Five Sharks storylines for the stretch run, including ‘the elephant in the room’

SAN JOSE – The San Jose Sharks are about to head into the season’s stretch run, and it’s fair to say it’s a period of uncertainty for both the players and the front office.

With the Sharks (27-24-4) five points out of a playoff spot with 27 games to play, will general manager Mike Grier buy, sell, or stand pat at the NHL trade deadline?

Of the Sharks’ nine pending unrestricted free agents, how many will still be in San Jose for the final few weeks?

How will the 11 Sharks who have never been in the NHL playoffs react to being in a postseason chase, where every game and point matters?

It’s a lot to deal with. Coach Ryan Warsofsky wants his players to filter out the noise.

“Our situation, the elephant in the room, is we do have some UFAs, and where we are in the standings, so there’s a lot of balancing that needs to be done,” Warsofsky said. “But we can only control what’s in front of us and … some of the stuff is out of our control: our schedule, the travel, contract situation.

“We’ve just got to continue to compete, just continue to play, be grounded, and really focus on each day.”

Here are five Sharks storylines for the final seven weeks of the regular season.

THE PLAYOFF PUSH

In a refreshing change of pace, the Sharks are eyeing a playoff spot rather than another massive selloff at the deadline.

Entering this week, the Sharks, with 58 points, were five points behind both the Anaheim Ducks for the second and final wild card spot in the Western Conference and the Seattle Kraken for third place in the Pacific Division. Now in 11th place in the West, the Sharks have at least one game in hand on all of the teams they’re trying to chase down.

The good news for San Jose? Per tankathon.com, the Sharks have the NHL’s easiest remaining strength of schedule, with their opponents, before Wednesday’s games, combining for a .527 points percentage.

The bad news? It’ll still be a challenge for the Sharks to make the playoffs.

After losing their last four games, various publications have the Sharks’ playoff chances anywhere from 21% to 31%, odds that will fluctuate depending on how things go over the next week. Starting Thursday, the Sharks have four games in six days, facing the Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets, and Montreal Canadiens.

Following home games against the St. Louis Blues and New York Islanders, the Sharks start a difficult five-game road trip with stops in Buffalo, Boston, Montreal, Ottawa, and Edmonton.

Of the Sharks’ next 11 games, seven are against teams that are now in a playoff spot.

Getting through that gauntlet with between 10-15 points probably keeps the Sharks in the hunt, assuming it’ll take between 90-92 points to make the playoffs in the West this season. Any less and it’ll likely be a seventh-straight playoff-free spring for the Sharks.

WILL GRIER KEEP THE BAND TOGETHER?

The Sharks have just four games left before the March 6 trade deadline, and those games could help Grier determine whether to keep the roster intact or move a player or two out.

Keeping the roster as is would seemingly aid the Sharks’ postseason hopes, and experiencing the pressure of a playoff race, where every game matters, would likely be beneficial for the team’s younger players.

Still, if the Sharks are seven or eight points out by next Friday, Grier might just do what he needs to do.

“It’s so important to start on the right foot and start winning,” said Sharks forward Philipp Kurashev, who has never played in a playoff game. “Because at one point, the deadline also comes, and then the tough decisions have to be made.

“It’s just really important to have a great start to put yourself in the best position possible coming down the stretch.”

SOLIDIFYING THE DEFENSE CORPS

Five of the nine pending UFAs are defensemen, so management obviously has some work to do to get ready for the 2026-27 season. Does that work start at the trade deadline, spending assets to add blueliners that have some term, or does more of that heavy lifting occur in the offseason via trades or free agency?

The Sharks do not have any right-shot defensemen presently in the NHL signed for next season, so re-signing known entities like Timothy Liljegren and/or Vincent Desharnais could make sense. Neither, it seems, would be terribly expensive to bring back.

The question is what the Sharks do with Mario Ferraro and John Klingberg, quality veterans who could fetch modest to decent returns in a trade, but could also aid a playoff push. Klingberg has a 14-team no-trade list.

THAT SECOND FIRST-ROUND PICK

The Sharks own a conditional 2026 first-round pick acquired from the Edmonton Oilers last year in the Jake Walman trade. The Sharks could use that pick to acquire a player, like a defenseman, who could help next season and beyond. Or they could keep it and see what happens.

Right now, that pick is top-12 protected, so if the selection is in the top 12 of this year’s draft, Edmonton can transfer its 2027 first-round selection to San Jose instead. But if the Oilers trade their 2027 first-round selection before the March 6 deadline, their first-round selection this year becomes unconditional.

The Oilers are likely going to make the playoffs this season, and they want to maximize their Stanley Cup chances with the NHL’s leading scorer, Connor McDavid, under contract through the 2027-28 season, so trading that 2027 first-rounder seemingly isn’t out of the question.

Right now, Edmonton, with 64 points, is only four points ahead of the Los Angeles Kings, who are ninth in the West and have two games in hand on the Oilers.

The best-case scenario for the Sharks is seeing the Oilers trade the pick and still not make the playoffs, potentially giving San Jose two selections in the top half of the draft (if they don’t make the playoffs themselves).

HART TROPHY WATCH

Fourth in the NHL in scoring with 81 points in 55 games, Macklin Celebrini, 19, has already made a strong case to be the winner of this year’s Hart Memorial Trophy, given to the player adjudged to be the most valuable to his team.

If he leads the Sharks to the playoffs, after they finished in 32nd place each of the last two seasons, Celebrini would have an airtight case. Even if they don’t, Celebrini has likely impressed enough members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, who vote on the award, to be a serious candidate.

Let’s see what the next seven weeks bring.