For years, the Sharks were a name Canadian hockey fans mostly saw at the bottom of the Western Conference standings. That changed last season, when San Jose added 19 wins and 34 points to its previous total and missed a wild-card spot by only four points — the clearest sign yet that Grier’s rebuild has a real foundation. The headline addition is Celebrini, who has become one of the most productive young Canadians in the league, but the summer’s bigger story was what Grier did to a defence that allowed 3.54 goals per game, third-worst in the NHL.
The market has responded cautiously. San Jose is priced as a team on the rise rather than a genuine contender, and the gap between its outright number and its conference number tells the real story. Compare the full slate of sports betting odds before staking anything, because the Sharks’ Stanley Cup price and Western Conference price are not telling the same story.
Sharks Odds: The Outright vs. the Conference Market
The three books available to Canadian bettors are tightly grouped on the Stanley Cup number, with more daylight showing up one market down.
MarketOddsBookStanley Cup 2026/27 Winner36.14TonybetStanley Cup 2026/27 Winner36.00StakeStanley Cup 2026/27 Winner41.00BetPlaysWestern Conference Winner17.00StakeWestern Conference Winner17.00BetPlays
Odds current as of Wednesday, Sept. 16. Futures shift quickly once the regular season opens, so shop the number before committing.
Two things stand out. First, Tonybet’s 36.14 is the best available outright price, but BetPlays drifts all the way out to 41.00 for the same outcome — a gap worth roughly $500 on a $1,000 bet. Second, and more usefully, both Stake and BetPlays agree almost exactly at 17.00 for San Jose to win the Western Conference, which implies a 5.9% chance and slots the Sharks in the same tier as Anaheim, clearly behind Colorado, Edmonton, Vegas, Minnesota and Dallas at the top of the bracket. Read together, the market sees a club that has climbed out of the conference’s bottom tier without yet climbing into its top one.
BET NHL FUTURES AT TONYBETCelebrini’s Record Deal Anchors the Case
Celebrini is the reason any of this is plausible. The 2024 first-overall pick scored 115 points (45 goals, 70 assists) in 82 games last season, finishing fourth leaguewide and setting the Sharks’ single-season scoring record by 56 points over the next-closest teammate. His five-year, $94 million extension, signed in July, carries an $18.8 million annual average value — the highest in the league — and he enters his third NHL season as the centrepiece of a genuine playoff push rather than a rebuilding curiosity.
The tracking numbers back the volume up. Celebrini led the NHL outright in mid-range goals (25) and mid-range shots on goal (159), ranked seventh among forwards in hardest shot (97.89 mph) and sat eighth leaguewide in total skating distance (293.72 miles), per NHL Edge. Will Smith, 21, provided real secondary scoring behind him — 59 points in 69 games, with ice time climbing from 15:51 to 18:11 a night — and connected with Celebrini on 47 shared goals, the sixth-most productive duo in the league. Whether that partnership holds up over 82 games, not whether Celebrini himself repeats, is the swing factor on San Jose’s season.
Trouba and a Canadian Defenceman Lead the Rebuild
Grier’s answer to a defence that allowed the third-most goals per game in the NHL was to buy two established veterans rather than wait on the prospect pipeline. Jacob Trouba signed a four-year, $33 million deal at 32, and Darnell Nurse — born in Hamilton, Ontario, and a Memorial Cup winner with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds before his NHL career — arrives in a trade from Edmonton to anchor the left side. Michael Kesselring, acquired for a 2027 third-round pick, brings one of the league’s hardest shots from the blue line — third overall and second among defencemen at 103.77 mph as recently as 2024-25.
Both new veterans profile well in the tracking data. Nurse ranks in the 96th percentile at his position for maximum skating speed (23.20 mph) and 20-plus mph speed bursts, while Trouba sits fifth leaguewide in long-range shots on goal, per NHL Edge. Forward Mason Marchment joins on a five-year, $33.75 million contract after a 19-goal, 26-assist season, and backup goaltender Eric Comrie signed for two years behind starter Yaroslav Askarov. The cost was real — winger William Eklund was traded to Ottawa, and defencemen Shakir Mukhamadullin, Mario Ferraro, John Klingberg and Nick Leddy are all gone — but Grier has clearly prioritized a playoff push over further development time for his kids on the blue line.
SIGN UP AT 1XBETThe Prospect Pool Turned Heads Before Camp Even Opened
San Jose’s rookies previewed themselves at the 2026 Rookie Faceoff on Sept. 13, beating the Kings 8-1 behind a performance from Ivar Stenberg that nobody in the building expected. The No. 2 overall pick in the 2026 draft scored twice in a 25-second span in the third period — a redirection, then a one-timer off a backhand feed from fellow prospect Igor Chernyshov. Stenberg, 18, arrives off a 33-point season in Sweden’s top league and a 2026 World Junior gold medal, and he called the adjustment to North American ice fun but different, with plenty left to learn quickly. Coach John McCarthy said the teenager handled himself well against pro-sized competition.
The same night gave the pipeline a very different kind of headline. Defenceman Alexander Karmanov — at 7-foot-1, the tallest player ever drafted into the NHL, taken 201st overall in 2026 — flattened a Kings forward with a clean, heavy hit, then dropped the gloves against a Los Angeles prospect nearly 10 inches shorter than him and waved to the crowd on his way to the penalty box. Neither Stenberg’s linemate that night, Chernyshov, nor blue-line prospect Keaton Verhoeff (ninth overall in 2026, staying at the University of North Dakota for now) is likely to shift the odds this season — but it is the kind of camp that gets a rebuild taken seriously.
Best Bets and Predicted Finish
San Jose is a materially better team than the one that missed the playoffs by four points last spring, and the Western Conference market — not the Stanley Cup outright — is where that improvement is priced most fairly. A full season of Celebrini, a proven second scorer in Smith, two established defencemen and a rookie class already flashing in exhibition play all point toward the franchise’s most competitive season since 2018-19.
Best Bet: San Jose at 17.00 for the Western Conference (Stake or BetPlays). A 5.9% implied chance is a fair reflection of a club that jumped 34 points in a single season and used the summer to fix its worst weakness, without demanding you bet on a genuine Cup run.
Value play: Celebrini season-long scoring markets. A 115-point season, a franchise scoring record and the league’s highest-value extension make Celebrini’s regular-season point total the fastest-moving number on San Jose’s board once player futures open at Tonybet.
Fade: the Stanley Cup outright at 36.00-41.00. A team that has not won a playoff round in seven years, still breaking in two new top-four defencemen, is not a realistic championship price yet — even with a top-five forward leading the way.
Predicted finish: sixth to eighth in the Western Conference, a wild-card race that goes deep into April, and San Jose’s first playoff berth since 2018-19 if Askarov holds the crease and the new blue line performs as advertised.
San Jose opens the 2026-27 season at home against Florida on Oct. 1, with Stenberg expected to make his own NHL debut that night. Read the full reviews for Tonybet, Stake and BetPlays before you deposit, browse the latest Ontario online casinos and casino bonuses if you play both sides, check the top online casinos in Canada and their mobile casino options, and always bet within your limits.