Sharks in the playoffs? These three things need to happen first

SAN JOSE – The San Jose Sharks had just lost their fifth straight game to open the 2025-26 season — marking the fourth straight year they had gotten off to a terrible start — when a comment from a clearly frustrated Ryan Warsofsky went viral on social media.

“I keep telling myself, there’s a reason why this keeps happening, in a sense,” the Sharks coach said on Oct. 18, 2025, after losing to the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-0, which dropped the Sharks’ record to 0-3-2. “I’d give up one of my children for a (expletive) win. So, it’s frustrating.”

Needless to say, Warsofsky, who apologized for the comment, and the Sharks are hoping this year is different.

With the changes the team has made to the roster, the anticipated growth from its impressive cadre of promising young players, and with one of the NHL’s best in Macklin Celebrini, there has perhaps never been more excitement about the start of a Sharks season since 2018, when the franchise had a Stanley Cup-or-bust mindset following the acquisition of then two-time Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson.

The Sharks, still with one of the NHL’s youngest rosters, are not in their Stanley Cup contention window just yet. But after years of rebuilding, the door appears open for the team to make its first playoff appearance since the 2018-19 season.

Still, nothing is guaranteed, and while there’s been a wave of renewed enthusiasm, the Sharks will have to make significant strides in some areas and get a bit of luck to break their seven-year playoff drought.

Here’s what needs to happen.

A HEALTHY DEFENSE

The Sharks have some young defensemen on the roster, as Nolan Allan, Luca Cagnoni, and Sam Dickinson, all 23 or younger, have a combined 124 games of NHL experience.

The Sharks also have four older defensemen, including 35-year-old Dmitry Orlov, and needed new additions in Jacob Trouba, Darnell Nurse, and Michael Kesselring, who are 32, 31, and 27 years old, respectively.

But an injury to one of the more experienced defensemen could force the Sharks to put younger players in roles they might not be ready for right now. The front office has built some organizational depth on defense, but it’s still a work in progress.

First-year pro Eric Pohlkamp and Libor Hajek, who has played in the Czech League the last three years, are the most likely to be called up if a Sharks defenseman gets injured.

Fortunately for the Sharks, while Kesselring is coming off an injury-plagued year, Orlov, Nurse and Trouba have been pretty durable in recent seasons. They’ll have to stay that way.

Aside from losing Celebrini, the Sharks, with their improved depth up front, can probably absorb an injury to the forward group, but probably not to one of their more experienced defensemen.

THE GOALS AGAINST ISSUE

A healthy defense corps would certainly help cut down the goals the Sharks have allowed in recent years, including last season, when they gave up 3.54 goals per game, ranking 30th in the NHL.

The Sharks were also tied for 28th with 190 goals allowed during 5-on-5 play. Of the bottom 10 teams in 5-on-5 goals allowed, only two, the Anaheim Ducks and Edmonton Oilers, made the playoffs. Conversely, 13 of the top 14 teams in goals against made the postseason.

Getting used to a slightly different system meant to cut down the goals against was one of the Sharks’ top priorities during training camp. They feel they’ve made strides, but that progress will be tested soon, starting with the season-opener on Thursday against the Florida Panthers.

“I guess time will tell,” Warsofsky said when asked if he feels the Sharks have made progress in preventing goals. “I think we’ve done a pretty good job. It was big for us as a staff to really make that point very clear. We’ve probably hit on it every day, whether that’s in morning skate video sessions; we did it a little bit more today, and we’ll do it a little bit more again (Wednesday).

“I think our players are very well aware where we stand in that category. We’re going to give up goals, but we can’t give up the soft ones or the ones that we’re there, but we’re really not there.”

The Sharks also had a team save percentage of .881 last season, which ranked 25th in the NHL. Some of that was on the goalies, but a lot of it was also on puck-management gaffes by the forwards and defensemen. With a few fewer goals against, the Sharks might have made the playoffs last season instead of finishing four points out.

“The coaching staff has done a good job of making it a focal point and explaining and understanding that it’s not just a number,” Sharks goalie Alex Nedeljkovic said of the goals against. “There’s a reason why the best teams in the league, why their numbers look a certain way.”

THE EARLY SCHEDULE

The NHL’s schedule maker, Steve Hatze Petros, didn’t do the Sharks many favors. Of the Sharks’ first 12 games, eight are on the road, including a six-game, 10-day road trip mostly against Atlantic Division teams.

Also, eight of the Sharks’ first 13 games overall are against teams that made the playoffs last season, not including the Panthers, who missed the postseason in 2026 after winning the Cup the previous two years.

Over the last four years, the Sharks’ combined record after 10 games was a dismal 6-29-5. Although the Sharks got back into the playoff race last season after a 2-6-2 start, they probably can’t afford a similar situation this year.

Warsofsky, on the Sharks’ staff the last four seasons, knows that better than anyone.

“Sometimes you’ve got to have a little bit more patience and not be so result-driven,” Warsofsky said. “I get it. This business is result-driven, and we all want to win. Trust me, I completely understand that, and we all want to get off to a great start. That’s extremely important.

“But we also have to stick to the process. You can’t just say, ‘All right, let’s go win the hockey game.’ It’s not that easy. We have to stick to what we do and our identity, how we want to play, how we want to approach our matchups, and how we want to structure our practices leading up to it, and just have a really detailed plan.”