SAN JOSE – Training camp for the San Jose Sharks begins Thursday and one might have to go all the way back to the franchise’s earliest days to remember when expectations for the team were as low as they are right now.
After they traded leading goal-scorer Timo Meier and leading playmaker Erik Karlsson from last season’s team that finished with the NHL’s fourth-worst record at 22-44-16, the Sharks outlook for the 2023-24 season appears to be just as dismal, if not more so.
FanDuel has set the over-under for the Sharks’ point total at 65.5 points, 5.5 points more than San Jose’s actual point total from last season, but still lowest in the NHL behind the Anaheim Ducks (68.5) and both the Chicago Blackhawks and Montreal Canadiens (71.5 each).
The only time the Sharks finished dead-last in the NHL standings was in their inaugural year in 1991-92, when, with just 17 wins and 39 points, they were 13 points worse than the next-to-last Quebec Nordiques in what was then a 22-team NHL.
No one’s saying things for the Sharks will be quite that bad. But in another year of transition under general manager Mike Grier and coach David Quinn, and with so many questions on defense and in goal, they might not be much better with a fifth straight season of playoff-free hockey likely on the horizon.
“We certainly understand what people think about us outside of our organization, but let them feel that way,” Quinn said recently. “There’s a quiet confidence within our group and I know they’re excited to get going.”
The Sharks’ 64-player training camp roster is a hodge-podge of holdovers from last season, recent free-agent signings and trade acquisitions, and prospects who may or may not ever realize their dream of becoming full-time NHL players.
It speaks to where the Sharks are as a franchise right now, as they hope the assets they acquired in their Meier and Karlsson deals will provide the foundation of their rebuild.
Defensemen Shakir Mukhamadullin and Nikita Okhotiuk came over from New Jersey in the Meier deal, which also included the Devils’ 2023 first-round draft selection. That pick was used on forward Quentin Musty, who impressed at both the Sharks’ development camp in July and at the recently completed Rookie Faceoff event in Las Vegas.
If the Devils make the Eastern Conference finals this season, the second-round pick the Sharks acquired in the Meier trade will turn into a first-round selection.
The Karlsson trade with Pittsburgh brought in the Penguins’ (top 10 protected) first-round draft pick for next year and cleared millions in future salary cap space.
Grier also brought in forwards Mike Hoffman, Mikael Granlund, and Jan Rutta as part of the three-team Karlsson deal that also involved Montreal.
Those players were not brought in as cornerstones for the organization to build around, but to help bridge the gap between now and when top prospects like Musty, Will Smith, and Filip Bystedt are ready for full-time NHL roles in the next one to three years.
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA – March 5: Shark’s Alex Stalock (32) protects the goal against Nashville Predators’ Mikael Granlund (64) in the second period at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Saturday, March 5, 2022. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)
If the Sharks are as bad as predicted, they’ll also add another top young player in next year’s draft. Forward Macklin Celebrini is thought to be the best player available in 2024 and could be ready to become an impact NHL player soon afterward.
By that time, the Sharks will have an abundance of salary cap space, giving them some more financial flexibility to add impact players through trades or free agency, Enough, anyway, to make them legitimate playoff contenders once again.
At least that’s the organization’s hope.
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“He has a vision for how we’re going to get back to where we’re used to being,” Patrick Marleau, now a Sharks development coach and front office consultant, said of Grier, “and beyond by winning the Stanley Cup.”
More trades could be on the horizon, as forwards Alexander Barabanov and Anthony Duclair top the list of the team’s pending unrestricted free agents. Both players could easily be flipped for future assets prior to this year’s trade deadline if the Sharks are out of the playoff picture, as most expect.
“The fans here are knowledgeable enough to realize what we’re doing here,” Grier said in August after trading Karlsson to the Pittsburgh Penguins. “We were lucky to have such a long run of sustained success and playoff success and regular season success that at some point, you’ve got to kind of pay the price for all that, and that’s kind of where we are in a cycle as a franchise.”
