The San Jose Sharks are horror-bad

[weastern bias]

When you trade off every single useful vet you can this is what you usually get

The Sharks were this bad BEFORE they started trading off big money veterans, it would have been stupid to keep them and draft 6th overall with large cap commitments rather than pick Celebrini with a clean slate on their ledger

 

[Frank Drebin]

The Sharks were this bad BEFORE they started trading off big money veterans, it would have been stupid to keep them and draft 6th overall with large cap commitments rather than pick Celebrini with a clean slate on their ledger

Yeah well let’s see how it works out

 

[weastern bias]

Yeah well let’s see how it works out

It's working out great, actually

Before the tank but after the decline the Sharks had the following natural draft positions:

2020 - 3rd (traded a year ahead of time to OTT)
2021 - 7th
2022 - 11th

Mike Grier takes over and the tank begins resulting in the following natural draft positions:

2023 - 4th
2024 - 1st

This wasn't anything close to a playoff team before they sold off assets, the Sharks finished last in the west and 3rd last in the league 3 years before they began purging vets but they didn't own their own draft pick at the time and had huge salary commitments as far out at 8 years in the future, they also had too many decent-but-not-elite players who kept them from reliably drafting in the top-5 once they did control their own pick, it was the worst possible position to be in

The organization is actually in a much healthier position right now than they were before the tanking began even if the on ice results are terrible, they were ALREADY terrible but without any good prospects and without cap flexibility, now they have both in abundance

 

[StreetHawk]

The organization is actually in a much healthier position right now than they were before the tanking began even if the on ice results are terrible, they were ALREADY terrible but without any good prospects and without cap flexibility, now they have both in abundance

Main thing and the most important thing for SJ is to create an environment where their kids can develop into the players they want them to be. Need to ensure they learn both ends of the game. Limit the bad habits. One thing to be terrible when the top picks are not in the lineup, but once they arrive, have to ensure that the environment is good for them. Yes, there will be a lot of losing. Still need to instill playing the game the right way.

 

[Ghost of Murph]

Grier inherited a mess. I think he has done a fine job so far. Sharks were going to be pretty bad even with good luck, but have already encountered bad luck early in the season.

Yeah, they are a few seasons away from seriously thinking about the playoffs, but they are playing the smart game by avoiding dumb contracts that accomplish little to nothing in the big scheme of things. Proper rebuilds take time.

 

[Erik Alfredsson]

I have no idea why anyone thought these guys would be better this year. Prospects put up points but they rarely win hockey games.

And what a terrible environment to grow these young players in. Surround them with players who never won anything, give the prospects top minutes and hope for the best? Awful, this is how you ruin prospects. It's going to be a looooong rebuild for San Jose.

 

[Cas]

I was told they are doing player development at the NHL level. Maybe there is some truth to that, but it's appears to be more like tanking to me. GMMG should have put Couture on LTIR maybe Vlasic as well, and use that extra cap room to get some solid NHLers which they sorely need.

He didn't. Probably to continue rebuilding through draft picks, taking the long road.

How are we going to add $22.5 million in players?

 

[Barrie22]

I was told they are doing player development at the NHL level. Maybe there is some truth to that, but it's appears to be more like tanking to me. GMMG should have put Couture on LTIR maybe Vlasic as well, and use that extra cap room to get some solid NHLers which they sorely need.

He didn't. Probably to continue rebuilding through draft picks, taking the long road.

Extra cap room? Adding couture and vlasic to LTIR doesn't help the sharks with adding players. Sharks have 9.7 million in cap space with those 2 players still counting on the cap.

And that doesn't even answer the question of who was available that we could add that takes that cap space up before we could even start using the LTIR by couture and vlasic.

 

[Jacob]

This is like, the beginning of year 3 of a total tear-down-and-rebuild.

Probably gonna be another couple years yet.

 

[coooldude]

I have no idea why anyone thought these guys would be better this year. Prospects put up points but they rarely win hockey games.

And what a terrible environment to grow these young players in. Surround them with players who never won anything, give the prospects top minutes and hope for the best? Awful, this is how you ruin prospects. It's going to be a looooong rebuild for San Jose.

In addition to what others have said -- "Surround them with players who never won anything" is patently false. Goodrow and Toffoli have both won cups and are having solid starts to the year -- Goodrow has significantly helped Smith on his wing. Toffoli and Celebrini combined very well in game 1 before Celebrini went to IR.

Ceci and Walman haven't won anything but they've clearly been our top 2 defensemen and are both playing just fine to actually good (Walman). And they're playing hard. AND both came with picks.

Anyone who just looks at the record and comes to dunk on the Sharks is wasting everyone's time. The org is doing their damnedest to create the right kind of environment for the kids. Given how awful we were last year / awful before last year (as @weastern bias detailed excellently) this is going to be painful and everyone knew it was going to be painful, but to say the Sharks are as bad as last year is wrong, even if the record isn't much better thru 8 games.

 

[Cup or Bust]

I think they will show improvement this season but they still need a few more seasons of rebuilding the team to become competitive.

 

[dirtydanglez]

they are bad now and they are going to be bad for a while. thats how these things go.

 

[Ace Card Bedard]

They've been out-tanking us and it sucks.

 

[StreetHawk]

This is like, the beginning of year 3 of a total tear-down-and-rebuild.

Probably gonna be another couple years yet.

It's going to take time. Look at their D. Ceci/Ruuta are ufa this summer. The other vets Walman, Ferarro, Benning are ufa in 2026. Turn that group over to kids in their early 20's, going to look like Ana and Mon with over half the 7 Dman with under 120 NHL games experience.

That's why rebuilding HC don't last. Message will only last so long if there are not results for the players to see.

 

[Sharksfan66]

I have no idea why anyone thought these guys would be better this year. Prospects put up points but they rarely win hockey games.

And what a terrible environment to grow these young players in. Surround them with players who never won anything, give the prospects top minutes and hope for the best? Awful, this is how you ruin prospects. It's going to be a looooong rebuild for San Jose.

Sharks added Toffoli (1 Cup) & Goodrow (2 Cups) in the offseason + Ceci who was just 1 goal away from his own Cup this past spring. What an odd critique.

Yes the Sharks stink right now. But it's not for lack of trying to build a winning culture around the kids. This is not a Buffalo/Ottawa style rebuild.

In addition to what others have said -- "Surround them with players who never won anything" is patently false. Goodrow and Toffoli have both won cups and are having solid starts to the year -- Goodrow has significantly helped Smith on his wing. Toffoli and Celebrini combined very well in game 1 before Celebrini went to IR.

Ceci and Walman haven't won anything but they've clearly been our top 2 defensemen and are both playing just fine to actually good (Walman). And they're playing hard. AND both came with picks.

Anyone who just looks at the record and comes to dunk on the Sharks is wasting everyone's time. The org is doing their damnedest to create the right kind of environment for the kids. Given how awful we were last year / awful before last year (as @weastern bias detailed excellently) this is going to be painful and everyone knew it was going to be painful, but to say the Sharks are as bad as last year is wrong, even if the record isn't much better thru 8 games.

Should have kept reading before I responded. Well said.

 

[DtP5000]

Rutta has a couple cups too, although I’m not sure how involved he was in the first.