The BIGGEST Storylines For The 2025-26 San Jose Sharks | Development Over Everything?

The BIGGEST Storylines For The 2025-26 San Jose Sharks | Development Over Everything?

With training camp set to open this week, what are the three biggest storylines that we’ll be tracking this entire season? You’re Locked on Sharks, your daily podcast on the San Jose Sharks, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Hello, welcome to Locked On Sharks, the premier hockey podcast covering your favorite team in the Bay Area. My name is JD Young, caretaker at The Reef, also the co-host of Locked On NHL. Want to thank you for making the Locked On Sharks your first listen, proudly part of the Locked On Network. We cover your team every day. And if you want to be an everydayer, all you have to do just follow along wherever you get podcast and of course you can watch on YouTube as well. And today we’re going to be looking at the three biggest storylines I think for the San Jose Sharks this year. Uh number one being the development of the young players. Number two, Ryan Worovsky’s improvements this season, especially on special teams. And three, the veteran impacts that happened this year as the Sharks try to lift themselves off the mat and not be the worst team in the NHL for three straight seasons. So, let’s get started by uh discussing kind of the young player development. And this this is the core storyline for the Sharks this year, right? Is seeing these young players and young pieces starting to rise up and reach their potential, right? Having the best prospect pool in the NHL, that’s a great thing to do. But if they don’t become into good or great or like if if they don’t become good players, it doesn’t really matter, right? Uh like you can have an amazing prospect pool, but if the guys don’t pan out, you know, you you’ve you’ve done nothing basically. So I I think for the Sharks like the the biggest story line of course this season is how do some of these young players develop and you know guys like Melbourne and Michael Misa and Will Smith and Sam Dickinson and Eklan and Yaros Vascro etc etc like the the list goes on and on with all these young players but um we’re gonna I want to focus kind of on some of the big storylines with some of these players here as it’s all under these the player development Um and and Celerrini, you know, we’ve discussed, but uh with him throughout the offseason and you know, kind of the expectations that he has on him, but out of all the young players, he’s the guy I’m I’m honestly like the least worried about. I just expect Celibbrini to continue to do celebr it feels like he’s already ahead of of development right now and kind of head of schedule right now after his rookie season and going in as now as a 19year-old where you know you can clearly like this is celebrating his team. Uh everything kind of revolves around him. he’s the guy on the team and it’s pretty clear like going into the the season who the best player on the Sharks is and who everything kind of runs through when it comes to uh the offense etc. It’s Mlin Celerrini’s team, right? But I think the other kind of questions and developments and um Will Smith and Michael Misa, right? I’m going to kind of combine these two guys because I I think how one player plays is going to kind of affect how one player is future, right? and if Will Smith, who’s kind of expected to be the the second line center, and we’ll see once we actually start to get uh lines and stuff and practice and and training camp kicking off later this week. But uh the plan right now is for Will Smith to to kind of be given the first shot at that second line center position. But if Will Smith’s awesome at it, right, and clearly shows that he’s a center, what does that mean for Michael Misa? And then on the flip side, right, if Will Smith struggles with it, how long until Michael Misa is given an opportunity to try it out and right uh at this point, I fully expect Michael Misa to be in the NHL this season full like we’ve talked about million time like to be on the Will Smith path of maybe you’re right, limited minutes early, maybe some development days and then as he kind of gets comfortable, you take the training wheels off and let Michael Misa go. Uh, but I thought Misa, as I talked about this weekend, I thought Misa played very well in the um, rookie faceoff and is going to be now ready for that kind of next step if okay, playing preseason games against actual NHL talent instead of playing a bunch against a bunch of, you know, uh, rookies and AHL type of players, etc., eta though is is hits the ground running, right? and Will Smith struggles. How long until Misa is given that opportunity to at least try to be the second line center? And I I do think long term Misa is going to be the guy right down the middle and having a celebrating Mis Misa combo uh is very exciting because of their abilities to kind of play full 200 foot games. And this is not a slight against Will Smith. They just they’re just different style players, right? Will Smith is um more offensively driven. Just his creativity plays with a little bit slower pace than we saw last year where he kind of struggled with it. He got his pace up as the season went along and he got used to playing in the NHL. But I think Misa plays with a much better pace right now and you know once he kind of gets used to playing in the NHL I think pace is not going to be an issue for Michael Misa going forward. So, um I I do think that is one of those big questions of like okay like who who who kind of shines between Misa and Smith as both players are given an opportunity uh to kind of put into you know kind of given an opportunity because we we know one of these guys is is going to be the 2C long term right you don’t draft two guys in the top four uh between Misa and Will Smith and who are both projected to be centers and then like if they both play are good players but neither of them is a center, it’s going to feel a little disappointing and you’re still going to have questions about your 2C long term. But anyway, um I think those guys and how they develop this year and that kind of who sets themselves up as the long-term 2C is going to be huge. um other player development. I think Ascarov, right, is kind of the next big question because a guy who both the Predators and the Sharks very careful and slow with his development, right? Giving him a taste of NHL games here and there and the Sharks gave him a you know nice uh sample size last year of 13 NHL games, but very slow with his development. Now, like the training wheels are fully off with Ascrov like he’s going to be the guy for the San Jose Sharks this year, right? um in in net. How does Ascarov who you know has played on some solid team like you know the the Barracuda playoff team last year you know the uh Milwaukee Admirals playoff teams under his uh team you know under while he was there like this is probably going to be one of the worst teams Ascrov’s played behind right and yes last year he played on a very bad team as well and and played pretty well but you know That’s a small sample size here. Now, what happens kind of night in night out if Ascrov is getting shelved and he’s not maybe putting up this type of numbers that you want, you know, etc., etc. For a guy who’s very outgoing, funloving, you know, very energetic, does that start to wear on you? And then how do the Sharks kind of manage that? And like I’m not worried about it, but it is just it is a a legitimate question to have because I mean the Sharks are um you know not expected to be a good team and Ascarov is going to kind of be the guy uh for for the Sharks here and and have to kind of be the guy and this is why you traded those picks and prospects and to to try to answer your questions and I I’m I think managing Ascrov and you know kind of keeping him I don’t want to say in engaged and stuff but keeping him kind of more even keeled um as the Sharks go through their ups and downs and as he goes through their his ups and downs as a player uh I think is going to be a big part of his development right because uh he has all the skill in the world like all the skill in the world but uh I think a a player who definitely could you use is going to definitely you know going to have some of those ups and downs so Um, and then you know, how do you some of these guys who are, you know, Sam Dickinson as a potential 19-year-old playing in the NHL, some of the guys who might start coming up between um, you know, Musty and Shernes and Canyone and stuff like giving these guys ample opportunity to develop in the AHL, uh, but then rewarding them for their success and kind of how do you manage those those players? So, uh, of course, like this whole season is about young player development and and getting these guys, uh, ramped up to where you want them to be and the types of players that you expect them to be here, um, at some point. But, uh, this whole season is all about player development. Um, and yes, that that that’s the biggest story line throughout this year is how do these young players develop? So, uh, we’re going to look at some of the other, uh, big storylines this year. According, of course, Ryan Warski, how does he now start to kind of build this team up and get this team off the mat after being uh, the worst team in the NHL the past two seasons? So, we’re going to be talking about Warsoski here in just one second. You just realized your business need to hire someone yesterday. How can you find amazing candidates fast? Easy. Just use Indeed. When it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need. Stop struggling to get your job post seen on other sites. 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All right, so we know of course development uh and a guy who’s pretty uh hands-on with the Sharks development would be head coach Ryan Warski, right? And the Sharks hired Ryan Wasowski last year or they promoted Warsawski to the head coach because they wanted a coach who can grow with these young players, right? And Warsovski is I think he’s like a year younger like he’s basically my age, right? uh uh for coach and has had a lot of success right in the ECHL and the AHL um and is now kind of giving the reigns to this young fun growing development developing team and last year right yes the worst team in the NHL but much more competitive team the vibes were much better around this team right and I mean it does help having an 18 to 19 year old kid kind of in the locker room kind of making you know it makes things a little bit lighter of course, but um still the worst team in the NHL, right? And the power play took a little bit of a step back. The penalty kill continued to, you know, took a big step back last year or continue to be bad as well. So, how does this team see improvements under Ryan Worovski and how does Warsovski start to kind of set the standard a little bit higher? Right. And you know, like again, realistically, this this team is probably still going to be a, you know, it’s if they’re if they’re a, you know, bottom 10 team like that, that’s 100% like expected of this team. Like this team is going to still struggle to score goals and struggle to give up, you know, not not allow goals, etc., etc. But you we need to kind of start to see some more improvements. And again, even if the team uh is not giving up, like if the team is, you know, not giving up six goals a night and, you know, they’re still still losing a lot of games as you expect. But a lot of I I think what we saw with the Sharks last year, right, was this team could play really well for about 40 minutes and then they would give up a late, you know, a late game lead or, you know, a late per third period lead type of thing. How does Warsovski now with some of these guys in year two or some of these guys continuing to grow but still a a relatively young team, how do you start to kind of correct some of these issues, right, of not giving up these uh late, you know, late onegoal leads and and end up losing the game or how do you start to turn those into wins? And I think for the Sharks is, you know, trying to be a little bit more aggressive and not kind of sit on your laurels a little bit because uh this team just is not good enough defensively. Uh I think to be able to just kind of clamp down on a onegoal lead and be like, “We got it guys, we got this.” Right? So I want to see hopefully see Ryan Warski be a little bit more aggressive with his like I’d rather go down swinging, right? just go down swinging compared to uh what we saw, you know, then like just try to, you know, park the bus and sit down and protect a onegoal lead because we we just we see it too often in the NHL these days of guy, you know, teams coming back from two goal deficits uh relatively easily. The NHL is a offensive first league and yes, you need defense, but you can’t just sit on your on your hands and be, you know, we have got a onegoal lead. sit on our hands but let’s run the clock out here. So I want to see Worski continue you know kind of pushing that aggressive mindset right and not you know if guy makes mistake it’s like not kind of and I think Worovski is very good with this with young players of kind of teaching them of you know like hey we can’t do that but like you’re not going to be it’s not going to be the Tortoella you’re in the doghouse or the David Quinn even the David Quinn like you’re in the doghouse we’re never going to see you again type of player. So, um, for there, but I do also want to see the special teams. I I think if the Sharks are to have any success this season, the special teams have to be better. And Warski, who’s a defensive coach, kind of ra, you know, came up was the defensive coach, assistant coach for the Sharks, kind of raised kind of came up the ranks because of his defensive strategy. We got to see a better penalty kill this year and we got to see a better power play. But like the penalty kill um and whether that’s because you’ve had weird personnel, whether that’s structure, whatever it is, Worstski’s got to find some improvements this year, right? Because you do have, I think, players who can be dynamic penalty killers, especially among the fours, right? Uh Colin Graph of of course comes to mind as a player who can be that next doit all type of player and be an ace penalty killer and then turn those we saw it last year in his limited time turning some of those penalty kill opportunities into attack opportunities and trying to get those short-handed goals right uh and making making the penalty kill a much more aggressive unit. Um, you know, you have guys like I think Kersev and Godet. I know God hasn’t played a lot of penalty kill in his life, but I think again if you’re looking to maybe push the pace a little bit more, I think these are names that could be in the mix to help with that. Uh, I think Wenberg is a a great candidate as well. And now maybe we might start to see a guy like Celibbrini in there a little bit more and see Ewin continue to play uh penalty kill. Um but trying to you you you cannot just trot out the kind of what we did last year and be like I hope it works for us this time now guys. So uh yeah I think those are there. I know there was you know with Wowski like some of the lines sometimes and stuff like I think overall he did a solid job with that. I think as as he kind of continues to go through and learn as a head coach now that he’s in year two of it, you’re not kind of going through being a rookie head coach, like hopefully we can see a little bit more of that of, you know, those things kind of u settle down a little bit and maybe not be like I don’t think Warsi is much of like a line blender type of guy. I think he kind of wants his guys to kind of build some chemistry and of course the Sharks having weird having a lot of different personnel with between trades and injuries, etc., etc. Um, you know, it’s kind of hard to do that, but I do think uh I do I really want to see how Warsovski’s kind of grown as a head coach this year and how he can start to kind of put his fingerprints on this team to allow it to kind of to get better, right? and seeing tangible growth in the wins column and you know with the special teams both the power play and and the penalty kill that would go huge that those would be huge milestones for the Sharks as they try to dig themselves out of the basement here. So um yeahs year two we want to see growth from the team and from Ryan Warovski. So, uh, I still think like I still think Ryan Warski is a hell of a coach and I’m I think he is the right guy for the Sharks right now. Uh, and like I but you know, we have to see growth and we want to see this team continue to get better. So, finally, we’re going to talk about the veteran impacts and mainly on the blue line because I think that’s a big story of how the Sharks kind of attacked their blue line this off season to try to get it make it a better unit this year. So, uh, we’re going to talk about the defense and the veterans here, uh, in just one second. The NFL season is here and FanDuel is making sure you’re ready for kickoff with a can’tmiss offer. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Uh, great thing about FanDuel is it covers however you like to play. player props, building a same game parlay, or even jumping a live action. Um, you can, you know, do all those. It makes every game more exciting. 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Der combines classic jeans where style with the best uh kind of comfort and performance that you get from Athletic World. Wear, sorry, the best of both worlds. There’s a reason why they call them the most comfortable pants. So don’t take my word for it. Go try a pair for yourselves. Do or just open a store right here in Hayes Valley so you can feel the difference firsthand. Go check them out at 567 Hay Street. Mention our promo code locked on SF in store to get 15% off your first order. Or check them out online at shopdoer.com/lockedonssf for 15% off. That’s shopder.comf. All right. Uh so how do the veteran additions especially on the blue line impact this team? Uh cuz I I think while the other stories are, you know, uh of course the development of the players is is the biggest story line for the long-term Sharks, right? And Warski’s improvements to try to get, you know, these are big long-term. This right here, the veteran impacts, I think the defense is going to be the thing that I think really tells the story of the Sharks 25 26 season, right? because we we know the young players are going to get be hopefully get better and and grow and you know etc. And we know we like Warsovski what he’s gonna do and hopefully again we want the special teams to be better. We want this team to start kind of turning some of those losses into wins. But the veterans at the Shark, Mike Greer went out and added this off seasonason, right? Signing Demetri Orv, signing John Clingberg, claiming Nick Lei, and then like those three guys in particular, right? Because the Sharks lost some big pieces or they lost pieces, you know, last year when they traded uh at the trade deadline like guys like uh Cody Cece, etc., like some of the guys that they moved on from. Um and Mike Greer as soon as the season was over like the thing he said one of the first things he said is we got to be better on the blue line. We can’t let as many goals in, right? Um, so he kind of put his money to his mouth or, you know, he like went out and was aggressive at doing it. And yes, I know not the sexiest of names, right? And there was like the market really dried up quickly before the trade before the free agency started, right? But if these guys are any good, Clingberg, Orlav, and Lety, if these guys are improvements on what we saw from the Sharks last year, this I think is going to have the most direct impact on the 2526 Sharks because uh we know I mean how many times did this Sharks team get hemmed in its own zone, especially in the third period hanging on to a onegoal lead. You’re asking Gorgiev or you’re asking, you know, VK Vanichek or Ask Grover, whomever, please hang on. Please hang on. Please hang on. Right? If the defense can be a little bit stout, get the puck out of the zone a little bit more. Uh, prevent the puck from coming in the zone a little bit more on on that transition defense. Um, I think this is going to go a and and feed the offense a little bit more. I think this is going to go a long way in the Sharks being good or better, not good, but better this season. Um, you know, not having to, hey, we spent the, you know, the third and fourth line spent the entire shifts in their defensive zone. Mlin, can you like get us going the other way? Right. Um, Will Smith, okay, can you help us get us going the other way type of thing if we can see a little bit more clamps down defense? And again, I’m not asking for, but like this team, which was minus 105 uh in in goal differential last year, if we can improve on that and not spend so much time in the defensive zone and spend more time in the offensive zone and be more of an attacking team, I think this is going to be the direct correlation to the Sharks not blowing so many third period leads and turning a lot of those onegoal losses into wins and um helping your young players develop and grow because they’re not spending their entire time in the defensive zone uh and helping Ryan Warski grow because and because he’s again not having to uh spend the entire game plan trying to just get the puck out of the zone. Um so how do these players go? And I think how these players play also kind of impacts their futures, right? We know Orlov is signed here for here this year, next year. But, um, you know, if Clingberg plays well, you know, and I know his his contract is set up, so, uh, he’s not going anywhere unless he wants to and the Sharks are able to, you know, he kind of free him up to be a trade asset at the deadline. But if Clingberg plays well and you know I know Sam Dickinson’s coming and Canon is coming and some of these other guys are coming but uh wouldn’t it be nice to have a guy kind of stick around for more than one season or even half a season uh and if if he cling shows that he can be an a plus asset for the Sharks and kind of be that bridge player for guys like Dickinson and Canone to kind of lean on. And then same thing with Nick Lety, who I know Lety uh maybe not came over here under the best of circumstances with his uh trade or with his waiver claim uh thing. And um uh we still really haven’t heard from Lety all summer, but um maybe Letty comes in and has a great time and great experience, right? And also a guy who’s in the last year of his deal. You know, I think of the three, Letty is probably the the one that wants to get out the most because he didn’t really choose to come here, right? The other guys actively chose to come here by becoming in free agents. But, um, I I think for Lety, this is a really good opportunity to kind of reestablish his value and he should be a guy that’s very motivated to play well because I mean, he didn’t play very well last year and that was the reason why he got waved by the Blues uh for a poor guy coming off an injury and just didn’t look himself in the second, you know, after coming back from injury. So, I think for a guy who probably wants to go play for a contender, Letty should be extremely motivated to come out of the gates looking 100% in being the defenseman that uh he was before his injury. But if the Sharks can parlay these guys into having, you know, Orlav, Ley, and and Clingberg all having impactful seasons before they get traded off or, you know, whatever happens with them. I think that’s going to go the furthest for the Shark like short term that I think this is the thing that could make the Sharks a much more enjoyable experience and turn some of those losses into wins this season. So I think these are the the the three biggest story lines for me again. How do the young players develop? That that’s that’s the biggest story line like across the whole franchise, right? Is your growth of your young players. Um but see Warsovski start to kind of can, you know, make some improvements with this roster that he’s given, which I think is a little bit better roster. Um, but start to kind of see Worski’s impact as he doesn’t have to kind of go through the uh challenges of being a rookie head coach. Uh, and start to to see, right, can the power play get better? Can the special teams better? Can this team start closing games here? And and then again, what do these uh veterans, what do these defense, especially the defensive veterans, how is their impacts uh change the Sharks this year for a team that is trying again to get out of the basement. So, uh, that’s going to be it for me today. will be back tomorrow. Uh, make sure you guys are following along wherever you get podcasts and of course you can watch on YouTube as well. Follow the show on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, uh, and on Tik Tok at locked on Sharks. Follow me on Twitter and Blue Skyfry Hole. Until tomorrow. Bye, friends. [Music]

Will the San Jose Sharks rise from the NHL’s basement this season? Three key storylines could shape their fortunes.

Young guns like Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith aim to inject life into the struggling franchise. Their development, along with prospects Michael Misa and Sam Dickinson, is crucial for the Sharks’ future. Coach Ryan Warsofsky enters his second year looking to build on last season’s improvements in team morale and competitiveness. Can he fix the special teams woes that plagued San Jose?

Veteran additions Dmitry Orlov, John Klingberg, and Nick Leddy bring experience to the blue line. These seasoned defensemen could mentor young talent while potentially boosting their own trade value. Their impact on reducing defensive zone time and closing out games might determine the Sharks’ ability to climb the standings.

Tune in for an in-depth analysis of how these factors could transform the San Jose Sharks from cellar-dwellers to competitors in the upcoming NHL season.

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro: Three biggest Sharks storylines
5:08 Will Smith vs Michael Misa for 2C
10:12 Ryan Warsofsky’s improvements and challenges
15:50 Special teams must improve this season
19:24 Veteran impact on the blue line
24:32 Defensive improvements could spark offense

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