The San Jose Sharks are running short on time to turn a shaky start into something that looks like the season many expected.
After a 2025-26 campaign that had them in the Wild Card conversation in the Western Conference until the final few weeks, the Sharks entered this year with real buzz around them. Instead, they’ve opened with inconsistency, back-to-back losses, and a minus-12 goal differential that leaves them climbing uphill early in the season.
On Tuesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton dug into why the start has fallen so far short of the preseason outlook.
Yaremchuk pointed to last season as the moment Macklin Celebrini arrived as “a legitimate superstar in the NHL,” and said that led plenty of people to slot San Jose into that third spot in the Pacific Division and into the playoff mix. But through roughly the first fifth of the season, he said, “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.”
Hutton said the concern goes beyond the record. In his view, the issue is what happens when a young team is expected to grow without enough established help around it.
“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.”
He added that being a high pick can be a lot easier when it comes with the right structure around it. Hutton contrasted that with being dropped into a rebuilding situation and handed the burden of figuring it out on the fly.
“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.”
The Sharks still have plenty of hockey left to play, but the early results have left them with a lot to clean up.
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Sharks Showed Promise But The Same Problem Cost Them Again
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Calgary got goals from Klapka and William Stromgren, and Wolf was on the verge of a shutout before San Jose finally broke through late. Sam Dickinson spoiled that bid with the Sharks only goal in the third period, a small consolation in a 2-1 loss that once again left San Jose looking at the same issue it could not quite solve. [Read more 🡒]