about the Sharks that I may not have time to elaborate on during the hustle and bustle of the season.

I’ll be bringing these pieces with me to The Athletic Bay Area, for a few reasons — they always seem to generate good discussion, I enjoy writing them, and now, in this new role, I’ll have more time to put them together.

Here are 10 observations on Sharks training camp so far, with the start of the regular season now just eight short days away …

1 — There weren’t any surprises on Sunday when the Sharks made their first significant round of cuts.

Frankly, I don’t believe there are many spots to be won on what is a mostly veteran roster that hasn’t changed much from last season. The seventh defenseman still has to be determined, and perhaps there is a young forward that can push an established guy like Joel Ward out of the top 12, but the Sharks’ opening night roster looks pretty much set to me.

Keep in mind, too, that the Sharks can kick the can on some decisions due to the Barracuda being next door. The Sharks begin the season with a five-game homestand, so if they need an extra defenseman at some point, they can simply recall one from the Barracuda.

If it’s a lefty you need, it looks like Joakim Ryan — who looked comfortable with Brent Burns on Thursday night — would be the guy. If it’s a righty, Tim Heed can fill in. They may not even need a 13th forward right away, either, until they leave for a five-game East Coast road trip on Oct. 18. (For what it’s worth, I have Ryan Carpenter penciled in at that 13th spot at the moment, behind guys like Ward, Marcus Sorensen and Timo Meier, but ahead of the other forwards in the system like Kevin Labanc and Danny O’Regan.)

2 — You never want to read too much into preseason results, but it’s a good sign that the Sharks’ young players have looked hungry through the first three games. Coach Pete DeBoer — never one to shy away from criticizing players that aren’t yet established — agreed with that suggestion after Thursday’s 5-2 win over Vegas.

“Absolutely, yeah. There’s a lot of competition for a job here,” DeBoer said. “Every game, guys are making a statement and trying to earn one of those jobs. We’re still early in the process, but you can definitely see some guys starting to separate themselves.”

We’ll get a better idea as to which up-and-comers DeBoer is impressed with as camp goes on, but to me, Sorensen, Meier, Labanc and Ryan have stood out so far. Meier is a lock to make the team. Sorensen is a near-lock, too, I believe. Labanc and Ryan could potentially be the 13th forward and seventh defenseman, respectively.

3 — All that said, I would tap the breaks a bit on the Sharks’ crop of young players. While there are a handful of guys that had strong years in the AHL last season like O’Regan, Ryan and Heed, I’m not sure there are many players in the Sharks system other than Meier that truly have high-end potential. One pro scout recently told me, ”there’s not much there for me.”

Annual prospect rankings lists aren’t so sanguine on the Sharks system, either. In one of his pieces for ESPN, Corey Pronman, now writing for The Athletic, had the Sharks at 30th overall. Another site, Dobber Prospects, had the Sharks at 29th overall. (It’s worth noting that neither site counted Meier or Labanc, as they played too many games at the NHL level last season to be considered a prospect.)

It’s one thing for players to thrive in the minor leagues, but it’s another thing entirely to be able to carry that over into the NHL. Right now, it could be Meier and a bunch of potential role players at best, and even Meier is still no sure thing.

It’s easy to recall, too, that the last time the Sharks had a quiet offseason that forced them to integrate young players was 2014-15, and the result was the team giving NHL jobs to guys that simply weren’t deserving of them like Barclay Goodrow, Mirco Mueller, James Sheppard and Matt Tennyson. It was the team’s only season of not making the playoffs in the last 13.

Is the Sharks’ current group of prospects any better than that group? Maybe. Maybe not.

4 — Still, one player that I think tends to get overlooked a bit (at least judging from social media) is Sorensen. At 25 he’s not a young guy anymore, and he looks like he’s taken his game to a different level in camp. One NHL scout told me he was particularly impressed with how Sorensen plays away from the puck, which is something that a guy like Labanc, for example, still seems to be figuring out.

I’d be surprised if Sorensen isn’t in against the Flyers on Oct. 4, and I think there’s a chance he could work his way up the lineup during the season. I’d like to see him get a look on the Tomas Hertl-Meier line before camp is over, because I think he could be a better fit than Melker Karlsson, who has been there since camp opened.

5 — It’s always interesting to me who is in the NHL dressing room at the start of camp and who has to dress with the minor-league guys. The fringe players that were in the Sharks room last week included Goodrow, Labanc, John McCarthy, Brandon Bollig and Brandon Mashinter.

Two things are notable there — first, Meier and Sorensen don’t yet have stalls in the big room despite skating among the top 12 in camp, while Labanc, who is pushing for a spot, does. (The others are likely in the room as a sign of respect for being among the more veteran-types.) Secondly, there are only six defensemen. That includes Dylan DeMelo, of course, who is essentially a lock to start the season on the third pair with Brenden Dillon as David Schlemko’s replacement.

6 — All eyes will be on Joe Thornton when he first takes to the ice for a preseason game. It sounds like that won’t be Thursday in Anaheim, as Thornton told me last week he’d probably play in the Sharks’ final preseason home game on Saturday against Arizona. “One (preseason] game is enough,” he said.

In an ideal world, you’d probably like to see Thornton play in more than one game before the opener, as he’s coming off of a major knee repair. Still, Thornton has been a full participant in training camp, and remarked that last Thursday’s Sharks practice was actually “harder than a game.”

No question he’ll be in there against the Flyers on Oct. 4.

7 — Now that the Sharks are down to one group after Sunday’s cuts, perhaps we’ll get a better idea of just what DeBoer and his new staff have in mind for the power play this week, coming off of its miserable 2016-17 when it was 25th in the NHL.

There is a vacancy on the top unit, of course, with Patrick Marleau gone. I’d guess that Hertl is the most likely replacement for Marleau, if the coaches decide to keep everything else status quo.

But I wouldn’t be surprised if they took a different approach, either, and somehow split up Thornton, Burns, Joe Pavelski and Logan Couture. One NHL analyst I was speaking with last season suggested that the Sharks try out two more balanced units to create some internal competition. Whichever unit is having more success is the one that gets on the ice first. If that means a guy like Thornton or Pavelski is not on the top unit, so be it.

DeBoer has shown he’ll hold struggling players accountable, but for whatever reason he didn’t do that last year when it came to the power play. The lack of willingness to try something new was inexplicable. I can’t imagine he’ll have that kind of patience this year if it gets off to a rocky start.

8 — Analyzing goalies is always a complicated task. Even with the benefit of slow-motion replays, it’s not always clear how certain goals went in until you ask the goalie what happened after the game.

I’ve seen numerous suggestions that Martin Jones didn’t have a great season last year based on his save percentage. Among goalies that played at least 50 games in 2016-17, Jones’ save percentage was 18th in the NHL at .912.

But Thursday’s preseason game against Vegas was the perfect example of why judging Jones on his save percentage alone is flawed. Vegas had just three shots on goal well into the second period, but the first shot just over a minute into the game required Jones to dive from his right to his left to prevent a goal; and early in the second, he denied David Perron on a breakaway on Vegas’ third shot, keeping the game scoreless.

Labanc tallied a power play goal shortly after Perron was stopped, and the Sharks went on to a 5-2 win. Jones went the distance, allowing two goals on 17 shots for an .882 save percentage.

Throughout the year last year, like in the Vegas game, Jones made key saves at key times whether they were early or late. In my mind, he’s the most important player on this Sharks roster, other than maybe Burns or Marc-Edouard Vlasic.

9 — It’s going to be very interesting to see how Mueller plays on the Devils this year. New Jersey clearly believes in him, giving the Sharks second- and fourth-round picks and then signing Mueller to a two-year, one-way contract. He’ll almost certainly make the team out of camp, as he would need to clear waivers to be reassigned to the minors. No way the Devils gave up what they did only to see him get claimed by another club.

Speaking with someone in New Jersey on Monday, I was told that so far Mueller looks very good and has been one of their better defensemen. He’s even managed to score a goal in each of his first two preseason games.

The question from the Sharks perspective is simple — did the team mishandle Mueller, rushing him to the league and thereby messing with his head? Or is he not good enough to thrive in the NHL? The answer probably lies somewhere in between. It might take a couple more years to figure it out, but so far, it sounds like Mueller is off to a good start with the Devils.

10 — Some recent developments regarding former Sharks fan favorites, as Jason Demers was traded to Arizona from Florida for Jamie McGinn on Sept. 17. I consider Demers to be a little overpaid at nearly $4 million a year for four more years, but I’m still a little surprised that all it took to get him from Florida was McGinn, who had just nine goals and 17 points in 72 games last season.

I’d keep an eye on Arizona, as Demers joins an already solid blue line in front of new starting goalie Antti Raanta (the Coyotes also added Niklas Hjalmarsson from Chicago in the offseason). If you’re looking for a dark horse team to challenge for a playoff spot, Arizona might be a decent choice.

Another player that used to wear teal is goalie Alex Stalock, who looks like he could secure the backup goalie spot behind Devan Dubnyk on a very good Minnesota team. Stalock, as popular a guy as there was in the Sharks dressing room when he was traded to Toronto on Feb. 27, 2016, looked like he was finished in the NHL at the time of the deal. Here’s a nice piece from The Athletic’s Michael Russo on his resurgence.

And finally … My colleague Craig Custance pointed out on Twitter recently how the comment section here at The Athletic has been civil and thoughtful. As anyone on social media knows, that’s not always the case.

Agree or disagree with anything I’ve written above? Let’s chat about it. I’ll be diving into the comments section frequently, and engaging in a well-informed give-and-take is just as enjoyable for me as I hope it is for you.

Fire away!

— Reported from San Jose

(Top photo: Rocky W. Widner/Getty Images)