2025–26 Edmonton Oilers’ Pacific rivals preview: San Jose Sharks

After almost two decades of consistently strong teams went without a Stanley Cup, the San Jose Sharks are now well into a deep rebuild. After the retirement of Logan Couture and the buyout of Marc-Eduard Vlasic, the last vestiges of the old Sharks are gone. A new era has already begun in earnest, as Macklin Celebrini leads a group of dynamic young players in taking over the team.

Despite this, many are expecting the Sharks to be bottom feeders once again this season.

How can the Sharks turn things around? How close are they to becoming a playoff team? 

Forwards

Eklund–Celebrini–Toffoli
Skinner–Smith–Gaudette
Kurashev–Wennberg–Graf
Goodrow–Ostapchuk–Dellandrea

Macklin Celebrini was a fairly unanimous first overall draft pick, yet his immediate success in the NHL was still somewhat surprising. Despite the poor quality of his team, Celebrini looked the part of a franchise cornerstone. With equal parts skill and power, Celebrini might be on track to become a top centre this season. As such the Sharks will have more teeth on this basis alone. 

As a young team it can be easy to get carried away with projection. William Eklund has already proven himself a top-six winger, but perhaps there is another level. Will Smith’s rookie season was nowhere close to Celebrini’s, yet provides some promise. 2026 second overall pick Michael Misa could be ready to make a difference in the AHL, perhaps debuting a talented and capable centre duo behind Celebrini. 

There are some veterans to provide structure. Tyler Toffoli seems to be in for the long haul, while Alexander Wennberg is primed to be a mainstay on trade deadline big boards in the last year of his deal. Barclay Goodrow and Jeff Skinner will get plenty of opportunity for icetime, while Ryan Reeves might be able to fill a regular role as a guardian. Others, like Adam Gaudette and Carl Grundstrom have their best chance at proving they can handle regular NHL icetime. 

Beyond their star powered young talent, the Sharks have a wave of lesser prospects who might start to matriculate into the lineup this season. Filip Bystedt is the most likely, though Kasper Halttunen and Quentin Musty might be able to play their way into the NHL at some point soon. Others like Igor Chernyshov are intriguing but further away. This will put pressure on slightly older players to cement their role or be passed up. Zach Ostapchuk, Colin Graf, Philip Kurashev, and Ty Dellandrea will have a chance to play their way into the Sharks core, but the task will be tall. 

With four pending UFAs up front, and two more next season, there should be a lot of turnover as these young players compete for spots. At the very least Celebrini, Eklund, Misa, and Smith represent a lot of talent to build around. 

Defence

Ferraro–Liljegren
Orlov–Klingberg
Mukhamadullin–Thompson

Even more so than the forward group, this blueline is built to flip. The Sharks needed to spend money to get to the cap floor, and much of this was used to get veteran defencemen on short term deals. Nick Leddy, John Klingberg, Mario Ferraro, Timothy Liljegren, and Vincent Desharnais are all pending UFAs. Dmitry Orlov will be a UFA the season after. 

On top of their contract status, the Sharks blueline is lacking in true defensive prowess. Orlov, Leddy, Klingberg, and Liljegren are all more skilled and offensively oriented defencemen. Ferraro might be the closest thing they have to a shutdown defenceman, though Desharnais has use as a specialist. 

Most of the issue is around quality, as the Sharks have no defenceman that would be universally considered as top-four caliber. If the Sharks blueline was more capable, they might be a trendy selection as a surprise playoff contender. 

Instead, the Sharks have some young players who might be able to turn things around. In the present both left shot Shakir Mukhamaduhllin and right shot Jack Thompson are ready to battle for regular spots. The Sharks will hope that either or both of Mukhamaduhllin or Thompson can emerge as legitimate everyday NHLers by the end of this season. 

Most of the real help is further away, or at least more speculative. Luca Cagoni has been very impressive on his developmental path, and could become the Sharks most offensively gifted blueliner this season. Sam Dickinson appears to have all the tools to be a top pairing option, but is still just 19. These two left shots lead the way, though others like left shot Leo Sahlin Wallenius and right shot Mattias Havelid are worth mentioning. 

There are things to like about the future of this blueline, but it is difficult to imagine that the Sharks can get away with the current group. It should be expected that the Sharks target defencemen more aggressively going forward, either through the draft or through trade. With a large number of high end right shot defencemen expected to be available in next season’s draft, the Sharks may have an easy answer for one of these upgrades. 

Goalies

Nedeljkovic
Askarov

The Sharks added reliable backup Alex Nedeljkovic, but again youth is the real story. It should be time for Yaroslav Askarov to take hold of a regular NHL spot. Without much expectation it should be a relatively pressure free way for the Sharks to start giving Askarov room to build his resume. 

Still, some caution should be exercised, as the Sharks are likely to give up a ton of chances. Especially early on the Sharks should give a lot of work to Nedeljkovic to set a barometer. It would be tough to see the Sharks ruin Askarov’s confidence with poor defensive efforts. 

Nothing is guaranteed, and the Sharks pursued even more by drafting Joshua Ravensbergen in the first round. Goalies take time to develop, and Ravensbergen is seen as particularly raw. Hopefully Askarov can provide the answer so that the Sharks can be as patient as needed with Ravensbergen. 

Path to success

With a stocked cupboard of young talent, the time for the Sharks to turn things around is approaching. The nature of this roster, as well as their prospect pool, suggests that the Sharks will continue to sell this season. Still, it is imperative that more young players join Celebrini and Eklund as NHL contributors. Regardless of when top talents like Misa or Dickinson arrive, the Sharks will need to start giving their young players enough structure to succeed. 

Sorting out the structure of the roster is vital, especially on the blueline. The Sharks need the future of their blueline to start taking shape. Some of this will come down to nailing draft picks in the future, but the time of the Sharks young NHLers is coming into focus. More important than their wins and losses is the way that the team can improve as the season goes. 

A best case scenario might see the Sharks end with a top-ten pick, while still showing a lot of strong play down the stretch of the season. The potential of adding a do-it-all right shot defence prospect like Keaton Verhoff in the draft would seem to secure a huge hole in the Sharks system. All the same, the more players that can come into their own this season the better. Starting next season Misa, Dickinson, and Cagoni should all be on the roster and ready to start building a true team identity. 

GM Mike Grier has been assertive in his rebuilding efforts, even dealing younger players like Fabian Zetterlund last season. This is still a rebuilding year, but it should be the last one that is self-inflicted by design. Some might see this as overzealous, others as aspirational, but it was a necessary course to take as the husk of a once dominant team aged with a barren prospect pool. 

Regardless of how many expiring contracts Grier can flip by the end of the season, there is little that would constitute a poor season from the Sharks from his perspective. The most important thing is that young core players continue their positive trajectory. Now that more and more of them are becoming lineup regulars, we should start to see Grier’s roster management taking on new shape.