SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — The years-long focus on draft positioning, shedding big salaries and developing young players is no longer enough for the San Jose Sharks.
After a six-year teardown and rebuild that featured far too much losing, the Sharks know now is the time to start seeing results on the ice.
With a young core led by last season's impressive rookies Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith, a host of other promising prospects and the addition of some
playoff-tested veterans, the Sharks believe they have the pieces to make a big jump from the bottom of the NHL standings.
"I can say things here. I can say it every time. For me we have to start doing the things we talked about,” 22-year-old forward William Eklund said. “We talk about how we want to be a competitive team, we want to be a winning team. Everybody has to buy in, including myself.”
The Sharks have finished with the worst record in the NHL in each of the past two seasons, showing incremental improvement in results last season with 52 points compared to 47 the previous season.
The team improved its goal differential by 44 goals from the previous season but still finished last in the NHL in both goals scored and goals allowed. The Sharks lost 10 times in regulation last season after holding a lead in the third period — no other team in the league had more than four — and had five more losses in overtime or shootouts after leading in the third.
San Jose believes turning some of those blown leads into wins will make a major difference in the standings.
“I think it's pretty clear, when you’re losing no one is having fun,” Celebrini said. “As much as you try to look at the positives and learn from it and all that cliche stuff, it's not fun and not enjoyable when you lose.”
With Celebrini and Smith in place, the Sharks believe they shouldn't find themselves at the bottom of the standings again.
Celebrini, the first pick of last year’s draft, had a sensational season as an 18-year-old, leading all rookies with 25 goals, ranking second with 63 points and playing as a top-line center often against the opponent’s best players.
Smith, the No. 4 pick in 2023, had 18 goals and 27 assists in 74 games as a rookie. Smith had 10 goals and 13 assists in his final 26 games. Smith thrived late in the season when he played as a winger on Celebrini's line instead of centering his own line and will start this season the same way.
“A lot of people are looking to us to kind of help us get to that next step,” Smith said. “It’s not just going to be just us. There’s all the new prospects, all the guys, and even the older guys that we brought in are going to help us do that. Obviously, it’s not going to happen with the snap of a finger. You got to work at it.”
Not too long ago, the Sharks were one of the most consistent contenders in the NHL. Over a 15-season span starting in the 2003-04 season, the Sharks won the most regular-season games in the league, made five trips to the conference finals and one Stanley Cup appearance in 2016.
That run of success ended abruptly when San Jose made it to the Western Conference final in 2019 before losing to St. Louis. The team then fired coach Peter DeBoer shortly into the following season and has been on a six-year run of futility ever since.
Since the start of the 2019-20 season, San Jose has the worst record in the league and hasn't even come close to competing for a playoff spot.
“We know how long it’s been and what the fans here deserve and how good San Jose was that chunk of years in the 2000s,” said the 20-year-old Smith, who wasn't born when San Jose made its first conference final appearance in 2004 to start that run. “I think we want to do it and he wants to do it. We have the right group of guys.”
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