{"id":252191,"date":"2026-04-04T23:11:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T23:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/252191\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T23:11:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T23:11:10","slug":"san-jose-sharks-owner-hasso-plattner-likely-to-spend-closer-to-salary-cap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/252191\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks owner Hasso Plattner likely to spend closer to salary cap"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2013 The improved San Jose Sharks have seen attendance numbers rise dramatically this season<\/a>, and were set to play before their 21st sellout crowd<\/a> of the year on Saturday when they hosted the Nashville Predators in the team\u2019s most meaningful game since 2019.<\/p>\n

Obviously, the playoff-contending Sharks relished the chance to play in front of another big crowd<\/a> at SAP Center, where they had a record of 20-12-4 this season,<\/a> already an eight-win increase over last year before Saturday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s an added benefit to the increased attendance figures the Sharks organization is enjoying this season: It\u2019ll likely help convince owner Hasso Plattner<\/a> to spend closer to the salary cap in future years.<\/p>\n

Asked in October how willing he is to spend to the cap to bring a Stanley Cup to San Jose, Plattner said, \u201cI hope that the fans support me a little bit and come to the arena, have them sit outside or watch on television so that we are sold out again. Financially, it\u2019s not a problem. It\u2019s a problem of self-motivation.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, if we are playing better, and if there is this steady trajectory up to a competitive team, then that shouldn\u2019t be a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

The salary cap is projected to rise<\/a> from $95.5 million to $104 million next season and to $113.5 million in 2027-28. There has also been speculation that the cap ceiling will rise to $123 million<\/a> in 2028-29.<\/p>\n

The Sharks, per PuckPedia,<\/a> have roughly $61 million in salary commitments to 11 forwards, 2 defensemen, and 2 goalies for next season, leaving them with over $43 million in available cap space. Next season\u2019s number also includes Logan Couture\u2019s $8 million cap hit.<\/a><\/p>\n

It might not make sense for the Sharks to spend to the cap next season, especially since forwards Macklin Celebrini<\/a> and Will Smith, by 2026-27, will both be due big raises. But it appears general manager Mike Grier will have the flexibility that perhaps some other teams might not.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably about 90% of the teams (historically) plan to go to the cap, but it\u2019s going to change,\u201d Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold told\u00a0The Athletic\u00a0<\/a>at the NHL Board of Governors meeting in December. \u201cThe cap\u2019s going up, and it will cause us and other teams to look at, \u2018Is this the right number for us?\u2019 And if not, we\u2019ve got to make the right decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps that\u2019ll give the Sharks an advantage, considering Plattner had a net worth of $12.6 billion,<\/a> per Forbes, as of Saturday. Plattner became Sharks Sports & Entertainment\u2019s majority owner in 2010 and the organization\u2019s sole owner earlier this decade. Since then, he has shown his willingness to spend to the cap, at least when the Sharks were in a competitive window.<\/p>\n

The Sharks\u2019 average attendance has risen from 14,219 in 2024-25 to 16,117 this year,<\/a> or 92.4% of the seating capacity of 17,435.<\/p>\n

\"HockeyHockey fans watch the Vegas Golden Knights play against the San Jose Sharks in the second period at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Sharks were pleased with their season ticket renewal rate \u2013 over 90%, per team executive Josh Nanavaty \u2013 so sellout crowds figure to once again become commonplace, as they were in the late 2000s and for much of the 2010s.<\/p>\n

Of course, at least some, or perhaps most, of that has to do with the Sharks\u2019 improved record and the performance and presence of Celebrini.<\/p>\n

The Sharks were the NHL\u2019s last-place team in 2024 and 2025, but entered Saturday in the Western Conference\u2019s second wild-card spot with 79 points, the same as the Predators and Los Angeles Kings, but ahead in the standings thanks to playing fewer games. The Sharks last made the playoffs in 2019.<\/p>\n

Celebrini, 19, was the NHL\u2019s fourth-leading scorer before Saturday with 105 points in 74 games. In the Sharks\u2019 5-4 win over the St. Louis Blues on Monday, Celebrini became just the sixth teenager<\/a> in NHL history to score 100 points in a season, joining Sidney Crosby, Jimmy Carson, Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Dale Hawerchuk.<\/p>\n

The Sharks have three more regular-season home games remaining after Saturday \u2013 Monday against the Chicago Blackhawks, Wednesday against the Edmonton Oilers, and on April 11 against the Vancouver Canucks. Standard tickets remain available for all three games.<\/p>\n

Asked in October how confident he was that the Shark Tank would once again be filled on a regular basis, Plattner said, \u201cWe have to play good hockey, and people have to come, because they want to see it live.\u201d<\/p>\n

SHARKS TIES TO SABRES<\/p>\n

The Buffalo Sabres officially clinched their first playoff appearance since 2011 on Saturday when the Detroit Red Wings lost 4-1 to the New York Rangers. The Sabres\u2019 14-year playoff drought had been the longest in the NHL.<\/p>\n

The Sharks general manager Grier, now 51, played in the Sabres\u2019 last playoff game on April 26, 2011, when they lost 5-2 to the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 7 of their first-round series. It was Grier\u2019s final game in a 14-year NHL career that began in 1996.<\/p>\n

Also on that Sabres team were two other members of the Sharks\u2019 front office,<\/a> hockey operations advisor Thomas Vanek and goalie scout and goaltending development coach Ryan Miller.<\/p>\n

NOTABLE<\/p>\n

The Sharks, for Saturday\u2019s game, kept the same lineup as they had in their 4-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday, as forwards Ty Dellandrea, Pavol Regenda, and Philipp Kurashev, and defenseman John Klingberg were the healthy scratches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 The improved San Jose Sharks have seen attendance numbers rise dramatically this season, and were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[4345,1035,42056,112024,88,90,89,98,2577],"class_list":{"0":"post-252191","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-hasso-plattner","9":"tag-macklin-celebrini","10":"tag-nhl-attendance","11":"tag-nhl-salary-cap","12":"tag-san-jose","13":"tag-san-jose-headlines","14":"tag-san-jose-news","15":"tag-san-jose-sharks","16":"tag-sap-center"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}