Whenever the NHL season concludes, the Sharks will finish well below expectations.
The Sharks were last in the Pacific Division and Western Conference at the time of the league’s coronavirus suspension in March, less than a year after reaching the Conference final. Sure, San Jose lost wingers Joe Pavelski, Gustav Nyquist and Joonas Donskoi in free agency, and the Sharks traded Justin Braun to the Philadelphia Flyers.
But how did a team that still had Erik Karlsson and Brent Burns on the blue line, plus Logan Couture, Tomas Hertl, Timo Meier and Evander Kane up front, miss the playoffs?