The honeymoon phase for the young Sharks core is over
It’s rare when an NHL team can miss the playoffs, and still leave the season with their fanbase extremely pleased. That’s the position the San Jose Sharks find themselves in, as their 86 points this year put them four points back of the second wild card spot in the Western Conference, but was their best point total since the 2018-19 season. Their young crop of forwards, led by Macklin Celebrini coming off a 115-point campaign, only implies continued improvement and growth for San Jose in the coming years.
While the Sharks are certainly a stock with their arrow pointing up, there’s still no guarantee they’ll find the success they desire unless they shore up their weaknesses. San Jose finished with -41 goal differential this season, and their 3.54 goals allowed per game was 30th in the league. This team will need to take strides defensively in order to make the postseason for the first time since 2019.
On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed what the Sharks need to become true contenders.
Tyler Yaremchuk: There were a lot of really good stories for this San Jose team this year, but now you’re moving out of the feel-good area. If you’re (general manager) Mike Grier, there’s a little bit of pressure on you to really give this team the jolt that it needs to hopefully compete in the Pacific Division next year. They have $41.5 million in cap space with 17 players on their roster. They can spend whatever the hell they want to this summer, and I think the focus for the Sharks, Hutts, it’s not exactly a hot take, they need to find some blueliners. It’s just a matter of, do they go and get some easier-to-acquire veterans, which is kind of what they did a year ago? They traded for Nick Leddy, which was just a cap dump. They signed guys like John Klingberg, they threw a pile of money at (Dmitry) Orlov. Do they keep going down that path, or do they try to find their version of the Noah Dobson trade?
Carter Hutton: I think that is where they’ve got to exercise every option they have. You look at their back end, you look at Dmitry Orlov having one year left, and Sam Dickinson kind of being the two staples coming back. Everyone else being a UFA and trying to figure out what you do in that situation, so the options are there for them to make a move. Is it to trade up? Thay have a lot of picks for what they can find to make that adjustment. For me, I think the window of getting the free pass is coming to an end now. I felt this way with this team, even when they were struggling two years ago, we’re like “Ah, it’s just San Jose, they’re having fun, they’re cute, they’re going to get there.” Now I feel like the pressure’s starting to mount, expectations are there, and I think that’s going to change realistically where this team goes.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Thursday’s episode here…