The next time the San Jose Sharks play a game, Macklin Celebrini might be in the lineup.
That could be one of the few things the Sharks and their fans can look forward to after the franchise finished its worst season in nearly three decades.
The Sharks on Thursday allowed two goals in the first period and three more in a span of 3:03 in the second in what became a 5-1 loss to the Calgary Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome in the last game of the regular season for both teams.
Fabian Zetterlund spoiled Gilroy native Dustin Wolf’s shutout bid, scoring a power-play goal with nine seconds left in the third period off assists from Mikael Granlund and Collin Graf. The goal was Zetterlund’s 24th of the year and the assist extended Granlund’s season-ending point streak to 13 games, as he finished the year with 60 points.
Still, with Thursday’s loss, the Sharks, at 19-54-9, became the first team in the salary cap era (since 2005-06), to win less than 20 games in a full 82-game season.
“It’s tough to reflect on it right now with everything that just happened and how it went, but obviously we need to take steps to get better,” Sharks defenseman Kyle Burroughs said. “That’s something we want to do, that’s something we want to provide, and we’ll look to do that.
“It’s just tough to end like that. It’s just not the way we wanted to go out.”
The last NHL team not to win 20 games in a full season was Atlanta in 2001-02 when the Thrashers went 19-47-11-5. The Atlanta franchise relocated to Winnipeg after the 2010-2011 season.
San Jose’s .287 points percentage this season equals that of the 1995-96 team for the third lowest in franchise history, eclipsing only the Cow Palace-era Sharks in 1991-92 (.244) and 1992-93 (.143).
One of the few positives this season for the Sharks is that they have a 25.5% chance of winning the NHL Draft Lottery next month and selecting Celebrini, the Hobey Baker Award winner and former Jr. Sharks forward widely considered the best player available this year.
Celebrini, still just 17, had 64 points in 38 games as a freshman at Boston University, which advanced to the Frozen Four earlier this month. He is expected to turn pro.
Although no one realistically thought they would make the playoffs this season, the Sharks also did not feel they would finish in last place.
But after a disastrous 0-10-1 start, and the inability to gain much traction after that point, the Sharks fully committed to the rebuild. That led to trading Tomas Hertl in March to the Vegas Golden Knights for prospect David Edstrom and a 2025 first-round draft pick.
Over the final few weeks of the season — and especially over these last few games — the Sharks were icing the youngest and most inexperienced lineups they’ve had all season.
“We’ve made lot of changes and there’s a lot of new faces,” Sharks coach David Quinn said. “It’s tough to learn on the go in a short period of time, what’s expected of you and it’s hard.
“But we’re not the only team that’s gone through it and as I’ve said repeatedly, we’re at a situation where we kind of understood that this was going to be a difficult year. But we will be better moving forward.”
The Sharks will also have other recent draft picks coming into the organization soon and will have a significant amount of salary cap space to play with if they want to spend freely this offseason.
But general manager Mike Grier has stated that he doesn’t want to skip steps when it comes to rebuilding the team.
With just 47 points, the Sharks finished a staggering 51 points out of a playoff spot.
That’s a lot of ground to make up.
“We’re anticipating a big summer,” Quinn said, “and we’ll be better next year.”
The Sharks wanted to bounce back Thursday after the pounding they took Monday in a 9-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers.
Sharks goalie Devin Cooley and San Jose allowed four goals on 10 shots in the first period against the Oilers and eight goals on 22 shots that night.
Thursday didn’t go much better as Cooley, the Los Gatos native perhaps making his final start for his childhood team. He made 18 saves on 23 shots before he was pulled in the second period for the second straight game.
“A game is a full 60 minutes,” Zetterlund. “I don’t remember the last time we played a full 60. We learn from it. Everyone’s going to get home now and get better during the offseason and come back stronger.”
Georgi Romanov replaced Cooley after MacKenzie Weegar scored his 20th goal of the season at the 6:56 mark of the second period to give the Flames a 5-0 lead.
Romanov finished with 14 saves, following up his performance from Monday when he stopped 15 of 16 shots in the Sharks’ loss to the Oilers.
Cooley said Monday’s game, “definitely took a hit on my confidence, and I think that showed tonight. I just think I reverted back to a lot of old habits tonight and it wasn’t me out there.
“Trying to battle through and trying to stay positive and tell myself, ‘It’s gonna be fine.’ I just couldn’t beat the mental side of things tonight. Had a couple of good bounces, a couple of good shots. I thought I played small, I played on my heels, and I was sitting back. Just old habits. That’s not my game anymore.”
It was the first time Santa Clara County goalies started the same game, as Calgary goalie Wolf had to make just 16 saves to improve his record to 7-7-1 in 17 games this season, although losing the shutout bid like he did had to sting.
“I don’t know him personally, but I’ve been following him for a while, obviously, in the American League,” Cooley said of Wolf. “He’s had a great career so far and it’s really awesome to see how far youth hockey has come in Northern California and in the Bay Area.
“It was really cool to be able to play against him tonight.”
