Four Sharks storylines to watch during last 25 games of season originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
The Sharks are trying to finish the 2024-25 NHL season strong.
That will be a challenge: The NHL-worst Sharks are 15-35-7. Their 37 points are just two ahead of last year’s pace through 57 games.
This will be San Jose’s sixth consecutive season missing the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Regardless, there are plenty of intriguing Sharks’ storylines to watch to close out the season.
Here are the four biggest:
Will Celebrini Claim Calder?
This is the Sharks’ Stanley Cup this year, whether rookie Macklin Celebrini can secure the Calder Trophy.
The competition will be intense though.
Celebrini is second among rookies with 40 points in just 45 games. His almost point-per-game pace leads all first-year players. The 18-year-old is doing this under immense pressure, as the top center on the league’s worst team. He’s also managed to remain credible defensively.
Lane Hutson leads all rookies with 41 points in 56 games. Most impressively, he’s doing this as a defenseman, playing over 22 minutes a night for a competitive Montreal Canadiens squad. He’s on pace to be the first blueliner since Nicklas Lidstrom in 1991-92 to put up 60 points in his rookie campaign.
Goalie Dustin Wolf, a Gilroy native, has led the Calgary Flames to the fringes of the wild card race. He’s 19-11-3 with a .912 Save Percentage, and per Evolving Hockey, his 17.03 Goals Saved Above Expected is seventh in the NHL.
Matvei Michkov has cooled down after a quick start, but his 16 goals are second to Celebrini’s rookie-leading 17. The winger, 36 points in 55 games, will need to get hot to close the year if he wants to remain in the Calder conversation.
At the moment, it looks like a three-horse Calder race between Celebrini, Hutson and Wolf.
Watch the Kids
Besides Celebrini, there are plenty of youngsters on the Sharks to evaluate. Are these kids part of the core or just passing through?
Will Smith played some of his best hockey of the year going into the 4 Nations Faceoff break, registering two goals and six assists in the last nine games before the layoff. Will the 19-year-old center-winger continue his production, while showing improvement away from the puck?
William Eklund is on pace for 58 points, which would be easily a career-high. The 22-year-old winger is also trying to refine his two-way game.
Besides these headliners, winger Collin Graf, and defensemen Henry Thrun, Jack Thompson and Shakir Mukhamadullin are trying to show they belong.
Goalie Yaroslav Askarov and wingers Thomas Bordeleau, Danil Gushchin and Ethan Cardwell — all with the San Jose Barracuda now — are waiting for their chance.
So is surprising defenseman Luca Cagnoni, who leads all AHL blueliner rookies with 36 points in 46 games.
Who’s Coming, Who’s Going at Trade Deadline?
The Sharks’ biggest trade pieces, Mikael Granlund, Cody Ceci and Mackenzie Blackwood are gone.
So general manager Mike Grier might not have much up his sleeve for the March 7 NHL Trade Deadline.
Pending UFA forwards Luke Kunin and Nico Sturm, defenseman Jan Rutta and goalies Vitek Vanecek and Alexandar Georgiev could move, though probably not for a lot in return.
Blueliner Mario Ferraro is a trade rumor constant.
Perhaps more interesting is if the Sharks use the deadline to bring in a potential core piece.
They do have the Dallas Stars’ 2025 first-round pick, acquired for Granlund and Ceci, to dangle.
How Low Can Sharks Go?
Since trading Blackwood, the Sharks are 5-20-2.
Can San Jose reverse this tailspin, and at least finish respectably?
The long break will perhaps make it easier for the Sharks to reset.
Head coach Ryan Warsofsky is hoping for a better mentality than in the past.
“In the last couple [of] years, it’s you just try to get through the games and get to the end of the season,” Warsofsky said. “We’re going to try to compete.”
The bar is low.
The 2022-23 Sharks went 5-15-5 in their last 25 games. Last year’s Sharks closed at 4-17-4.
Of course, keeping the bar low will position San Jose as the favorite to win the No. 1 overall pick of the 2025 NHL Draft.
So that’s something to look forward to this summer: An all-around defenseman like Matthew Schaefer? A power winger like Porter Martone? A two-way center like Michael Misa? A playmaking pivot like James Hagens?
Hopefully for the Sharks, all this bad will lead to some real good sooner than later.
