#shark interviews

Talk to us a little bit about some other young guys that are making an impression and might be getting a little overshadowed by how good Celebrini's been.

Wenny: Yeah, just as you said, I mean, Mack is obviously like sometimes you just watch him and you think it's unbelievable. But, I mean, he's pulling this team and there's a lot of skill behind it too.

I mean, Will Smith, hell of a player. Obviously, you see him on the ice too, now we haven't played in a while, but I mean he's just this talent. And obviously, the plays he makes, the skill offensively, so used to have him as well.

And then you have Askarov in net which is just, I mean, one of the best goalies I've ever seen. [Wow.] So used to have that I mean obviously, last year wasn't really the year we wanted to go but we felt the potential was there we just have to mature, we have to grow. And I mean obviously right now you can see us take another step.

Got a guy like Macklin Celebrini on your team whose kinda...running the ship but I heard before you signed, he's been kinda bugging you the last few weeks. And being like are you gonna sign Wenny, are you gonna sign? So how was it having a kid of his caliber, but a young kid, kind of give so much respect to you?

Some intriguing questions – ones that haven’t been raised in years – are now being asked with the San Jose Sharks in the midst of a playoff chase.

For one, would the Sharks actually be buyers at the NHL trade deadline, rather than the sellers they’ve been in recent years?

Don’t rule it out, Sharks Sports & Entertainment President Jonathan Becher said, although the team’s approach to the March 6 deadline will likely come with some stipulations.

Becher didn’t want to speak for general manager Mike Grier, but told Bay Area News Group, “We wouldn’t do anything medium-term bad for us. If something helps in the short term and in the medium term, maybe we’d do it, but there’s no rentals that we’re looking at, right?”

The Sharks (23-19-3), having won six of their last eight games, entered Wednesday in the second and final wild card spot in the Western Conference. Their most crucial stretch of the season begins Thursday when they play the Washington Capitals to open a four-game road trip.

Starting Thursday, the Sharks play nine of their next 10 games before the Olympic break away from home.

A series of losses could drop the Sharks into a hole they can’t escape in the tightly packed West, and force Grier to look at trading one or more of his numerous pending unrestricted free agents.

A winning record in this stretch, though, would keep the Sharks in the playoff conversation and open up the possibility of adding players before the deadline. But dipping heavily into the team’s deep prospect pool for a short-term fix seems unlikely.

The Sharks made the playoffs in 14 out of 15 seasons from 2004 to 2019, but have missed the postseason each of the last six years. The Sharks have finished with the NHL’s worst record each of the last two seasons, but now feel situated to have a competitive window open for a long time.

“I’ve got to say, I’ve got other people going, push, push, push. We’re going to try to do this the right way,” Becher said. “One time good and then fall off the cliff — which you’ve seen other sports teams do — is not what we want to do here. We want to be consistently great again.”

Sharks owner Hasso Plattner said before the season began that he expected the 2025-26 team to be significantly improved over the previous year and that he eyed the 2026-27 season as the one when the franchise would end its postseason drought.

In that respect, the Sharks have been a little ahead of schedule. The improvement has no doubt happened, as the Sharks’ 49 points so far are just three fewer than they had all of last season.

But making the playoffs for the first time since 2019 isn’t out of the question. It’s just a matter of what Grier and the Sharks might do between now and the trade deadline to help fortify their chances.

Over the weekend, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that the Sharks tried to acquire Dougie Hamilton from the New Jersey Devils last summer, but that the trade was blocked by the veteran defenseman. Are the Sharks still interested in Hamilton, who has two more years after this one remaining on his contract? Is Hamilton any more open to a move to the upstart Sharks?

It’s obviously a different time for Plattner’s team.

“He’s obviously excited,” Becher said of Plattner. “(In October) he said, ‘Look, if we make the playoffs this year, that’s great,’ but that’s not the plan. The plan is to be a lot better, which I think we’ve already proven we are this year, and set ourselves up for next year.

“If we magically make it, everyone will be ecstatic. But focus on the medium term, not just the short term.”

An Olympic roster freeze – meaning no trades across the NHL — lasts from Feb. 4-22. The days before the freeze could act as a soft trade deadline, with some teams looking to offload pending UFAs who are participating in the Olympics, rather than risk those players getting hurt during the Games and their trade value diminishing.

Plus, once the freeze is lifted, only 12 days are left before the deadline.

If the Sharks want to add a player on an NHL contract, they’ll have to move at least another one out, as they are at the league maximum of 50 contracts.

SMITH NOT YET READY

Sharks forward Will Smith practiced without any restrictions on Wednesday in Washington but will not play against the Capitals, coach Ryan Warsofsky said.

Smith, who sustained an upper-body injury in the Sharks’ Dec. 13 game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, also practiced with the Sharks last Friday and on Monday, although he was wearing a non-contact jersey in last week’s skate at SAP Center.

Warsofsky said he needed to see the medical report on how Smith felt physically after Wednesday’s practice before determining whether he would be available to play in Friday’s game against the Detroit Red Wings in the second game of the trip.