Dead in the Water: The Painful End of The San Jose Sharks’ Run.
Over the past two decades, the San Jose Sharks have arguably been the Bay Area’s most consistent sports franchise. Although they have not tasted the championship highs of the San Francisco Giants or Golden State Warriors, they have also avoided the years-long fallow stretches that both of those franchises have had to go through. Since the 1999–2000 season, the Sharks have only missed the Stanley Cup playoffs twice. Unfortunately for the Bay Area’s devoted fans of the men in teal, that long stretch of high quality hockey seems to have come to a screeching halt.
Under the stewarship of Doug Wilson, the franchise’s general manager since 2003, the Sharks have been a model for the league in both their consistency and their ability to acquire premier talent in a variety of ways. One method was discovering future stars late in the draft, such as Joe Pavelski, a seventh round pick in 2003 who would go on to become the Sharks’ captain and top goal scorer for many years.
Wilson was also a master of the trade market; he posssessed an uncanny ability to acquire superstar players at bargain prices. The best of these moves was the 2006 trade for Joe Thornton, a future Hall of Famer and face of the Sharks franchise ever since. Another home run trade was the 2011 acquisition of Brent Burns, at the time seen as a talented but inconsistent player on the Minnesota Wild. Wilson gave up Devin Setoguchi, a Sharks fan favorite whose career was about to take a downward spiral due to his substance abuse issues, and nineteen year old prospect Charlie Coyle, who has since developed into a solid but unspectacular role player with the Wild and Boston Bruins. Wilson had discovered a diamond in the rough; with the Sharks, Burns unlocked his full potential and would go on to be one of the league’s best offensive defensemen, winning the James Norris Trophy for the league’s best player at that position.
In 2016, the Sharks came closer than ever to finally securing that elusive championship trophy. Under the leadership of new head coach Pete DeBoer, they reached the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in franchise history, falling in a hard-fought six game series to Sidney Crosby’s Pittsburgh Penguins. With the brass ring so close to their grasp, it seemed that the Sharks needed to add one more superstar to the core of Thornton, Pavelski, Burns and Patrick Marleau, all of whom were now on the wrong side of thirty. This would become a Captain Ahab-esque pursuit over the next three years, with ultimately disastrous consequences for the franchise.
Immediately following the Stanley Cup defeat, Wilson set his eyes on Steven Stamkos, who was and is one of the best goal scorers alive, having put up one of the few seasons in NHL history with sixty goals or more scored. But it was not to be, as Stamkos elected to instead sign a contract extension with the Tampa Bay Lightning. The next whale to be targeted was John Tavares, a perennial all star with the New York Islanders determined to test free agency. But even though the Sharks offered Tavares more money than any other suitor, he ultimately chose the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Ontario native Tavares had grown up a Leafs fan, and decided to take slightly less money to try and bring his hometown team their first Stanley Cup since 1967.
Not long after failing to get Tavares, Wilson would finally get the new star he desired. Ottawa’s Erik Karlsson was regarded (along with Burns) as one of the league’s best defensemen, twice winning the Norris Trophy. In order to get him, Wilson paid a price that at the time was regarded as substantial, but not unreasonable- a collection of young players including Josh Norris, the Sharks’ first round draft pick in 2017, and the Sharks’ 2020 first round pick. This last piece especially is the one that now haunts the franchise.
Karlsson’s first season with the Sharks was hampered by groin injuries, but the Sharks nonetheless reached the Western Conference finals. However, the price of Karlsson’s contract extension, eight years, 92 million, meant that due to the salary cap the Sharks could not afford to retain their captain, Pavelski, who signed a three year deal with the Dallas Stars. Nonetheless, the Sharks were expected to contend for the Stanley Cup once again.
However, the bottom has fallen out for San Jose this season. The main reason for this has been the poor goaltending by netminders Martin Jones and Aaron Dell, but Karlsson and Burns (both signed to expensive contract extensions) have been partly to blame as well. Burns’ offense has fallen off dramatically from last season, and his defense was never his strength. Karlsson has recovered offensively after a slow start, leading the team in assists, but his defensive value has been questionable.
The previous two times this millennium that the Sharks missed the playoffs, they were able to use their first round picks to draft players like Setoguchi and Timo Meier, who immediately injected talent into the team’s lineup. But now the Sharks’ first round pick belongs to Ottawa, thanks to the Karlsson trade. There is a very real possibility that the Sharks could watch the Ottawa Senators draft a transformational NHL prospect, like Alexis Lafreniere, with the Sharks’ own draft pick.
Every run of contention in sports eventually must come to an end. The San Francisco Giants and Golden State Warriors are finding themselves facing that reality as well, but unlike the Sharks, they still have their draft picks. The Detroit Red Wings surpassed even the Sharks’ run in the NHL, making the playoffs twenty-five years in a row, with four Stanley Cup titles during that span. But now they are mired in a deep rebuild and currently have the NHL’s worst record by far. In the past, the Sharks have been able to immediately return to contention following a playoff drought. But now, with no first round pick and longtime stars like Burns and Thornton either in decline or outright approaching the ends of their careers, the Sharks and their fans will likely have to steel themselves for an extended rebuilding period.
