Why the Sharks won’t rebuild this summer even if they keep losing

SAN JOSE – It’s true: Despite being on the verge of missing the NHL playoffs for a third straight year, the Sharks have little or no interest in burning everything to the ground and starting a massive rebuild.

Which, if anyone’s been paying attention, shouldn’t come as a huge surprise.

Sharks Sports & Entertainment president Jonathan Becher said as much last summer and reiterated Wednesday in meeting with local media.

“We are highly unlikely — and I never say never — highly unlikely to go through a protracted rebuild,” Becher said.

There are a few reasons why a full teardown right now can’t happen, with economics being among the biggest.

The Sharks are of the opinion that a lot of Bay Area sports fans would completely lose interest in the team should they remain near the bottom of the NHL standings for the next two or three seasons, or however long it might take for the team to become competitive again.

Let’s be honest: In terms of widespread local interest, the NHL ranks fourth behind the NFL, NBA, and MLB, and might even run alongside MLS or college football when any of those teams are good. How many Bay Area sports fans would continue to pay top dollar to see a Sharks team bottom out in the coming years to try and stockpile high draft picks?

Sharks fans are a passionate bunch, no doubt. But Becher and Sharks owner Hasso Plattner feel it would be a hard sell to the public at large, not to mention sponsors and suite holders, to declare that the team will stink for the next couple of years, on top of missing the playoffs in 2020 and 2021, and likely this year, too.

Heck, attendance for Sharks games at SAP Center has already hit record lows this season, although the team feels the primary reason for that is because of the pandemic.

“The reality is that in our market, in particular Northern California, there’s a fight for a share of entertainment dollars, not just sports, but all of entertainment whatsoever,” Becher said. “And if your product is not engaging, people don’t interact with it frequently. I think we’ve seen that from time to time.

“You can ask any of the professional sports teams in Northern California and beyond as well. Does attendance correlate with how good your team is? And almost invariably, every one of them will tell you yes. Having said that, sports is about winning. I know other teams and other markets have intentionally not won. That’s not Hasso’s style. It’s not my style, either. We want to win every single year.”

A full rebuild would also be tough to pull off from a hockey operations standpoint, given the onerous contracts that the team has on the books.

Four players have contracts that carry a combined cap hit of $34.5 million for the next three seasons. Brent Burns is signed through 2024-25, Marc-Edouard Vlasic’s deal runs through 2025-26 and both Logan Couture and Erik Karlsson’s contracts run through 2026-27. Burns and Couture’s deals have modified no-trade clauses, and Karlsson has a full no-move.

So the trade options are limited. Plus, the Sharks might have to retain salary in any deal – an unpalatable choice given that they already have some dead money on the books for the next five seasons after Martin Jones’ contract was bought out last year.

We’ll see what happens in the coming weeks with Tomas Hertl, a centerpiece player who could be dealt before the March 21 trade deadline. If he is re-signed or if the Sharks can make a trade that will benefit them next season, perhaps, with the addition of some younger players to the roster like William Eklund and Thomas Bordeleau, they can be more competitive next season.

That’s a big if, but it’s more appealing to Sharks management than going with a full-blown youth movement.

“They’ve got their pieces here, they’ve got their core here and I don’t think you’re going to see too much movement,” Sharks coach Bob Boughner said. “They are depending on some of the young guys coming through the system to be impact players at some point.”

Boughner noted that the Sharks rebuild, or “reset” as it was termed by management, began shortly after he replaced Pete DeBoer as coach in Dec. 2019, as general manager Doug Wilson traded Brenden Dillon, Barclay Goodrow, and Patrick Marleau for assets two months later.

“I think you’re in a position where you still have some good young players, you still have your core pieces, and it takes time,” Boughner said. “There are cap issues, there are all those other issues that we talked about. So you don’t have as much flexibility as other teams. You’ve got to do it internally, and that doesn’t happen overnight. We understand what’s going on on the business side and hopefully, that bodes well for a lot of the guys in that (dressing) room.”

There is also no guarantee that a full rebuild would work – just ask the Edmonton Oilers, who have won one playoff series since they drafted Connor McDavid first overall in 2015. Or the Buffalo Sabres, or the Ottawa Senators, who have accumulated high picks for years and are still well out of the playoff picture.

There is no guarantee that the Sharks will have future success on the path they’re on right now, either. But given the environment and their salary structure, it’s the one they feel is best for them right now.

“We are going to get younger; we are going to get faster, we are going to make some changes,” Becher said. “That’s the part we’re going to market to fans and focus on.”