The Sharks finished the 2024-2025 NHL season in dead last, with just 20 wins in 82 games. The 2025-2026 season looks to be a quick turnaround, as they are not only looking better than a team headed to the bottom five but are molding into a playoff team ready this April. With reliable goaltending, true big-time players and finally putting pucks in the back of the net, this is much closer to reality than originally expected. This season, they’ve only played 23 games but already have 11 wins.
Today, the Sharks sit in 22nd in the NHL, just two points out of the second Western Conference wild card spot.
The 2024 No. 1 overall draft pick, Macklin Celebrini, is leading the roster to possibly their first playoff berth since 2019. Celebrini is ranked second in the NHL in points with 34 in 23 games, only behind Nathan MacKinnon of the red-hot Colorado Avalanche. He is currently ahead of Connor McDavid in points, an impressive feat, noting that McDavid and MacKinnon have been two of the best forwards in the world for the past several years.
Special teams have also contributed to the Sharks’ success this season. This year, the Sharks rank 19th in the NHL on power plays in comparison to last year’s 25th in the league. They have also improved their penalty kill, jumping up to 17th from 27th last year, and are third in the NHL in goals scored in the first period. The Sharks were second-to-last in goals scored the year prior, and currently sit 14th in the league. Though the numbers are not top-end, they are about middle of the pack, right where the wild card teams live.
Additionally, they have improved their defensive zone play, team chemistry and overall tenacity on the ice. In 2024, the Sharks had extreme difficulty getting the puck out of their defensive zone and setting up a counter-attack of their own. Their passing ability has led to better defensive-zone breakouts and better awareness of where their teammates are. Rather than throwing the puck randomly, passes are made and the intensity goes up with better play. With increased intensity, they draw more penalties and play harder, leading to more high-quality scoring opportunities throughout the game. Instead of waiting for the opposing team to score, fans get a genuine feeling of excitement when the Sharks bring the puck into the zone and get set up to score.
The Sharks did not have a clear and elite No. 1 goaltender last year. But Yaroslav Askarov has stepped up to fill that missing piece from last year. The 23-year-old Russian goaltender is a rookie-of-the-year candidate and a fan favorite. Askarov tore up the American Hockey League with the Sharks’ minor league team last season, but struggled to find his footing in the NHL. This year has been a completely different story. Askarov has a .955 save percentage and a 7-1 record in November. In the regular season as a whole, he boasts an 8-5-1 record with a 2.83 goals allowed on average and a .913 save percentage. Askarov’s recent play has him playing like one of the best goalies in hockey right now.
Though Askarov and Celebrini are playing great hockey, it’s not just them who are carrying the Sharks. Will Smith is having a very good sophomore season with 21 points in 23 games, as his top-end shot is improving from last season. William Eklund, the Sharks’ first-round draft pick in 2021, is also putting up solid numbers with five goals and 14 points in 19 games. Newcomers from the offseason like Dmitry Orlov (who led the NHL in points from a defenseman earlier in the year), Philipp Kurashev and Adam Gaudette have added much-needed depth that the Sharks have been lacking.
More young players like Collin Graf, Michael Misa and Sam Dickinson have successfully proven they are NHL-ready. Graf is now a full-time forward, unlike last year when he was sent up and down between the Sharks and their minor league affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda. Graf now occupies a spot on the second power play unit and second penalty kill unit. Misa, who was the No. 2 overall pick by the Sharks in the 2025 draft, put up three points in seven games before sustaining an injury in late October. Dickinson, who made his NHL debut this season, struggled at first but has now stepped into the future elite puck-moving defenseman that he was with the OHL’s London Knights, where he was drafted from.
The only weakness for the Sharks is bottom-line depth and experience. The Sharks’ third and fourth forward lines, along with their last defenseman pairing, are at times lackluster. Made up of aging veterans, inexperienced young talent and players who wouldn’t make most NHL rosters, the Sharks don’t have the depth to compete with top teams in the league just yet, but there is some hope. They took down the New Jersey Devils, who currently are fifth in the league, by a score of 5-2 back in October. They also forced their heated rival and third-place team, the Anaheim Ducks, to overtime in the second game of the regular season.
For Sharks fans, the soul-sucking five-year rebuild looks to be nearing an end in the next couple of years, and the NHL will have to face another decade of championship hockey in the Bay Area once again.