en-us SportSpyder - The Latest San Jose Sharks News https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/news San Jose Sharks face a pivotal choice: Do they need a top-scoring defenseman like Brent Burns or Cale Makar to become true Stanley Cup contenders? JD Young b... Wed, 03 Jun 2026 06:10:26 GMT Locked On Sharks https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56829556 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56829556 false false Vegas Golden Knights forward Tomas Hertl ends scoring drought with help from former Sharks teammate Wed, 03 Jun 2026 06:02:27 GMT Curtis Pashelka https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56829528 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56829528 false false What can the San Jose Sharks learn from the 2026 Stanley Cup finalists, the Vegas Golden Knights and Carolina Hurricanes? This is an especially pressing question for the Sharks to ponder on the eve of Game One of the Stanley Cup Final, as they just missed making the playoffs this year. The young Sharks look […] The post appeared first on . Wed, 03 Jun 2026 00:12:31 GMT Sheng Peng https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56827401 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56827401 false false BUFFALO — Carson Carels would love to play with Joshua Ravensbergen again, this time with the San Jose Sharks. “I love that guy,” the Prince George Cougars defenseman said of his netminder on Tuesday at the Combine, “and I love that he’s drafted by the Sharks.” The 2025-26 WHL Goaltender of the Year was selected […] The post appeared first on . Tue, 02 Jun 2026 23:30:04 GMT Sheng Peng https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56826997 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56826997 false false The San Jose Sharks are deep into their rebuild, but can they avoid the pitfalls that tripped up the Maple Leafs? What lessons should San Jose take from Toro... Tue, 02 Jun 2026 22:12:15 GMT Locked On Sharks https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56826158 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56826158 false false Sometimes loyalty to one franchise costs players championships. Tomas Hertl knew it in 2024, as he, alongside the Sharks, missed the playoffs for the fifth-consecutive season. He had given the… Tue, 02 Jun 2026 20:24:49 GMT Deepanjan Mitra https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56824797 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56824797 false false Brodie Brazil talks with Sharks play-by-play broadcaster Randy Hahn about the Sharks first appearance in the 2016 NHL Stanley Cup Final and more. Tue, 02 Jun 2026 18:01:02 GMT https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56823003 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56823003 false false Brodie Brazil talks with Sharks play-by-play broadcaster Randy Hahn about the Sharks first appearance in the 2016 Stanley Cup Final and more. Tue, 02 Jun 2026 18:00:31 GMT San Jose Sharks https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56822994 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56822994 false false What can the Sharks learn from the 2026 Stanley Cup finalists, the Vegas Golden Knights and ? This is an especially pressing question for San Jose to ponder on the eve of , as it just missed making the playoffs this year. The young Sharks look to snap their seven-season playoff drought next year. Beyond that, general manager Mike Grier wants to build a consistent contender just like Vegas and Carolina. The Golden Knights won the 2023 Stanley Cup and have made at least the conference finals in four of their nine seasons of existence. The Hurricanes have made the Eastern Conference Finals in three of the last four years, finally breaking through to the championship round this season. Here are five lessons of success that the Sharks can learn from the 2026 finalists. It’s worth noting that there is no single path to hoisting the Stanley Cup, so San Jose shouldn’t be looking to simply copy Vegas or Carolina. Ruthless Decision-Making? Hate it or love it, the Golden Knights are the epitome of putting winning above pretty much anything else in their decision-making. For example, their “What have you done for me lately?” mentality with head coaches: Vegas has fired three head coaches, Gerard Gallant, Peter DeBoer and Bruce Cassidy, all within three seasons of at least a conference finals appearance. John Tortorella, who took over for 2023 Stanley Cup winner Cassidy in March, finished the regular season 7-0-1, and has won 12 of 16 playoff games. This ruthlessness also has extended to general manager Kelly McCrimmon’s roster decisions, like the acrimonious parting with fan favorite goalie Marc-Andre Fleury after his Vezina Trophy-winning season. What does this mean for Grier? There are, of course, some decisions that many Sharks fans will be glad that Grier doesn’t follow in McCrimmon’s steps, such as signing goalie Carter Hart after his sexual assault case acquittal or spending a first-round pick on Trevor Connolly and his checkered past. But in the coming years, Grier will have to make some unpopular decisions to build a winner, and no one has done that with more success than the Golden Knights. Size Isn’t Everything? The Hurricanes appear to place less of an emphasis on size than the Golden Knights … and maybe Grier. Carolina has five regular skaters listed under 6-foot-0, 5-foot-8 Logan Stankoven, 5-foot-10 Seth Jarvis, and 5-foot-11 Jackson Blake, Shayne Gostisbehere, and Sean Walker. In contrast, Vegas doesn’t have any skater listed under 6-foot-0. It’s also worth noting that two of these smaller Canes, Gostisbehere and Walker, are defensemen, whereas 6-foot-1 Rasmus Andersson is the Knights’ smallest. Since the beginning of his regime, Grier has stressed adding size throughout the organization. Of course, size isn’t an either-or thing — Grier has drafted a handful of smaller prospects in the last four years, for example — but the Hurricanes are a reminder that not everybody in the NHL is thinking bigger. Don’t Need a No. 1 Defenseman? When it comes to the Sharks’ next step, most of the chatter is about . Carolina and Vegas are examples of teams winning without a Norris Trophy-caliber defenseman; case in point, their most decorated rearguards. Jaccob Slavin, the Canes’ go-to shutdown blueliner, finished fifth for the Norris in 2019, but more often than not, is outside the top 10. Shea Theodore, playing 1D minutes in the playoffs for the first time in his career, has two sixth-place Norris finishes on his resume, in 2020 and 2021, but otherwise hasn’t been in that conversation. Both teams, however, are loaded up with excellent defensemen up and down their line-ups, especially Olympians Slavin, Theodore, Andersson, and Noah Hanifin. Everyone, of course, wants a true-blue No. 1 a la Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes, but there are only a handful of defensemen like that in the league. As the Sharks navigate their return to prominence, Carolina, Vegas and two-time defending champion Florida Panthers are proof positive that you can win without a kingpin blueliner. Price of Goaltending? The Hurricanes, in particular, are winning without expensive goaltending. Between Frederik Andersen and Brandon Bussi, Carolina is spending $4.25 million AAV, just 4.5 percent of the cap, which is at the lower end of the NHL. Between Hart and Adin Hill, Vegas is spending $8.25 million AAV, 8.6 percent of the cap, which is about average. You don’t need a Norris Trophy winner to win a Stanley Cup — and you don’t need a pricey goalie either. The Sharks are spending just $5 million AAV between Yaroslav Askarov and Alex Nedeljkovic right now, but it’s a reminder that when it comes time for Grier to pay the piper between the pipes … he might not have to? “F–k Them Picks” That’s a Los Angeles Rams meme from 2022, so widespread that general manager Les Snead wore a T-shirt with that slogan at his Super Bowl victory parade. Snead is still living up to that slogan, with Monday’s earth-shattering trade for superstar defensive end Myles Garrett, send... Tue, 02 Jun 2026 16:40:02 GMT Sheng Peng https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56821962 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56821962 false false When the 2025-26 season started, General Manager Mike Grier knew that he needed to add a veteran defenseman who could move the puck and feed his group of dynamic young forwards. He also knew that the high-end defensive free agents weren’t going to run to San Jose, a team that is still a few years away from true contention. So the general manager had to get creative. He had to make offers to second-tier defensemen and players with the hopes that they might pan out in the end. Which is how the Sharks ended up landing right-shot defenseman John Klingberg on the first day of free agency. Klingberg’s 2025-26 production Unfortunately for the Sharks and the defenseman, things didn’t always turn out the way both sides had hoped. Klingberg was in and out of the lineup last season, sometimes because of injury and other times because he was a healthy scratch. Ultimately, he played 56 games for the Sharks, with his final game coming in the Sharks’ 82nd game of the season, where he reached a personal milestone of 700 games played. Games Played Goals Assists Points +/- Shooting % TOI/Game 56 10 17 27 -13 12.7% 20:28 NHL.com Even though 56 games and 27 points don’t seem like a ton for the defenseman whose career started out so promising with the Dallas Stars, it is better than he has been for the past five seasons. 56 games is the most since Klingberg has played since 2021-22 with Dallas, when he played 74 games. What’s more, his 10 goals are the most he’s scored since 2018-19, also with the Stars. His 27 points are the most he’s registered since the 2021-22 season. Klingberg is still impactful offensively What’s more, for all of his defensive flaws, the defenseman can still impact the game offensively. Looking at his regularized-adjusted plus-minus (RAPM) chart from Evolving-Hockey, you can see that Klingberg still had a positive impact on goals for per 60 minutes and expected goals for per 60 minutes. While the Sharks didn’t get the Klingberg of his prime, the team did get a typical NHL offensive defenseman, emphasis on the offense. Teamed with a more defensively reliable left-side, stay-at-home defenseman, and the Sharks might see the benefit of bringing Klingberg back for a season. Adjustments in Klingberg’s game One thing that might bode well for the Sharks is that Klingberg made adjustments to his game as he gained more playing time throughout the season. It was pretty clear as the season wore on that certain aspects of what he used to do as a player were no longer working. There were moves that he made on the ice that did not hold up to the way he used to play. Klingberg made adjustments to his style of play and that, in turn, made a difference in his on-ice impact. According to Natural Stat Trick, in his 845:37 minutes of ice time before 2/15/26, Klingberg had a CF% (Corsi for percent) of 54.62% at all strengths. His xGF% (expected goals for percent) during the same time span at all strengths was 53.40%. At even-strength, his CF% was 47.99% and his xGF% was 42.08%. Klingberg had less ice time after the Olympic break, just 278:06 at all strengths; however, it did look like he made some changes to his game. Those changes appeared to show in his numbers. His CF% at all strengths was 56.34% and his xGF% at all strengths was 56.95%. He also showed improvement at even-strength, where his CF% was 49.26%, and his xGF% was 46.07%. In other words, the Sharks were possessing the puck better and creating better scoring chances with him on the ice post-Olympics. Klingberg’s future with the Sharks Klingberg wrapped up a one-year deal worth $4 million dollars. There were a few no-movement clauses in the deal, basically ones that guaranteed he wouldn’t be moved until halfway through the season and then, after that, only to a list of teams of his choosing. The latest news has been that Klingberg is open to coming back to the Sharks and the Sharks are considering bringing him back. Since the team has the cap space and the desperate need for right-side defensemen, it seems like a deal could be worked out. If Klingberg is willing to take a short-term contract, the Sharks might be willing to overpay once again, knowing that his deal will come off the books before things start to get hairy and the younger players start to exit their entry-level deals. Editor’s Note: Over the next few weeks, we will be rolling out the player reviews for the San Jose Sharks. We realize there were a lot of guys rotating into and out of the lineup and some of the key depth players were traded. As a result, Fear the Fin plans to focus on the players who are 1) still with the Sharks and 2) played 20 or more games for San Jose this season. Tue, 02 Jun 2026 16:22:21 GMT Erika Towne https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56821697 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56821697 false false We always hear rumors about big trades in the NHL Draft, but top-10 deals rarely happen. With the Sharks’ needs and the draft landscape shifting, could 2026 ... Tue, 02 Jun 2026 16:15:02 GMT Locked On Sharks https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56821595 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56821595 false false The Sharks made a huge jump during the 2025-26 season. What moves will they make to follow up? Tue, 02 Jun 2026 13:05:27 GMT Eric Stephens https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56819470 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56819470 true false Vegas Golden Knights, with ex-Sharks center Tomas Hertl, face the Carolina Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup Final Tue, 02 Jun 2026 12:25:27 GMT Curtis Pashelka https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56819163 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56819163 false false On Monday, the San Jose Sharks announced that they had issued bona fide issues to four members of their 2025 draft class to retain their negotiating rights. Tue, 02 Jun 2026 05:07:24 GMT William Espy https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56817125 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/articles/56817125 false false