This is because they're not as poorly situated as those not following them would like to believe. This team no longer runs solely on the back of Joe Thornton anymore. Martin Jones is a starter quality goalie in his prime. Their blue line with Burns, Vlasic, and Braun are all at points in their careers where they still have many years left. Joakim Ryan, Dylan DeMelo, Brenden Dillon, and Tim Heed are 24 and 27. They're fine in that regard. Their forwards need more depth but Couture has plenty of years left in him if he wants to stay after next season. They have a lot of good young talent in guys like Meier, Labanc, Donskoi, and Tierney. Hertl is probably their best player at driving play. All those guys are top six or potential top six quality players under 25. People look at the Sharks and look at Joe Thornton being as old as he is and don't bother to look beyond that. Even if they decided to go into a rebuild, they'd need one elite talent and they'd be right back where they are because they have enough talent at all ages to put around that guy. That's precisely why they can't because they have too many good young players that are just good enough to keep the team playoff competitive.