The San Jose Sharks drafted Macklin Celebrini with the first overall pick in late June. Accordingly, San Jose is now hoping to start improving on the ice. On the one hand, it won't take much to achieve that aim. The Sharks finished dead last in the NHL in 2023-24 with just 47 points.
However, San Jose has a lot of work to do in order to get the desired on-ice results. The Sharks did make big moves in NHL Free Agency to add talent to their roster. Tyler Toffoli signed a four-year contract to give them a veteran top-line scorer, for instance. They also added Jake Walman, Alex Wennberg, and Ty Dellandrea this offseason.
These moves are a fine start toward getting back on track. However, there are still some major roster concerns for San Jose to be aware of. Here are two such Sharks roster concerns as we draw closer to the beginning of training camp across the league.
Defense is a major worry
As established, the Sharks were not a good hockey team a year ago. One major reason for this was their defense. San Jose allowed the most goals of any team in the NHL in 2023-24. In fact, they were the only team to allow more than 300 goals.
The Sharks struggled to find consistent defensive pairings a year ago. San Jose deployed 10 different pairings that played 150 total minutes or more together. Their most deployed pairing — Kyle Burroughs and Mario Ferarro — had an on-ice save percentage of .847 in 2023-24, according to Natural Stat Trick.
This offseason, the Sharks didn't do much to address their defensive woes. In fact, outside of Jake Walman, San Jose didn't add another defenseman to the roster from outside the organization. This could work as players like Burrough and Calen Addison, who struggled defensively last season, won't be on the roster.
However, players like Marc-Edouard Vlasic are going to be back in 2024-25. Vlasic played over 900 total minutes this past season, and there is a chance he will do that again. He especially struggled, having the second-highest Corsi Against Per 60 (77.65) while playing the second-fewest amount of minutes among Sharks defensemen with at least 600 total minutes played.
The Sharks certainly didn't want to lock themselves into bad contracts at this point. However, not addressing the defense outside of one move is certainly a gamble. It'll be interesting to see how this pays off for San Jose this upcoming season.
Sharks may struggle to find consistent goaltending
The Sharks struggled mightily with keeping the puck out of their net in 2023-24. Some of that certainly came down to their defensive struggles. However, that does not give their nightmarish goaltending a pass for their subpar performances.
San Jose's main goaltending tandem was MacKenzie Blackwood and Kaapo Kakhonen. However, Kakhonen was traded to the New Jersey Devils at the NHL Trade Deadline in March. Of the four goalies to receive more than 100 minutes of ice time, only Blackwood had a positive Goals Saved Above Average (8.99), according to Natural Stat Trick.
As a team, the Sharks were bad. They gave up the second-highest amount of goals from High Danger Chances. Additionally, they had the fifth-lowest save percentage (.886) in the entire league. Only the Devils, Ottawa Senators, and Philadelphia Flyers had a lower overall save percentage.
The Sharks are likely to roll with the tandem of MacKenzie Blackwood and Vitek Vanececk in 2024-25. There is a chance these two find some more solid fitting in the year ahead. However, goaltending has to be one of the biggest Sharks roster concerns heading into the new season.
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