A PGP Guide to: The San Jose Sharks

A PGP Guide to: The San Jose Sharks

The San Jose Sharks are one of those franchises where the aesthetic was perfect from day one. They have teal jerseys, a shark biting a hockey stick, players literally skating onto the ice through the mouth of a giant shark, all of which embody California hockey. Unfortunately, they also come with approximately three decades of playoff induced emotional damage. For most of the 2000s and 2010s, San Jose was one of the NHL’s most consistently good teams. They had Hall of Famers, Presidents’ Trophies, deep playoff runs, legendary Game 7s and an entire generation of players who felt like they should have won a Stanley Cup. Sadly for them, they just never did and everything collapsed with the old core disappearing and San Jose finally committing to a real rebuild.

That rebuild has produced Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, Michael Misa, Sam Dickinson, Ivar Stenberg, Yaroslav Askarov and one of the most exciting young cores in hockey. Do I consider them to be a struggling, rebuilding team? Not exactly. I think the core the Sharks have now may lead them somewhere wonderful…

The Basics

Team: San Jose Sharks

Conference: Western Conference

Division: Pacific Division

Home Arena: SAP Center

Location: San Jose, California

Franchise Founded: 1991

Team Colors: Teal, black & white

Stanley Cups: 0

Biggest Rivals: Los Angeles Kings, Vegas Golden Knights, Anaheim Ducks

Celebrini was officially named captain on September 25, becoming the youngest captain in Sharks history and the youngest active captain in the NHL!

The Origin Story

The Sharks arrived in 1991, but Bay Area NHL history is a bit messier than that. The region originally had the California Seals, who entered the NHL during the league’s 1967 expansion. They eventually became the Oakland Seals and then the California Golden Seals before relocating to Cleveland in 1976 as the Cleveland Barons. Two years later, the Barons merged with the Minnesota North Stars. This is where the Sharks come in!

George and Gordon Gund had ownership interests connected to the Seals and later the North Stars, but they still believed NHL hockey could succeed in Northern California. Eventually, the NHL approved a complicated arrangement – the Gunds sold their interest in Minnesota and received the right to establish a new Bay Area expansion franchise. San Jose also received players through a unique dispersal/expansion process involving Minnesota.

The Sharks aren't literally the Golden Seals renamed, but their creation is directly connected to that franchise’s history. San Jose held its first draft in 1991 and selected Pat Falloon second overall. The Sharks spent their first two seasons playing at the Cow Palace in Daly City, then moved into the newly built San Jose Arena in 1993. That building eventually became SAP Center and has been their home ever since, and from the beginning, the branding absolutely ate!! Teal was unusual, the shark logo was immediately recognizable, and their original jerseys became some of the most beloved uniforms of the 1990s. It’s genuinely hard to make an expansion franchise look cooler than the San Jose Sharks did.

The Vibe Check

The Sharks’ vibe is a mix of 90s nostalgia, California hockey, elite jerseys, years of playoff trauma, and an absurd collection of talented children trying to fix everything. Historically, San Jose has occupied a strange place in NHL culture because they were never a joke franchise, they were quite the opposite. For a very long time, they were really, really good. The problem was that every spring seemed to invent a new method of emotionally destroying Sharks fans. They'd dominate the regular season and lose early or they'd finally make a deep run and lose in the conference final. They'd blow a 3-0 series lead, or they'd finally reach the Stanley Cup Final and lose. Then, just when everyone thought the window might finally be closed, they'd produce one of the most ridiculous Game 7 comebacks in NHL history and reach another conference final.

Being a Sharks fan during their contention era meant constantly thinking this has to be the year, but it never was. Now the vibe is completely different. Instead of an aging contender desperately trying to get over the hump, San Jose is one of the NHL’s youngest and most interesting teams.

The History You Need to Know

The Sharks debuted during the 1991–92 season and, like most expansion teams of that era, they were horrible, but expansion teams weren't expected to immediately contend back then. The important thing was that Northern California had NHL hockey again, people loved the branding and the franchise had a permanent home waiting in San Jose. Then everything changed surprisingly quickly. The 1993–94 Sharks improved dramatically and qualified for the playoffs for the first time in franchise history when they faced off against the Detroit Red Wings, one of the best teams in hockey. Detroit finished with 100 points and San Jose still had a losing record, so nobody expected this to be difficult for the Red Wings. Instead, the Sharks pushed the series all the way to Game 7 in Detroit. With the score tied 2-2 in the third period, Detroit goaltender Chris Osgood made a disastrous clearing attempt and Jamie Baker scored. San Jose won 3-2, and in their first playoff appearance ever, the Sharks had eliminated the top team in the Western Conference! This remains one of the foundational moments in franchise history.

The Sharks gradually stopped feeling like a cute expansion story and started becoming a legitimate NHL organization. Players like Owen Nolan, Vincent Damphousse, Mike Ricci, Marco Sturm, Evgeni Nabokov and a very young Patrick Marleau became the faces of the franchise. Marleau had been selected second overall in 1997 and would eventually become the defining Shark. By 2003–04, San Jose finally broke through to its first Western Conference Final after eliminating St. Louis and Colorado. They lost to the Calgary Flames in six games, but the Sharks were officially entering a different era.

In 2005, San Jose made one of the most important trades in franchise history. The Sharks acquired Joe Thornton from Boston for Marco Sturm, Wayne Primeau and Brad Stuart. Thornton immediately became one of the best players in hockey and finished that season with 125 points, winning both the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL's leading scorer and the Hart Trophy as league MVP. Suddenly the Sharks had Thornton feeding passes to Patrick Marleau, and the most successful stretch in franchise history began. From Thornton's first game with San Jose in December 2005 through the end of his Sharks tenure in 2020, no NHL team accumulated more regular season standings points than San Jose!!

The 2008–09 Sharks went 53-18-11 for 117 points, winning the first and still only Presidents' Trophy in franchise history. They entered the playoffs with legitimate Stanley Cup expectations, then the eighth seeded Anaheim Ducks eliminated them in six games in the first round. This became the central Sharks problem. They weren't failing because they couldn't build good teams, in fact, they were building excellent teams, but then April would happen and something wouldn’t work.

San Jose reached back to back Western Conference Finals. In 2010, the eventual Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks swept them. In 2011, the Vancouver Canucks eliminated them in five games. At this point the Sharks had Thornton, Marleau, Joe Pavelski, Logan Couture, Dan Boyle and Evgeni Nabokov during various parts of the era. The roster was absolutely good enough, but the Cup still wouldn't come.

Sharks fans, I'm sorry for what I’m about to discuss, but I have to. In 2014, San Jose opened its first round series against the Los Angeles Kings by winning the first three games, meaning they had a 3-0 series lead and were one more win away from advancing to the next round. Instead, Los Angeles won Game 4, then Game 5, then Game 6, then walked into SAP Center and won Game 7 5-1. The Kings became only the fourth team in NHL history to come back from a 3-0 deficit and win a best of seven playoff series, and then, because apparently the universe wasn't finished, Los Angeles went on to win the Stanley Cup. This is one of the darkest entries in Sharks history and one of the major reasons the Kings rivalry became so personal!

Two years later, San Jose got revenge. The Sharks faced Los Angeles again in the first round and eliminated the Kings in five games. They then beat Nashville in seven and St. Louis in six. For the first time in the franchise's 25 year history, the San Jose Sharks were going to the Stanley Cup Final! This season had Thornton, Marleau, Pavelski, Couture, Brent Burns, Marc-Édouard Vlasic, all headed to the Cup Final.  Unfortunately, Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins were waiting and Pittsburgh defeated San Jose in six games and won the Stanley Cup on Sharks ice at SAP Center. This remains the closest San Jose has ever come.

Then came 2019 when San Jose faced the relatively new Vegas Golden Knights in the first round. Vegas went up 3-1 in the series, but the Sharks forced Game 7. Vegas then took a 3-0 lead in the third period and it looked finished. Joe Pavelski was injured following a faceoff and Vegas was assessed a five-minute major penalty, so San Jose proceeded to score four goals during the power play!! Vegas somehow tied the game late, sending it to overtime, then Barclay Goodrow scored at 18:19 of overtime. San Jose won 5-4 and SAP Center nearly levitated off the ground! The Sharks went on to beat Colorado before reaching another Western Conference Final, where St. Louis eliminated them in six games on the Blues' way to winning the Stanley Cup. That remains San Jose's most recent playoff appearance.

The Icons

Patrick Marleau

If one player represents the San Jose Sharks franchise, it's Patrick Marleau. San Jose drafted him second overall in 1997, and he ultimately spent parts of 21 seasons with the organization. He became the franchise leader in games, goals and points and eventually broke Gordie Howe's NHL record for career games played, finishing with 1,779.

Joe Thornton

Thornton's arrival in 2005 immediately transformed the Sharks. He won the Hart and Art Ross that season and became one of the greatest passing centers in NHL history. He finished his Sharks career with 1,055 points, including a franchise-record 804 assists, and helped take San Jose to four conference finals and the 2016 Stanley Cup Final.

Joe Pavelski

Captain America! San Jose drafted Pavelski 205th overall in 2003. He became captain, one of the NHL's best net front scorers and an essential part of the Sharks' best era. Pavelski spent 13 seasons in San Jose and captained the team during its first Stanley Cup Final run in 2016. He was never the biggest or fastest player, he was just standing exactly where the puck was going to end up.

Evgeni Nabokov

The goalie of the classic Sharks era! Nabokov won the Calder Trophy in 2001 and remains the franchise leader among Sharks goaltenders in games played, wins and shutouts. He finished his San Jose career with 293 wins and 50 shutouts and even scored a goal in 2002!!

Owen Nolan

The original Sharks superstar! Before Thornton, before Pavelski and before the franchise became an annual contender, there was Owen Nolan. San Jose acquired him in 1995, he eventually became captain and his combination of scoring, physicality and personality made him one of the defining players of the Sharks' early era. His most famous San Jose moment may actually have come at the 1997 NHL All-Star Game, when he famously pointed to the corner of the net before scoring there to complete his hat trick.

Brent Burns

Burns arrived in 2011 and became one of the NHL's most recognizable players. He scored like a forward while technically being a defenseman, played enormous minutes, had missing teeth, possessed approximately seven hundred animals and won the 2017 Norris Trophy after recording 76 points and 29 goals. Among Sharks defensemen, nobody has produced more offense.

Logan Couture

The playoff assassin & captain of the end of an era. Couture spent his entire NHL career with San Jose after being drafted ninth overall in 2007. He became one of the best playoff performers in franchise history and eventually succeeded Pavelski as captain. In 2019 alone, Couture scored 14 playoff goals, leading the entire postseason despite San Jose not reaching the Final. Persistent injury issues eventually ended his playing career. Couture announced in April 2025 that he was stepping away from professional hockey because he could no longer play due to osteitis pubis, although his contract runs through 2026–27.

The Current Era

Eventually San Jose couldn't keep trying to squeeze one more run out of the old core. The playoff streak ended after 2019, the roster aged, expensive contracts piled up, and the results collapsed. Then Mike Grier became general manager in July 2022, and the rebuild became real. Brent Burns was traded to Carolina, Timo Meier went to New Jersey, Erik Karlsson went to Pittsburgh following his 101-point Norris winning season, Tomáš Hertl went to Vegas, and the Sharks began converting veteran players into picks, prospects and salary flexibility rather than pretending the old contention window was still open.

It hurt a lot, but when the draft picks came in, it helped heal the wound. In 2023, the Sharks drafted Will Smith at 4th overall. In 2024, Macklin Celebrini was drafted 1st overall and Sam Dickinson came at 11th. In 2025, Michael Misa was drafted 2nd overall. And just this past summer, SJ drafted Ivar Stenberg at 2nd overall and Keaton Verhoeff at 9th overall. That is how you rebuild a franchise!

The Sharks aren't entering 2026–27 as a finished product anymore, but they're also not the hopeless rebuilding team they were a few years ago. San Jose went 39-35-8 in 2025–26, improving by 19 wins and 34 standings points from the previous season. They finished fifth in the Pacific and remained in the playoff race before ultimately missing.

Before the draft this summer, the most surprising move the Sharks made was trading William Eklund, Kasper Halttunen and Brandon Svoboda to Ottawa for the 9th pick in the 2026 Draft. San Jose used that selection on defenseman Keaton Verhoeff. The Sharks also selected Ivar Stenberg second overall (as mentioned above), traded for Darnell Nurse, acquired Michael Kesselring, and signed Jacob Trouba and Mason Marchment.

The kids are here!

The Players You Need to Know

Macklin Celebrini

The captain & the franchise.

This is his team now! San Jose won the 2024 Draft Lottery and selected Celebrini first overall. Two seasons later, he is already the face of the franchise. Celebrini exploded for 115 points — 45 goals and 70 assists — in 2025–26, finishing fourth in NHL scoring and setting a Sharks single season scoring record. In July, San Jose signed him to a five year, $94 million contract extension. Then on September 25, they gave the 20 year old the captaincy! He is the player this entire rebuild revolves around.

Will Smith

The elite young playmaker.

The Sharks selected Will Smith Hockey 4th overall in 2023 after an absolutely ridiculous season with the U.S. National Team Development Program, and he has developed into Celebrini's primary young partner in crime. Smith jumped from 45 points as a rookie to 59 points with 24 goals and 35 assists in 2025–26. The Celebrini/Smith friendship has also become part of the entire Sharks marketing universe. Basically if you see WillMack, this is the Will.

Michael Misa

Another No. 2 pick!

Misa was selected second overall in 2025 after putting up 134 points in 65 OHL games for Saginaw. His rookie NHL season was more gradual with 21 points in 45 games, but that’s normal as he entered the league at 18 years old. The ceiling is still extremely high, and the terrifying part for the rest of the Pacific Division is that San Jose doesn't need him to become the franchise center because they have one already.

Ivar Stenberg

The newest extremely talented child.

San Jose selected the Swedish winger second overall in 2026 after he produced 33 points in 43 games against adults in the SHL. He also played for Sweden at the 2026 World Championship and was voted one of the team's three best players. He made the Sharks' opening night roster at 18!

Sam Dickinson

The young defenseman the rebuild desperately needed.

Dickinson was selected 11th overall in 2024 and arrived with size, skating and genuine offensive ability. He made San Jose full time in 2025–26, playing 72 games as a rookie, and enters this season as one of the most important pieces of the Sharks' future blue line since he’s here to stabilize all of this. 

Yaroslav Askarov

The goalie experiment that needs to work.

San Jose acquired Askarov from Nashville in 2024 after years of him being considered one of hockey's top goaltending prospects. The personality? Huge. The athletic ability? Huge. The 2025–26 NHL season? More complicated. Askarov went 21-20-4 with a 3.63 goals-against average and .884 save percentage, and San Jose finished near the bottom of the NHL defensively. The Sharks have built a ridiculous young collection of forwards, so they need Askarov to become the goalie they believed they were trading for.

Igor Chernyshov

The prospect who may be arriving early.

Chernyshov was San Jose's second-round pick in 2024 and made his NHL debut last season.

He proceeded to put up 19 points in only 28 games, including nine goals. At 6'3", he brings size San Jose's young forward group doesn't always have, and he made the 2026–27 opening roster. Pay attention!

Tyler Toffoli

The veteran scorer surrounded by children.

Toffoli is one of the remaining veteran anchors on a roster becoming younger every year. He recorded 49 points in 2025–26 and enters his third Sharks season. San Jose named him one of four alternate captains for 2026–27. He has been around long enough to remember when half his teammates were in elementary school.

Mason Marchment

The new giant annoying winger.

Marchment signed a five-year contract with San Jose in July 2026 after recording 45 points in 68 games split between Seattle and Columbus the previous season. He's big, physical, capable of scoring and exactly the type of veteran winger you put around extremely skilled young centers. Also his father, Bryan Marchment, played for the Sharks!

Darnell Nurse

The very expensive veteran defenseman.

San Jose acquired Nurse from Edmonton on July 1 in exchange for Shakir Mukhamadullin and Zachary Sharp. Nurse brings size, physicality, experience and a very large contract to a defense that badly needed NHL caliber veterans. He's also one of San Jose's road alternate captains this season.

Jacob Trouba

The other veteran defenseman they imported immediately.

Trouba signed a four-year, $33 million contract with San Jose in free agency after spending the previous season with Anaheim. He had 35 points and 10 goals in 2025–26 and gives the Sharks another physical, experienced option beside a very young defensive core.

The Rivalries

Los Angeles Kings

This one is personal. Sharks-Kings is California hockey hatred at its finest! Northern California vs Southern California, teal vs black, SAP Center vs Crypto.com Arena. The rivalry became especially intense because the teams could not stop meeting in the playoffs. They faced each other four times between 2011 and 2016. Los Angeles eliminated San Jose in seven games in 2013 and then delivered the nightmare 2014 reverse sweep after the Sharks went ahead 3-0. San Jose finally got some revenge in 2016, eliminating LA in five games on the way to the Stanley Cup Final. The rivalry cooled while San Jose rebuilt, but Kings-Sharks is baked into the identity of both franchises, and I’m waiting for the day these two become good at the same time again.

Vegas Golden Knights

Vegas didn't even exist until 2017. Nobody cared, then they started playing San Jose. Vegas eliminated the Sharks in the second round during its inaugural 2018 playoff run. One year later came the Game 7 when San Jose overcame a 3-1 series deficit, Pavelski's injury happened, the five-minute major, four power play goals, Vegas tying it late and Goodrow scoring in overtime instantly gave this rivalry enough material for twenty years. Vegas then made things even more offensive by becoming extremely successful extremely quickly. Also, the rebuilding Sharks traded Tomáš Hertl to Vegas.

Anaheim Ducks

Anaheim and San Jose have spent decades sharing California, the Pacific Division and a general desire to annoy each other. The Ducks gave San Jose one of its most painful playoff losses in 2009, knocking out the Presidents' Trophy winning Sharks in the first round, but San Jose returned the favor in 2018, sweeping Anaheim 4-0. This rivalry hasn't had the same level of playoff trauma as Kings-Sharks, but the geographic element never disappears, and now both organizations have young talent again, so maybe we're getting somewhere.

The Fanbase

Sharks fans have had a strange existence. This isn’t an Original Six franchise with generations of inherited fandom, but San Jose built a legitimate hockey culture incredibly quickly. For years, The Shark Tank had a reputation as one of the loudest and most intimidating buildings in the NHL.

The arena itself is part of the identity! Before home games, the Sharks skate onto the ice through a giant shark head, a tradition dating back to the first game at the new arena in October 1993. It was unusual enough at the time that San Jose players reportedly had to be warned not to trip over the giant teeth.

There's also The Chomp, one of the arena's longest running fan traditions, and the mascot S.J. Sharkie, who debuted in January 1992 and has basically spent three decades causing problems around the building. Sharkie was even inducted into the Mascot Hall of Fame in 2025!

The one chant that will always annoy me though is “BEAT LA!” Let's get a bit more creative, yeah?

The Retired Numbers

No. 12 — Patrick Marleau

Marleau became the first player in Sharks history to have his number retired. He remains the franchise's defining homegrown player and the NHL's all time leader in games played.

No. 19 — Joe Thornton

Thornton's banner hangs next to Marleau's, which is just so correct considering how closely their careers and Sharks legacies are connected.

Those are currently the only two numbers retired by the franchise!

The Team Identity

For years, the Sharks' identity was basically being really good but never quite good enough. They were too successful to be underdogs and too unsuccessful in the playoffs to ever feel completely safe. San Jose had Thornton, Marleau, Pavelski, Couture, Burns, Vlasic, Nabokov, Hertl and Karlsson pass through during a prolonged era of contention. They won division titles, won a Presidents' Trophy, reached conference finals, reached a Stanley Cup Final, they just never got the Cup.

The new Sharks are trying to build something completely different. Celebrini is only 20, Smith is 21, Misa is 19, Dickinson is 20, Stenberg is 18, Chernyshov is 20. San Jose has basically assembled the NHL version of an honors dorm and then surrounded everybody with giant veteran defensemen. For the first time in years, Sharks fans aren't primarily talking about what the franchise used to be, they’re talking about what it could become.

Why You Should Watch Them

Watching a terrible rebuilding team is miserable, but watching the young stars produced by that rebuild actually click is a completely different experience. Macklin Celebrini already looks like a genuine NHL superstar, Will Smith is taking another step, and Michael Misa is developing beside them. Ivar Stenberg just made the team at 18! Sam Dickinson is growing into the blue line and Igor Chernyshov looks like he might be another hit. Yaroslav Askarov remains one of the biggest wild cards in net, but when you take a look at this roster, this is the only question mark.

The Sharks finally spent the 2026 offseason adding adults around them instead of simply collecting more future assets. For most of Sharks history, the question was if this would finally be the year they win the Cup. Then, for a few years, it became how bad is this going to get before it gets better. The fans are asking how quickly can all of these kids turn the Sharks into a contender again? Welcome back to The Shark Tank!