SAN JOSE – San Jose Sharks owner Hasso Plattner had some things to say before his team began the 2025-26 season, with an eye on taking a step forward after years of being at or near the bottom of the NHL standings.
During a 25-minute conversation with some members of the local media, Plattner touched on several topics, including a few of the team’s former players, attendance at home games, and whether the franchise would have left SAP Center had it not reached a new lease agreement to remain at the arena until at least 2051.
Plattner spoke about former general manager Doug Wilson and some of the team’s issues in recent years after it last made the playoffs in 2019, in an article you can read here. Here is an overview of what else he said.
On allowing GM Mike Grier to begin a complete rebuild of the team in 2022 after missing the playoffs for a third straight year.
“That was clear already when we hired him. There’s no way that we could rescue the team. (Brent) Burns wanting out. (Tomas) Hertl wanting out. (Joe) Pavelski, gone. (Erik Karlsson) was going, so we were left with Logan (Couture, and then Logan was injured, so (Mario) Ferraro is the last one standing.”
Do you feel Grier is fulfilling that vision?
“It’s very systematic. And the biggest difference to the Wilson team, (Grier) and his team are drafting better. They got the (higher picks), but they’re drafting better. Before, we wasted an 11th draft (trading the pick to Arizona), and I don’t know what. I have to look them up, whether anyone is really playing in the NHL. From those draft picks we wasted, is (Thomas) Bordeleau playing in the NHL? They were labeled as the next big little thing, and I when I saw (Bordeleau), and he was in love with the puck. A hockey team is a difficult body. They work together and they don’t play for show. Therefore, I’m so happy about (Macklin) Celebrini, how he can do everything, but he does everything possible for the other players, for his partners on the ice. I think you see this. He is a leader.”
Was that your decision in 2022 to rebuild?
“That was actually my wish five years ago, and quote unquote, the previous (front office) said, that’s not their vision. EK65 was probably the last real try to keep the level of the (Joe) Thornton and Pavelski (era). First, one guy is not enough. Second, you know (Karlsson’s) qualities and you know his deficiencies. He was not the most, how do I say it, team-friendly player. He was good, but he was probably very good on a very good team.
“Our good players were already leaving the team more. We let them go. It was not the right environment and then Burns, he didn’t like it so much, I think, so that team was already on the way down, and one star player cannot help. You need more, and we needed someone who can score a goal, and we needed some defensemen.
“So it was right to let even the relatively good players like Timo (Meier), he’s not a player you can build a team upon. You can put him in. and when (Hertl) came and said, Hasso, please let me go. I played 10 years for the San Jose Sharks. I did everything possible. I’ve got three knee injuries. If I get one more, I’m done. I have only so many years. Let me go to a team where I have a chance to win this god damn Cup. And I said, ‘Tomas, we let you go,’ which I regret, because I really liked him and we always had fun together and joked. He always had a smile on his face. He was a good guy.”
Why did you extend Hertl?
“We still had the hope, or Wilson still had the hope, that he could turn it around with (Logan) Couture and Hertl. All these years we worked together, he told me he doesn’t like long-term contracts, and this is wrong with the other ones too.”
Going back to 2004 to 2019, what is the biggest regret, or one thing that you wish you had done so you guys could win the Stanley Cup in that time?
“Not much. Not much. (Wilson) got the people we wanted. Remember when (Dany) Heatley came, (39) goals in the first year, but he was already sick. When we got (Teemu) Selanne (in 2000), I had to tell our guys, ‘Hey, he has a bad left leg,’ because sometimes he overskated and could not really stop before the boards says something’s wrong with him. The Finnish Flash. But he was such a good player. I have a house in Aspen. Sometimes I went to (Colorado Avalanche) games, and then he came to Denver (in 2003) after a year of rehab, knee surgery, all of a sudden, the Finnish Flash is back, goes back to Anaheim (in 2005), and wins the Stanley Cup.
“We got nearly everybody we wanted. We could not draft low picks because we were always finishing in the top five. I think (Wilson) did well. We, on average, over 10 years, we might have won the league. We made it to the finals. If Pavelski (stayed), we could have (been) a little bit more successful. With a new team, I think we have a good chance that this team is as good or even better.”
On the Sharks’ prospects
“I hope we don’t have to go for (Gavin) McKenna. That’s my word too. I just talked to (coach Ryan Warsofsky). No McKenna here now, and (Grier) said, ‘Absolutely not, absolutely not.’”
“We need replacements for the aging defenseman to real star defenseman, and that will be the main focus. San Jose is now more attractive when they look at the pictures of our youngsters and the write-ups you guys do, or the other hockey writers, that’s a pretty good team. I believe (Michael) Misa will be good, and the defenseman (Sam Dickinson), he was so good that I actually was upset when he wasn’t listed (to play Thursday). But there’s a reason for that, and I accepted that. And in the end, the coach has to say what he wants and how we go.”
On spending to the salary cap in the coming years.
“I hope that the fans support me a little bit and come to the arena and sit outside or watch on television so that we are sold out again. Financially, it’s not a problem. It’s a problem of self-motivation. So, if we are playing better, and if there is this steady trajectory up to a competitive team, then that shouldn’t be a problem.”
Confidence that attendance will improve?
“(Team president Jonathan) Becher always tells me, Tuesdays and Thursdays are tough. We have to do something, and probably you can help. We have to play good hockey, and people will (want) to come because they want to see it live.
“Why didn’t I come? Another 5-1 (loss), another 6-4 (loss), I will come now on a regular basis. As you know, I’m retired. Finally. I have a big television screen at home. It’s actually better than live with the cameraman zooming in and the repeats, but I definitely will come more if there’s excitement again. Remember the days when, after a great save, the fans were shouting, ‘Nabby, Nabby, Nabby.’ That was exciting. I hope that they find some players they can relate to. Our six youngsters, they will all play well. Look how (William) Eklund improved last year, how (Will Smith) came up in the second half of the year.
“I’m pretty sure that we have a good team, including the coaches and management, to have this, at least the ability and the will to have a good show, to play good hockey. I think this is a given, whether that is enough, this is a tough league.”
How often do you speak with Grier about the Sharks?
“Mike, once or twice a week, depending on how urgent it is. Big things, he always comes to me, but not with every decision. So, he is very stable and well-founded in decision-making, so he’s not insecure, so he doesn’t use me as a decision maker.”
Why hasn’t he done more interviews over the years to show the fans how much he loves the Sharks?
“It was not so much to talk about. That’s the only reason. You’re absolutely right. That was good today to show presence. And this is just one of my many investments, which is not going so well. Actually, financially, it’s going extremely well.
“We have to show that the main purpose, to have a good team, is in the foreground again.”
Had the City not agreed to put some money into the building, was there ever a possibility of leaving this building or leaving San Jose?
“Where to? The closest is San Francisco, and I said, ‘This is already, for me, too far away. This is a separation, then.’ So there’s nothing in the neighborhood. Berkeley, they have a few arenas and stadiums and whatever. Oakland, no, if I ever said something, and you found this somewhere, then it was that I had a bad day, and was out of anger, that I said, ‘Don’t they know who we are and what we could do and others have done.’ The (teams that left) Oakland, poor city.
“So with the new (mayoral) administration, the outgoing administration, they were not so engaged anymore. But the new administration saw that we are an asset and (it’s) not that we forced them to do something. It was a mutual agreement, which is much better, that they understand what we bring, we understand what we have to bring, and that is good hockey.”
What is the Evgeni Malkin story? (Plattner alluded in his address to Sharks fans that he may have violated tampering rules several years ago when he mentioned trying to sign Malkin while he was still under contract with the Penguins.
“I gave a speech here, and I said, we are so strong now that we should even be attractive to a Malkin. What is this term called? Tampering. You should not be tampering. Malkin is a good player. OK, I got a slap on my wrist, and was it, because he was becoming a free agent?”