#san-jose-sharks

#san-jose-sharks

Misa, 18, and Dickinson, 19, each found out they had cracked the Sharks' season-opening 23-man roster on Monday and went through their first practices as NHL players on Tuesday. Still, there is no guarantee they'll play against the Vegas Golden Knights in Thursday's season-opener, which begins a three-game homestand. Dickinson was on the fourth defense pair Tuesday with Vincent Desharnais, and Misa was left out of the Sharks' initial line rushes.

Okay, so we made guesses way, way too early before free agency and we made guesses way too early, after the draft and free agency, but before camps started. Now that things have had time to settle down and a few rounds of cuts have been made, we can start thinking about what the opening night roster will look like for the San Jose Sharks.

As if you need another reason to say F*** Vegas. It sounds like the Golden Knights are the frontrunners to sign goaltender Carter Hart, one of five former Hockey Canada players who were on trial and accused of sexually assaulting an extremely intoxicated woman in a hotel room. Hart was the only one of the five players to testify in the trial. While the woman, identified as E.M. said she felt pressured into having oral sex with Hart, he said it was consensual.

Lately, the Sharks have been one of the main teams that the Leafs like to deal with and make trades with. Most recently, Toronto sent out Ryan Reaves to San Jose in return for young defenseman Henry Thrun, who could make the team as a seventh blueliner. And a little further back, in a somewhat similar type of deal to what we could expect a Robertson trade to look like, the Leafs send former first-round pick Timothy Liljegren to the Sharks, as well.

William Eklund's path to the San Jose Sharks has been one of the most closely watched prospect journeys in the league. Drafted 7th overall by San Jose in the 2021 NHL Draft, he came into the organization with huge expectations as a future face of the franchise. After spending time developing in Sweden with Djurgårdens IF and splitting a couple of seasons between the Barracuda and the Sharks, Eklund finally became a full-time NHLer in 2023-24, and he didn't disappoint.

Tyler Toffoli assisted on Klingberg's power play goal at the 7:18 mark of the second period that gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead. Michael Misa, taken second overall by the Sharks at the NHL Draft in June, took the faceoff to start the power play and Toffoli retrieved the puck to the right of the Golden Knights' net. He then sent it to the point for Klingberg, who skated toward the middle of the ice before his shot got past Vegas goalie Carl Lindbom.

The problem is those two banners both have 2015-16 displayed on them. While the Sharks won their first and only Western Conference title in 2015-16, they captured the President's Trophy during the 2008-09 season for finishing atop the NHL's regular season standings. In 2015-16, the Sharks, in their first season under then-coach Pete DeBoer, finished 11th in the overall standings with 98 points and a record of 46-30-6.

Shakir Mukhamadullin is a big, smooth-skating defenseman who has quickly become one of the more intriguing pieces in the San Jose Sharks' rebuild. Originally drafted 20th overall by the New Jersey Devils in 2020, he made his way to San Jose as part of the Timo Meier trade in 2023. Since then, he's been one of the Sharks' top defensive prospects and started getting NHL games under his belt.

SAN JOSE The Sharks' success was once so constant, so reliable, so predictable, that they ran out of room to hang their accolades. With twenty playoff appearances in 24 years, the Sharks literally filled up an entire banner at their practice facility, top to bottom, with their postseason berths. It was such steady excellence that the team had to commission a new banner just to keep up.