Picture this scene, if you will.
Your hockey team just scored a goal and got a power play. They are working their way back into a game against their biggest rival that they have no business being close in. Another goal, and the momentum will completely shift in their favor. Then, for some inexplicable reason, their goaltender comes out of the crease to get the puck, completely whiffs on the play, and ends up being closer to the blue line than the net as the opponent picks up as easy a shorthanded goal as you can imagine.
In a single boneheaded moment, Vitek Vanecek summed up the 2024-25 season for the San Jose Sharks.
You may remember that I talked about the Sharks around this time last season. When that article was made, that rendition of the Sharks had just given up ten goals in back-to back games and looked dead set on flirting with the status of being the worst team in NHL history. While this year’s version has done nothing quite that egregious yet, they have succeeded in completing a piece of dubious history themselves. After Saturday’s loss to the Vegas Golden Knights, the Sharks have become the first team in NHL history to lose nine straight games to start back-to-back years.
While last year’s Sharks team ultimately avoided breaking the wrong type of records (hi, Chicago White Sox), they were still horrifically overmatched by almost every team in the league. They predictably finished dead last and placed at or near the bottom of the league in every possible metric. When analytics, basic statistics, and even the eye test unanimously condemn a team’s performance, that’s a telling sign things could potentially get worse before they get better.
The lost season resulted in the Sharks once again having to sell at the deadline. For the most part, it was basic fare: Anthony Duclair going as a mid-season rental to Tampa Bay, Kaapo Kahkonen moving to goalie-starved New Jersey, Radim Simek getting swapped for Klim Kostin. Solid, if unspectacular. Then came the eleventh hour of deadline day, where the Sharks pulled arguably the most shocking deal in recent memory: Tomas Hertl was sent off to Vegas. Outside of the obvious issue of sending one of their best players to their nemesis, the trade came with a litany of issues for the Sharks. The Sharks used their final salary retention spot on Hertl (the others were used on Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson), meaning the Sharks can no longer retain salary in a deal until the end of this season. Even after retaining salary, the Sharks still had to add in a pair of third-round picks as sweeteners. They could have prevented all of it by trading Hertl when he was a pending free agent a couple of years ago, and the fact they pulled the trigger after they signed him to a deal is a damning indictment of the Sharks’ front office.
In the offseason, the Sharks were realistic about where they were as a team. David Quinn was proven for the second time that his tactics simply do not work at the NHL level and was replaced in-house by rising assistant Ryan Warsofsky. They made a few moves like signing Tyler Toffoli and Alexander Wennberg to bolster a young core. They accepted cap dumps from other teams like Jake Walman, Cody Ceci, and the return of Barclay Goodrow. The real prizes, however, came during the draft, when the Sharks drafted Boston University forward and Hobey Baker Award winner Macklin Celebrini first overall. This man was going to be the face of their franchise, the cornerstone of their rebuilding effort. They also got top defensive prospect Sam Dickinson in the first round as well, adding to an impressive farm system. Finally, the Sharks pulled the trigger on a trade for Yaroslav Askarov, a top goaltending prospect whose path to the NHL was blocked when the Nashville Predators locked Juuse Saros into a long-term extension. The future was in place, and the expectations were that the Sharks would not be an easy out for anyone this time around.
Even those low expectations lasted all of one game. The Sharks coughed up a 4-1 lead to the St. Louis Blues and lost Celebrini to injury. Since then, it’s been similar to what last year’s Blackhawks looked like when Connor Bedard went down: lifeless, unwatchable, devoid of hope. Warsofsky has reportedly called out the team, saying their start was “embarrassing.” Askarov remains in the AHL, likely to protect him from a Swiss cheese defense that allows opposing teams to pepper the goaltenders with shots. Offensively, the only reliable sources have been Toffoli, Mikael Granlund, and William Eklund. Celebrini’s injury has put his season on pause, while fellow top prospect Will Smith has been terrible to start, failing to put up a point in seven games. The only defenseman who has been consistent is 22-year-old Jack Thompson. Sure, Sharks fans can point out that pieces of a future core are emerging, but the old adage takes precedence: you are what your record says you are.
I understand that it might be unfair ripping into a team clearly in the deep throes of a rebuild. The Sharks had no expectations for the postseason and their play so far has only cemented that. That said, the important part of the word ‘rebuild’ is build for a reason. The point of a rebuild is to identify core pieces and reinforce them with talent gradually in the hopes of yearly improvement. Progress is not going to come overnight, but it at least has to be visible in some aspects. With a similar start to the season to last year’s disastrous campaign and the same problems flaring up once again, the Sharks are once again forced to take a deep look at their roster and figure out what’s going wrong. Their postseason drought is likely going to hit six years, and it is fair to assume fans are growing restless.
At some point, something has to give. The Sharks can not expect to keep the status quo when similar problems are yielding similar results. It’s one thing to have top talent, but it’s another to hope they develop and find a spot in an optimal lineup. Throwing everything and anything at the wall and hoping it sticks is not going to cut it anymore. The Sharks need to figure something out and find anything at all that makes this season worthwhile. Otherwise, ’embarassing’ might be an understatement by the end of the season.
The Sports Nerd Speaks 