Just how bad have the San Jose Sharks been this year?

Tyler Yaremchuk: Yesterday, I asked Matt Larkin on the show, are we going to have all the undefeated teams lose first, or the San Jose Sharks pick up a win? It’s actually hard to look at the Sharks’ schedule and say, ‘Oh, they can pick up two points.’ They are very, very, very bad. They’re being outshot every 60 minutes at 5v5 34-23.9; that’s just terrible. 

Frank Seravalli: That’s tough. Then you see them lose Thursday night to Tampa 6-0. There’s tanking,  and then there’s just really bad teams. The crazy thing about the Sharks is they actually still have some really high-priced players that are filling out their cap and for the next while, too. Logan Couture has been hurt to start the year, but Tomas Hertl, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, it just feels like the whole group has collapsed. I think the Sharks are going to be historically bad; like can they even get to 20 wins this year? It’s a legitimate question at this point. 

Tyler Yaremchuk: If I said the over/under at 20.5 wins, they’re almost playing in what’s going to be the tightest division.

Frank Seravalli: It is the toughest division. I thought the Sharks just might be a bit better this year than the Anaheim Ducks. Just because they added some veterans, added Jan Rutta, added Anthony Duclair, and I’m thinking, ‘what’s the cohesive plan here? How are you dismantling it?’ they have to dismantle this group cap-wise, which is already now at the bottom. Like how do you do that? 

Tyler Yaremchuk: Well, with Vlasic, you’re just waiting for the contract to run out; you can’t move that one. But Couture, can you keep half of it and find a new home for him?

Frank Seravalli: At some point, the question is going to be when does he or Hertl go in there and ask Mike Grier, “We got to change something; we can’t keep playing like this”. One year before they traded Timo Meier, I said it then: the Sharks weren’t good. They had three or four seasons under their belt of being in the lottery range. If you’re Hertl, why would you sign eight years knowing you could’ve got the same money elsewhere and been in a better situation? 

You can watch the full episode here…