Sharks continue to deal with growing pains
The San Jose Sharks showed signs of growth in 2025-26 with a 39-35-8 record and 86 points, fifth in the Pacific Division and four points back of a Wildcard spot in the Western Conference. They missed the playoffs for a seventh straight season, but the emergence of Macklin Celebrini and a talented group of young skaters gave fans and the organization confidence going into the 2026-27 campaign.
But as we approach the one-quarter mark of the season, the Sharks are struggling. They’re 7-9-1 and have lost five of their last six games, including a 7-2 defeat to their division rival in the Los Angeles Kings Wednesday night. The team held a players-only meeting after the loss and forward Kiefer Sherwood sent a stern message to his teammates in his post-game comments.
“We’re going to move forward here and we got a lot to learn,” he said. “Listen, it’s better to go through the growing pains now than later on, right? We’re going to stick together and get through it together, and we’re going to fix our mindset and our work ethic for the next game, and we’re going to get gritty.”
On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discuss San Jose’s recent struggles and if this is just a hiccup in their development, or if there’s a bigger issue with this group.
Tyler Yaremchuk: The Sharks went out and got Darrell Nurse and Jacob Trouba, and a couple years ago they signed Dmitry Orlov. They even have Yaroslav Askarov and they keep Alex Nedeljkovic around to be that veteran voice for them. They went out and signed Mason Marchment this year and Tyler Toffoli a number of years ago; they paid to keep Alexander Wennberg around.
They did a good job of insolating that young core, but the results still aren’t coming. Of course, when that happens, when you point to a team like San Jose who tanked then got the lottery luck and actually nailed it by drafting Macklin Celebrini … all the boxes were checked for San Jose in this rebuild. I really do think general manager Mike Grier did a great job of insolating these players.
But yesterday, it’s a third-straight loss. There was a players-only meeting after the game … that’s a whole different level of frustration. I can understand the frustration from that fanbase, thinking “How are we doing this the right way and we’re still here, sixth in the Pacific Division?”
Carter Hutton: I think we do this a lot, where expectations make you think it will continuously propel forward.
You add these older guys but they haven’t really fit in. Is that the pace of play? The good thing for the Sharks is the fact they’re in the Pacific Division and you haven’t really lost a ton of pace, even though you haven’t been there. But they’re finding ways to lose games in different ways.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…