In the salary cap era, and with fewer and fewer top players ever reaching unrestricted free agency, the conventional wisdom in the NHL these days is that you have to build your team through the draft in order to have success.



But it’s far from the only factor, and the Sharks — who haven’t drafted a single mid or post-season All-Star in more than a decade — have shown that there are other ways to put together a competitive roster almost every season, missing the playoffs just once during general manager Doug Wilson’s 14-season tenure.



The draft is still crucial, of course, and the Sharks have a number of players on their current team that were selected by the club in recent years, including 2012 first-rounder Tomas Hertl and second-rounder Chris Tierney. But they have had real trouble finding top-end talent in the early rounds in the years surrounding that one, including a pair of brutal first-round decisions in 2013 and 2014, and...