Sharks final record: 19-54-9 (.287)
NHL record for worst season in 82-game history: 14-57-11 (.238)

The Sharks Sterility Stare is over officially today, and it saddens us to know that the San Jose Sharks are not guaranteed the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, thanks to a stupid lottery designed to keep teams from tanking on purpose. It also annoys us that the team basically mailed it in down the stretch here, losing its final 3 games of the season by a combined 20-5 score. That’s just inexcusable, no matter how bad the season.

In Game 80, the Sharks were behind 3-2 in the late stages of the second period before coughing up 2 goals in the final minute of the frame on their was to a 6-2 defeat. In Game 81, San Jose promptly fell behind 4-0 in the first period before seeing that gap widen to 9-1 by the end of 40 minutes’ play in a 9-2 loss. In Game 82, the Sharks trailed 5-0 heading into the final period of the season before dropping the game 5-1. Rough.

Mailing it in like that is fine when you’re in Little League baseball or Pee Wee hockey, but for professional athletes to just throw in the towel on a long season in such a way? It was embarrassing to watch from the cheap seats where we reside. San Jose ended up giving away the most goals of any team this year (331), when only one other team (Columbus) gave up even 300 scores. That’s pretty brutal goaltending, aided by malaise.

Strangely, the Sharks finished ahead of Chicago for goals scored (181 to 179), and the Blackhawks could still end up getting a better draft pick than San Jose, even after getting the No. 1 pick last year. That doesn’t seem right, but it’s the system in place. The Sharks deserve a scouring of their roster plan for next season, just like we did for the Golden State Warriors earlier this week, but we’re not in the mood to do that today. Nope.

For now, here are our awards for the San Jose organization this year:

  • Most Valuable Skater: Mikael Granlund. He finished with 60 points in 69 games. Not bad, generally.
  • Least Valuable Skater: Nico Sturm. Despite playing 63 games, he finished with negative Point Shares.
  • Most Valuable Goalie: Mackenzie Blackwood. His best season since 2019-2020, strangely, with 7.3 PS.
  • Least Valuable Goalie: Magnus Chrona. He only played in 9 games, but he needs a lot of seasoning.

There you have it. In the end, the Sharks avoided bad history and almost got to 20 victories on the season. It’s better than finishing with the worst record ever for an 82-game season, especially when the organization already holds the record for most losses ever (in an 84-game year). It’s nice not to have the double double there, you know? Hopefully, we won’t have to do this again next year. See you in October!