It certainly did not help that the Sharks were barred from even playing at the SAP Center in San Jose due to Santa Clara County COVID-19 guidelines for contact sports, something that the 49ers, Santa Clara University, and Stanford University had to endure as well. Even in the abbreviated 2021 season, the Sharks finished in 7th place out of eight teams in the reconstructed West Division. In the 2019-2020 NHL season, the Sharks finished dead last in the Western Conference, a sharp contrast from the glamour of finishing 2nd in the West just a season earlier. Older core players like Joe Thornton and Antti Niemi are gone, and others like Brent Burns and Logan Couture are on the last legs of their careers.
The last two seasons, San Jose have been bottomfeeders in the NHL. The franchise has yet to truly realize they are in a rebuilding phase, a far cry from the team’s glory found in the National Hockey League (NHL) Playoffs in the 2018-2019 season. The San Jose Sharks are in the midst of a bit of an identity crisis.
