The next time the San Jose Sharks play a game, Macklin Celebrini might be in the lineup.
That might be one of the few things the Sharks and their fans can look forward to after the franchise finished its worst season in nearly three decades.
The Sharks on Thursday allowed two goals in the first period and three more in a span of 3:03 in the second in what became a 5-1 drubbing at the hands of the Calgary Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome in the last game of the regular season for both teams.
Fabian Zetterlund scored a power-play goal with nine seconds left in the third period off assists from Mikael Granlund and Collin Graf. The goal was Zetterlund’s 24th of the year and the assist extended Granlund’s season-ending point streak to 13 games, as he finished the season with 60 points.
Still, with Thursday’s loss, the Sharks, at 19-53-9, became the first team in the salary cap era (since 2005-06), to win less than 20 games in a full 82-game season.
The last NHL team not to win 20 games in a full season was Atlanta in 2001-02 when the Thrashers went 19-47-11-5. The Atlanta franchise relocated to Winnipeg after the 2010-2011 season.
San Jose’s .287 points percentage this season equals that of the 1995-96 team for the third lowest in franchise history, eclipsing only the Cow Palace-era Sharks in 1991-92 (.244) and 1992-93 (.143).
One of the few positives this season for the Sharks is that they have a 25.5% chance of winning the NHL Draft Lottery next month and selecting Celebrini, the Hobey Baker Award winner and former Jr. Sharks forward widely considered the best player available this year.
Celebrini, still just 17, had 64 points in 38 games as a freshman at Boston University, which advanced to the Frozen Four earlier this month. He is expected to turn pro.
The Sharks will also have other recent draft picks coming into the organization soon and will have a significant amount of salary cap space to play with if they want to spend freely this offseason.
But it’s hard to imagine the Sharks being significantly better next season, as general manager Mike Grier has stated that he doesn’t want to skip steps when it comes to rebuilding the team.
With just 47 points, the Sharks will finish 50 points out of a playoff spot.
The Sharks wanted to bounce back Thursday after the pounding they took Monday in a 9-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers.
Sharks goalie Devin Cooley and San Jose allowed four goals on 10 shots in the first period and eight goals on 22 shots that night.
Thursday didn’t go much better as Cooley, the Los Gatos native who was perhaps making his final start for his childhood team, made 18 saves on 23 shots before he was pulled in the second period for the second straight game.
Georgi Romanov replaced Cooley after MacKenzie Weegar scored his 20th goal of the season at the 6:56 mark of the second period to give the Flames a 5-0 lead.
The Sharks, after all of the losses, the injuries, the trades, the roster upheaval, and a last-place finish, wanted to end an ugly 2023-24 season in a somewhat positive fashion against the Flames.
In fairness, the Sharks are without a handful of injured veterans right now, including goalie Mackenzie Blackwood and forwards Alexander Barabanov and Mike Hoffman.
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Romanov finished with 14 saves, following up his performance from Monday when he stopped 15 of 16 shots in the Sharks’ loss to the Oilers. Cooley started that game and allowed eight goals on 22 shots.
“Who knows what the result would have been, but we could have played a lot better than we did the other night,” Sharks coach David Quinn said Thursday morning. “That’s the only thing we can focus on as a coaching staff.
“You can look at the rosters and say, well, they just have more talent than us. Well, that’s not acceptable. That’s not how you want to approach things. Your job is to get your team to play to the best of their abilities. Unfortunately, we didn’t do that.”
Thursday’s game marked the first time that two Santa Clara County goalies started the same game, as Calgary goalie Dustin Wolf, a Gilroy native, had to make just 11 saves in the first two periods as he improved his record to 7-7-1 in 17 games this season.