{"id":290702,"date":"2026-04-29T02:01:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T02:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/290702\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T02:01:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T02:01:33","slug":"3-burning-questions-san-jose-sharks-must-answer-in-2026-offseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/290702\/","title":{"rendered":"3 burning questions San Jose Sharks must answer in 2026 offseason"},"content":{"rendered":"

The San Jose Sharks (39-35-8)<\/a> showed major progress towards a Stanley Cup Contender this season. After years of deep, arduous rebuilds, they were in the hunt for a wild-card spot in the Western Conference this season. Sure, they fell short, but the arrow is pointing up on them making the Stanley Cup Playoff in the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n

More: P.K. Subban picks Ducks as \u2018the better team\u2019 over Oilers before Game 5<\/a><\/p>\n

Macklin Celebrini<\/a>, who they drafted No. 1 overall in 2024, set the franchise record for points in a season<\/a> (115). Guys like Will Smith<\/a> and William Eklund<\/a> became top-line fixtures, while center Alex Wennberg<\/a> came out of nowhere to score 55 points. They also signed Collin Graf<\/a> as an undrafted free agent, and Graf surprised them with 21 goals and 25 assists through 81 games.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

San Jose Sharks manager Mike Grier is checking all the boxes of a rebuild, but he\u2019ll need to do a little more this offseason to get over the hump in the Pacific Division.<\/p>\n

How do the San Jose Sharks upgrade their defense?\"\"<\/p>\n

The Sharks have the forward talent to compete with the best teams in the Western Conference. However, their defensive structure is weak.<\/p>\n

Their top point-producers on defense were Dmitry Orlov<\/a> (37 points) and John Klingberg<\/a> (27 points). That\u2019s not enough to become a Stanley Cup contender. Some may point to them building their defensive core from within, with youngsters Sam Dickinson<\/a> (14) and Shakir Mukhamadullin<\/a> (12) playing meaningful minutes.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

More: Travis Konecny under fire after \u2018dirty\u2019 play targeting Sidney Crosby <\/a><\/p>\n

Still, the Sharks should get a veteran to stabilize their defensive core. They could try a trade for Dougie Hamilton<\/a> (New Jersey Devils<\/a>) or try and get Darryn Raddysh (Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a>) from free agency, but at least one significant investment in the D-core should set the San Jose Sharks straight. Even an addition like John Carlson<\/a> or Jacob Trouba<\/a> (Anaheim Ducks<\/a>) would work.<\/p>\n

How do they fix their goaltending?\"\"<\/p>\n

The defense might\u2019ve exacerbated the issue, but the San Jose Sharks had major problems in net this season as well. In a year full of lackluster goaltending, the Sharks duo ranked no. 30 in goals against (290).<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Alex Nedeljkovic was a hot mess in the net, with a 2.87 goals against average and a .896 save percentage. Yaroslav Askarov<\/a>, however, was expected to be the goaltender of the future for San Jose.<\/p>\n

More: Matthew defends brother Brady Tkachuk as Senators get swept by Hurricanes<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sharks acquired Askarov from the Nashville Predators<\/a> for a 2025 first-round pick. So far, the return on investment hasn\u2019t been there. Askarov has a .886 SV% with the Sharks, including a .883 SV% and 3.63 GAA this past season.<\/p>\n

The hope is that San Jose<\/a> will get a quality veteran to pair with Askarov and unlock his potential. However, time might be running out for Askarov as well. This might be a make-or-break year coming up for the 23-year-old goaltender.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

What do the remaining RFA extensions look like?\"\"<\/p>\n

The San Jose Sharks have worked out most of their free agent decisions. They signed pending UFAs Alex Wennberg (three-year, $18 million) and Kiefer Sherwood<\/a> (five-year, $28.75 million) to long-term deals, and they already figured out a major RFA decision with William Eklund (three-year, $16.8 million).<\/p>\n

Still, they have two RFA extensions to decide on. The first one should be to Collin Graf, an undrafted pick-up in 2024 who came out of nowhere to have a 20-goal, 20-assist season. As a result, he\u2019s earned himself a major payday.<\/p>\n

More: 3 burning questions Seattle Kraken must answer in 2026 offseason<\/a><\/p>\n

A good comparable contract could come from a division rival. Los Angeles Kings<\/a> winger Alex Laferriere<\/a> put up as much production as Graf did this past season, with 21 goals and 23 assists through 82 games. The Kings signed him to a three-year, $12.3 million deal that runs through 2028. I bet Graf gets a similar deal.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

The second one is Shakir Mukhamadullin. The 24-year-old defenseman has been subpar in NHL action with San Jose. Through the past two seasons (80 games), he\u2019s had just 21 points with a plus\/minus of minus-10.<\/p>\n

More: 3 burning questions Winnipeg Jets must answer in 2026 offseason<\/a><\/p>\n

At 24 years old, it\u2019s tough to gauge how much potential he still has left. His skating still hasn\u2019t come along yet, and at this point, I don\u2019t think the Sharks will retain him, especially with Hobey Baker Award finalist Eric Pohlkamp breaking through. They might sign a quick RFA contract, just like last season, and dangle him for a veteran defenseman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Jose Sharks (39-35-8) showed major progress towards a Stanley Cup Contender this season. After years of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[14995,4215,4216,824,83959,3524,5400,66358,6264,10370,47007,1034,41681,30509,1706,1035,100684,12676,12753,17522,124084,1037,88,90,89,98,2071,3519,4861,17438,13190,115565,120293,20226,2498,3578,2105,66434,1707,3516],"class_list":["post-290702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-alex-laferriere","tag-alex-nedeljkovic","tag-alex-wennberg","tag-anaheim-ducks","tag-brady-tkachuk","tag-collin-graf","tag-dmitry-orlov","tag-dougie-hamilton","tag-ducks","tag-jacob-trouba","tag-john-carlson","tag-john-klingberg","tag-kiefer-sherwood","tag-kyle-connor","tag-los-angeles-kings","tag-macklin-celebrini","tag-mandatory-credit","tag-manitoba","tag-nashville-predators","tag-new-jersey-devils","tag-p-k-subban","tag-sam-dickinson","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-seattle-kraken","tag-shakir-mukhamadullin","tag-sidney-crosby","tag-tampa-bay-lightning","tag-the-sharks","tag-tom-willander","tag-travis-konecny","tag-vancouver-canucks","tag-western-conference","tag-will-smith","tag-william-eklund","tag-winnipeg","tag-winnipeg-jets","tag-yaroslav-askarov"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290702","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=290702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}