SAN JOSE – San Jose Sharks prospect Will Smith had lunch this week with veteran forwards Logan Couture and Barclay Goodrow, two central gamers within the workforce’s final playoff run in 2019.
Smith, naturally, wished to know what it was like inside SAP Middle greater than five-plus years in the past on the evening Goodrow scored a series-clinching time beyond regulation purpose in Sport 7 in opposition to the Vegas Golden Knights, capping arguably the wildest sport in workforce historical past.
“I actually watch it back on YouTube a lot, and seeing the Shark Tank like that is pretty crazy,” Smith mentioned. “They were telling me how it was so loud, it was just ringing the entire time.
“It’s our goal to get it back to that.”
With loads of renewed enthusiasm following a quite transformative summer time, the on-ice a part of that lengthy course of for the Sharks started Thursday with the primary day of the workforce’s coaching camp.
New head coach Ryan Warsofsky directed a number of new gamers, together with high prospects Smith and Macklin Celebrini, by way of hour-long practices that includes a number of up-tempo drills.
The overhauled Sharks hope to be a vastly completely different workforce than the one which completed final season with an NHL-worst 19-54-9 document, giving them the very best likelihood to draft a possible future franchise cornerstone in Celebrini.
Now, with some extra items in place, the Sharks really feel able to take a step ahead. Definitely, their document couldn’t get a lot worse.
“I think last year was rock bottom for us as an organization, and now it’s time to start moving forward and pushing things forward,” Sharks basic supervisor Mike Grier mentioned. “Not only myself, but I think the players and everyone’s excited to get going, turn the page and see what this year brings.”
San Jose Sharks’ first-round draft decide Macklin Celebrini #71 (left), Klim Kostin #10 and Tyler Toffoli #73 take a breather in the course of the first day of coaching camp, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (Karl Mondon/Bay Space Information Group)
Celebrini, who turned the primary participant drafted No. 1 total by the Sharks in June, already appeared proper at dwelling throughout Thursday’s follow and intrasquad scrimmage, the place he scored a few fairly targets and was all around the ice.
In a single sequence, Celebrini buzzed across the offensive zone earlier than he discovered a sliver of area in entrance of the opposing web. A split-second after he took the centering move from defenseman Gannon Laroque, Celebrini ripped the puck previous the glove hand of goalie Georgi Romanov.
“It’s pretty simple. Just get him the puck,” ahead Tyler Toffoli mentioned of Celebrini. “Yeah, he was pretty good out there.”
“The more you enjoy something, the more comfortable you are,” Celebrini mentioned. “So enjoy it.”
Celebrini would possibly begin the season because the Sharks’ No. 1 heart as captain Logan Couture will possible be on injured reserve to start the 12 months.
Couture, coming into his sixth season because the Sharks’ captain, continues to cope with osteitis pubis — irritation within the joint between the left and proper pubic bones.
After lacking all of coaching camp and the Sharks’ first 45 video games, Couture final season returned and performed in six straight video games from Jan. 20-31 earlier than being shelved once more. However he hasn’t skated since that Jan. 31 sport in Anaheim and nonetheless has no timeline for getting again onto the ice.
The Sharks open the season on Oct. 10 at dwelling in opposition to the St. Louis Blues.
“I’ve played hockey for 30-plus years, and when it just ends abruptly, it’s difficult, especially when you don’t really have a choice. The body just breaks down,” Couture mentioned Thursday. “But that’s the way professional sports, or sports in general, normally work, not always injuries, sometimes other reasons. But that’s the situation I’m in.”
The San Jose Sharks new coach Coach Ryan Warsofsky provides directions in the course of the first day of coaching camp, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (Karl Mondon/Bay Space Information Group)
Couture was one in all 4 injured Sharks gamers unable to skate Thursday.
Goalie prospect Yaroslav Askarov and defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin are each out with lower-body accidents, and veteran defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic has an upper-body harm that Warsofsky mentioned occurred throughout captains skates earlier this month. Warsofsky mentioned these three are thought-about day-to-day.
The Sharks would look like higher positioned to soak up Couture’s absence than they have been final season.
Celebrini and Smith performed heart throughout their standout freshman seasons at Boston College and Boston Faculty, respectively. The Sharks additionally added Goodrow and Alexander Wennberg this summer time and have Mikael Granlund and Nico Sturm again from final season.
The Sharks’ ahead group may have as many as seven or eight new gamers this season, and the protection corps added some wanted expertise with the acquisitions of Jake Walman and Cody Ceci. Askarov, the Sharks’ hope, would be the goalie of the long run.
All of it provides as much as what the Sharks hope would be the best camp in years, a message Grier relayed to the gamers on Wednesday.
“It’s about compete and earning your opportunities that maybe somewhat in the past, (there were) guys in the lineup or on the roster that maybe shouldn’t have been,” Grier mentioned. “Now there’s legitimate competition throughout, and there’s no one where we don’t feel like we have to force someone onto the lineup.
“That was kind of the message to the guys, young and old. If you want a spot and you want to earn something, you’ve got to go out there and take it. No one’s going to give it to you anymore.”
San Jose Sharks’ Nico Sturm takes a shot in the course of the workforce’s first day of coaching camp, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (Karl Mondon/Bay Space Information Group)
The Sharks have been in a downward spiral for 3 years earlier than Grier’s arrival in the summertime of 2022, but the entrance workplace on the time was nonetheless unwilling to publicly state that they wanted to rebuild after a decade and a half of success.
Then Grier arrived, ripped off the band-aid, stripped the roster all the way down to the studs, and endured two of essentially the most painful seasons in franchise historical past.
However now, with a restocked farm system led by Celebrini, is when all that heartache begins to repay. Or at the very least, that’s the hope.
“I think we’re all trying to look forward,” Grier mentioned. “We appreciate what was done here. I think (former Sharks GM) Doug (Wilson) did a great job, and it was something special to be so competitive for such a long time. But now I think it’s our turn and the group’s turn to start writing their own history.”
Regardless of the additions, the Sharks are nonetheless anticipated to once more end close to the underside of the NHL standings. Few, if any, prognosticators imagine the Sharks will make the playoffs this season, however there’s additionally a sense among the many gamers that they won’t be as far off as some suppose.
Goodrow mentioned the environment contained in the Shark Tank throughout and after that Sport 7 in opposition to Vegas, “was the loudest building I’ve ever experienced. When we’re rolling here and the team’s competitive, it’s a great place to play and a great building to play in.
“It’s on us as players to get that back and bring the standard to what it was.”
Initially Printed: September 19, 2024 at 6:16 p.m.
