Our first Sharks Sterility Stare entry for the year is one of hope, as the San Jose Sharks finally won a game to break their eight-game losing streak. At the halfway point of the season, the team is definitively mediocre, and as we witnessed one of the team’s worst games we’ve ever seen on December 31, that doesn’t surprise us. It’s just been a huge disappointment to see this team not perform well with any consistency.

San Jose current record for 2024-2025: 12-23-6 (.366)
Sharks projected record for 82 games this season: 27-49-6 (.366)
San Jose record last year (2023-2024): 19-54-9 (.287)
NHL record for worst season in 82-game history: 14-57-11 (.238)

Yes, San Jose is on pace to better last year’s record, but that’s not saying much. Then again, any improvement is one that leads them back to the playoffs, where they resided almost every season from 1998-2019 as they won the most regular-season games combined of any NHL team in that stretch—without winning a Stanley Cup, of course, making it to the Finals just once in that incredible winning era. Bad luck.

The New Year’s Eve loss to the Philadelphia Flyers was just ugly, though, as the eight consecutive defeat for the team at the time: the Sharks were outshot, 34-22, by a .500 team on their home ice, and goaltender Alexandar Georgiev was just terrible in giving up the first two goals. He is just 1-4 now since coming over to the team in a trade with the Colorado Avalanche; his .869 save percentage defines his game accurately.

We understand that maybe the San Jose front office thought a change of scenery might help Georgiev, but that was wishful thinking. Of course, the team management may not be trying to win games, or else perhaps they’d give Georgi Romanov another shot in net. The age-25 goalie has limited NHL experience, but the Sharks might as well team him with Yaroslav Askarov right to get them both primed and ready.

Between Askarov (.919 career in nine appearances) and Romanov (.967 career in two appearances) the team could challenge for a postseason berth next season with the young core of skaters on hand. But to win with youth up front, you need experience in your own zone—but not the kind of experience that Georgiev is delivering. Or even what Vítek Vaněček is giving up, when healthy (.885 S%). At some point, just go for it.

Yet the scoring inconsistency issue still plagues the San Jose skaters, too: they’re 23rd overall in the NHL, despite putting up just 19 goals in the last nine games (eight of them losses). The Sharks have just four players right now posting more than 2.0 Offensive Point Shares: for context, the league leaders are in the 5.0 range, and the Top 10 still includes a skater with 4.4 OPS. San Jose has nothing to compare to that level.

We have to remember, too, that one-time star Logan Couture has been out with a groin injury for all but six games in the last season and a half: he was never a dominant player on his own, however, and what he could add at age 35 to this roster is the big question, if he was healthy. Yet he did average 62 points for every 82 games played in his career, and his veteran presence surely would help the youngsters on the team a bit.

But injuries are a part of any sport, even groin injuries, which obvious impact an ice skater quite significantly. We know San Jose is building for the future, like the vagabond Athletics are in MLB, but sometimes we can get a little impatient waiting for it to happen, especially when we think we see the puzzle pieces laid out in front of us to provide a solution. Of course, that’s why we write about it instead … right?!