Following months of moves and preparation, the San Jose Sharks are finally ready to take the ice for their first preseason game when they host the Vegas Golden Knights tonight at 5 p.m. PST. While San Jose doesn’t have many expectations for the upcoming season, the franchise is not without intrigue. A number of players will bring interesting plots and storylines, and those developments will start with the preseason. A few key narratives will emerge during the exhibition games, telling us significant information about how the upcoming season — and future seasons — might go.
David Quinn’s Centers & Line Combinations
The Sharks brought in several new forwards this offseason, and a number of their young forwards are just about ready to be full-time NHL players. As a result, the preseason is an opportunity for head coach David Quinn to try lots of line combinations to see which players play well together and which don’t. San Jose’s status as a franchise in transition means that nothing is set in stone, and preseason lines can help determine possible lines for the upcoming season or even future seasons.
Furthermore, if it’s not a long-term ailment, captain Logan Couture’s lower-body injury could actually be a blessing in disguise. Quinn will have even more freedom to play different centers on various lines, seeing which centers besides the veteran Couture could work well with both new and established Sharks wingers. Couture is obviously crucial to San Jose, but if he’s going to be recovered in time for the start of the regular season, the Sharks should see the games without him as an opportunity for experimentation that could greatly impact their ability to adapt in the future.
Thomas Bordeleau Gets a Chance
A number of Sharks prospects will see the ice during the preseason. Forward Thomas Bordeleau may be the most interesting. He has shown solid flashes in his 16 career NHL games, and turned in some excellent play at the Rookie Faceoff in Las Vegas. He is clearly developing in a positive way and is close to being fully NHL-ready. However, the Sharks have a number of established veteran forwards ahead of him, and there is a real question of whether or not there will be a roster space available for him on opening night.
However, if Bordeleau continues what he showed at the Rookie Faceoff, doing more of the same against NHL rosters rather than a collection of prospects, he may force the hand of San Jose’s decision-makers. He deserves to be on the NHL roster soon, and how he plays in the preseason could determine his exact timeline for getting there.
Numerous Sharks Goalies See Time
While Bordeleau may be the most interesting individual player for the Sharks this preseason, the most interesting position group is the goalies. Kaapo Kahkonen and Mackenzie Blackwood are the established veterans, but Eetu Makiniemi has been solid in the minors and limited NHL action. Georgi Romanov and Magnus Chrona also both had strong performances at the Rookie Faceoff. All five netminders could and should see time during the preseason. Once again, this is a product of San Jose’s rebuild.
Related: Sharks Have Few Options to Remedy Their Goaltending Issues
In a season where wins and losses aren’t a major concern, the Sharks would be smart to effectively do test runs in net, putting a variety of goalies in the cage throughout the regular season to see if any of them can be the long-term answer. As with the forwards, that experimentation should start during the preseason. How those goaltenders perform over the next couple of weeks can inform the San Jose coaching staff of who to play during the regular season and when to play them. If done correctly, the preseason goalie strategy can create an efficient process for determining if any of the five goalies could serve as a more permanent starter.
Preseason Serves as Preparation for Regular Season
Preseason games in any sport are often thought of as meaningless exhibition contests. However, they can serve as a crucial way to test various aspects of a team and determine last-minute adjustments before the regular season starts. The 2023-24 Sharks embody this idea perfectly. With the team facing a lot of uncertainty, the upcoming preseason games will help everyone gain greater awareness of where they stand and guide decisions that have seasons-long implications for the franchise.
