SAN JOSE — As the NHL evolves at a breakneck pace, the floodgates are opening for smaller, faster players, such as Sharks prospect Danny O’Regan, a frontrunner to land a spot on the team’s roster in training camp this fall.

In generations past, a player of O’Regan’s stature — 5-foot-9, 175 pounds — would have struggled to get noticed in a league dominated by clutching, grabbing and beefy farm-bred defensemen, obstacles his father, Tom O’Regan, confronted in the1980s while suiting up for 61 NHL games with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

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Sharks reach agreement with depth centerman on two-year deal But as Danny O’Regan prepares to launch his NHL career after winning the AHL’s rookie of the year award with the Barracuda last season, Tom O’Regan is confident that changes to the modern game will allow his son’s skill to shine through as it has recently for other undersized players, like Johnny Gaudreau of the Calgary Flames, Tyler Johnson of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Cam Atkinson of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

“It’s great timing for Danny. Not too long ago, none of those guys would have even gotten a chance. The rules of the game have changed, and those types of players are getting a lot more freedom to go out and play a skilled game,” said Tom O’Regan, who collected 17 points over parts of three NHL seasons from 1983 to 1986.

“The style of hockey was very different when I played. You couldn’t skate. Holding was absolutely permissible. Cross checking was okay. Hooking wasn’t called. There was very little room to maneuver. It was a totally different game, and I wasn’t quite suited for that style.”

After spending three years shuffling in between the AHL and the NHL, Tom O’Regan decided to continue his pro hockey career on the wide-open ice surface in Europe, where he spent 11 seasons playing in the top German league starting in 1987-88.

Danny O’Regan, 23, was born in Germany while his father was playing for Berlin Preussen during the 1993-94 season, and like most children of pro hockey players, he grew up at the rink with skates on his feet and a stick in his hand.

But O’Regan’s most valuable hockey lessons were learned on the couch, watching the NHL on TV with his father. Tom O’Regan wasn’t the type of parent who liked to meddle in his kids’ coaching at the rink, but at home, he enjoyed teaching the finer points of the game — body positioning, angles, puck management — with his sons, and Danny soaked up the knowledge.

“Especially at a young age, I wasn’t going to notice those things,” Danny O’Regan said earlier this year. “I do get labeled with having a high hockey IQ, and I think that comes from my Dad.”

O’Regan’s education was on clear display when he followed his father’s footsteps to Boston University where he collected more points (154) during his four-year college career from 2012 to 2016 than any other player in NCAA hockey.

At Boston University, O’Regan also led his team in scoring as a freshman (38 points in 39 games), finished 13th in the nation in points per game as a junior (1.22) and graduated as the school’s all-time leading goal scorer (66), making the O’Regans the first father-son duo in the history of NCAA hockey to each record at least 50 goals during their college careers.

“They both had great offensive skills, but I think their biggest asset was that they both had great-skating ability,” said U.S. Hockey Hall of Famer Jack Parker, who coached both Tom and Danny O’Regan at Boston University. “You could see their similarities in the skating.

O’Regan’s hockey IQ is what inspired the Sharks to take a flyer on him in the fifth round of the 2012 NHL Draft, despite his limited stature.

“Smart players can figure out a way amongst bigger players,” Barracuda general manager Joe Will said earlier this year. “We also saw bloodlines. He’s a lot like his father and his father played during the era when it was a lot of larger bodies with more extracurricular things going on, and he thrived in that.”

The Sharks’ prescience is already paying off. O’Regan finished 12th in the AHL in scoring as a rookie last year, notching 58 points in 63 games, and the organization expects him to compete for a spot on the parent club in training camp this fall.

In the wake of Patrick Marleau’s departure to the Toronto Maple Leafs in free agency last week, the Sharks will be depending on their young players, such as O’Regan, to step up and fill the void. The organization believes O’Regan has to potential to play a role similar to that of Jake Guentzel with the Pittsburgh Penguins, who tied the NHL rookie record for points (21) in one Stanley Cup playoff season this spring.

“I honestly don’t remember the last guy to do what he did in the American League as a rookie,” Sharks director of hockey operations Doug Wilson Jr. said. “The opportunity is there for him.”