Sharks falling well below expectations early this season

Even though there’s still a lot of hockey to be played, many are concerned about the performance of the San Jose Sharks so far.

After a promising 2025-26 season, where they were contending for a Wild Card spot in the Western Conference up until the final few weeks of the campaign, everyone expected the Sharks to be right back in the playoff mix. However, the team has been very inconsistent since the onset of the new season. Sure, they have a few months to get back on the track, but with losses in back-to-back games, and a -12 goal differential, San Jose is starting at an uphill climb to keep up with other teams in the Wild Wild West.

On Tuesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton give their take on how the Sharks have played thus far, and why they’re not meeting expectations.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Last year was Macklin Celebrini’s arrival as a legitimate superstar in the NHL, and everyone looked at the Sharks and penciled them into that third spot in the Pacific Division as a team that could make the playoffs this year. This first, you know, we’ll call it a fifth of the season. I guess is where we’re kind of at here. It has been anything but a dream start for San Jose. They seem to be just kind of spinning their tires here at a tick below .500.

Carter Hutton: I think that’s the concerning factor… where they’re at in the sense of, like, just kind of moving on and getting forward with, like, a younger core around it. You need guys that are going to propel you forward and be in a good situation to I guess maybe like just grow as a group, and you need that.

I think sometimes certain players, when they’re selected and higher picks, going into the right culture, right leadership, right environment helps a ton. Then, being a young player thrust into the situation and just given the keys to the castle, and you just got the new Ferrari, and you got to try to figure it out, and there’s no one else there to help you figure it out. For me, I think back in my career, like going with the Nashville Predators and being around Pekka Rinne, it was like the perfect situation. I was in this non-market where there wasn’t a lot of pressure. I had a future Hall of Famer to watch, and not even if he wasn’t helping you, you just got to see it firsthand. For a lot of these younger guys that get thrust into these totally rebuilding situations, you got to kind of learn on the fly. You can have some older guy that works in player development talking to you, but when you’re living it every day with some veteran guys that are you know well over 1,000 games, there’s a big impact that happens.

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…