Picture this: It’s Monday, April 13 and the San Jose Sharks have a slim chance of playoff hopes. This was their third-to-last game of the regular season and they sought to win and stay in contention.
That day, the Sharks were in Nashville playing against the Predators, who they’ve lost to by multiple goals in two consecutive games. The Sharks flipped the script on the Predators on their home ice with young starting forward Igor Chernyshov opening the scoring for San Jose. The Bay’s gifted Canadian star and Olympic silver medalist Macklin Celebrini scored the next two tallies of the night as San Jose fought their way to victory.
Despite their win, the Sharks’ playoff hopes weren’t in their hands, as the Los Angeles Kings just needed two points in the standings to squash either team’s chance at contention. They delivered with a 5-3 triumph over the Seattle Kraken, shutting the door on the Sharks’ slim chance at postseason berth.
While missing the mark for the playoffs, Bay Area hockey fans should still commend their team for remaining in the fight until the final week. I believe, optimistically, this season was a sign San Jose will return to the postseason sooner than we thought prior.
The Sharks have missed the playoffs since 2019 when the team swam to the western conferences final. Prior to that run, San Jose has been in playoff contention in all but six years since their founding in 1991. This is the first time this team lost playoff contention for seven consecutive years, but not all hope is lost for their future.
The Sharks have shown signs of growth and grit, going from a crew that was first to be eliminated to a team that competes for playoff berth throughout the season. Last season saw a squad that went 20-50-12, finishing last in the Pacific Division and the Western Conference. This season, San Jose nearly doubled their wins through 82 games with a record of 39-35-8.
San Jose Sharks forwards Philipp Kurashev and Ty Dellandrea at a team practice on April 4, 2026. (Jesse Kornblum / Wikimedia Commons)
The team’s plus/minus, calculated by the difference between goals scored versus goals allowed, chomped down to -43, under half of their -105 differential in 2024-25. Their record at the Tank has nearly doubled from 12 to 21 victories at SAP Center.
San Jose was rearing their heads for playoff contention by the trade deadline on March 6, where they were ahead of the Los Angeles Kings in the wild card window. They were 30-25-4 for 64 points in the standings, just three points behind the Seattle Kraken, who had 67, and were coming off a three-game winning streak. Since the deadline, the team finished with a 9-10-4 record, a key reason why they weren’t able to keep their heads above water in the end.
The season spotlighted a few tweaks to be made within the team, lacking consistency and an ability to close. Early in the season, I had concerns about their passing, whenever the puck was passed to empty ice or within an opponent’s reach. The Sharks are also 21st in puck giveaways with 1,348, but the passing percentage likely isn’t a pretty number either.
There is potential for them to connect the dots. Fans have witnessed the team’s brightest moments and their comeback triumphs, from their turnaround in January versus Dallas where they erased a two-goal deficit and scored the overtime winner, to their victory over a playoff-experienced Winnipeg on Thursday. A new 2026-27 chapter doesn’t mean they start from square one in momentum and communication.
This season saw some rising stars, including the blossoming face of the franchise Celebrini, who totaled 115 points this season, nearly double his 63 points from his first year. The point total surpassed former Shark Joe “Jumbo Joe” Thornton’s record from the 2006-07 season, in which the retired forward totaled 22 goals and 92 assists. Mind you, this is only year two for the Bay’s 19-year-old sports star.
Surrounding Celebrini, forwards Will Smith and William Eklund have grown their groove. The 2023 first-round pick, Smith, tallied 24 goals and 35 assists through 69 games this year, and adding Eklund with his 18 goals, 35 assists and 50 plus points to the mix. Their display may make you let out a joyous “OMFG” at your screen.
The future of the young Sharks is looking bright, but not without the support and chemistry of some key experienced teammates, starting with Nedeljkovic.
I’ve drawn back some of my early concerns about the veteran goaltender after his home opening appearance, influenced by the loss versus Dallas on Dec. 18 where fans witnessed two of his passes land onto the opponents’ sticks. Those moments didn’t sum up the season as my anxieties thought they would in the first three months, and the former Detroit Red Wing collected 17 wins through 33 starts and 39 games total with a 2.92 goals allowed average. He had his moments when we needed him most. Upon hearing from the commentators and teammates on television about him coaching and leading his group, he may have proven himself a worthy and impactful influence throughout his tenure in south bay.
On the front lines, San Jose has been home for the second year for former Seattle Kraken and Columbus Blue Jacket Alex Wennberg and former Los Angeles King Tyler Toffoli. This is the second season of his career in which Wennberg has scored over 50 points. Wennberg has won the most faceoffs for San Jose ahead of Celebrini and produced almost twice as many goals this season, 18, in addition to 37 assists. Toffoli, the former Los Angeles King and Stanley Cup champion, had 19 goals and 30 assists this season and only missed a week of the season due to injury.
They brought experience and have fit into place with the young Sharks around them. Since the Sharks signed the two playoff-experienced veterans to multi-year contract extensions, it’s a good decision to keep them around while developing the next men up.
This offseason, San Jose has some choices to make with their pending free agents, including young Sharks Collin Graf, Shakir Mukhamadullin and Zach Ostapchuk, who are going to be restricted free agents barring an extension with the team. RFA means San Jose could opt to match other team’s offers to them during free agency if the Sharks don’t re-sign them prior.
General Manager Mike Grier will also have to balance the scale of whether to let right-handed defenseman John Klingberg walk in July and whether they will prefer calling up or acquiring another RHD for their blueline. They gave Luca Cagnoni three games under the bright lights this year, so it looks as though they’ll look to search within and utilize their system.
Nick Leddy hasn’t been able to remain healthy for even half the season, and in his final years in the pros it may be a simple adjustment to slip one of our left-handed defensemen to fill his spot next year. As for Mario Ferraro, who’s been a Shark throughout his entire professional career, it’ll be interesting to see whether he returns to the Tank or is signed elsewhere as San Jose looks to build a talented, younger and playoff-capable group.
Guiding our way from the locker room numbers to a broader view, the Sharks are 16th when they are on the power play with 21.2% and stood 27th with 76.4% when they are one man short. The Sharks’ place in penalty kills remains the same, but they have improved on the man advantage from their 18.6% last year, which put them at 26th place.
Beyond the numbers, the record and the fight for contention, Celebrini spoke to Randy Hahn and Drew Remenda, praising his team after the final triumph over Winnipeg.
“We have the best group of guys and that win, just the way it ended, it put an exclamation mark on a season that not a lot of people had many expectations on us to have,” Celebrini said. “It was just a nice way to end it.”
Later in the interview, Celebrini said the team culture and level of bonding make the team “a family” to the second-year superstar.
“Every guy in that room – I mean, hopefully everyone feels comfortable and welcome – I think we just got so close over the years,” Celebrini said. “During the race [for playoff contention] we had, we tried to give it all we got and unfortunately, we came up close, but just the fact that we got so close. We’re gonna try to enjoy it over the last couple of days.”
In the locker room, head coach Ryan Warsofsky gave his flowers to the Sharks, describing the group as a team that “got the organization off the ground again” and gained the respect from the rest of the league. That’s something that should reassure themselves and the fans, and it seems it has.
With the talent they have, the momentum they’ve carried and the fight they displayed, the Bay Area’s beloved hockey team is headed to be competitive and a problem on the ice once again.
I hope the San Jose Sharks continue to progress and build around their young pieces – Celebrini, Smith, Eklund, Collin Graf, Igor Chernyshov, Sam Dickinson – while also taking a long look at others they may have to make hard decisions about, such as goaltender Yaroslav Askarov.
While they continue to build around their young pieces, pending the contract extensions the Sharks will hand their expiring players, they will also have to be above the NHL’s cap floor, or lower limit, of $76.9 million. Their projected cap hit for next season with returning players is roughly $62 million, so that leaves San Jose room to give out extensions, but my concern is whether they may overpay to keep above the floor.
In spite of all of that, I look forward to seeing where this younger and gritty group can lead this team in the future, from the bottom of the barrel last year to biting their way up to the postseason. The Sharks are projecting an incline from this year, with the numbers and on-ice effort to show for it, something I’ve waited to witness ever since the 2019-20 season. You can catch me watching them next season, whether on my phone, at campus, or witnessing the growth in person at the Shark Tank.