By Brian Murphy
It’s a Christmas miracle — a Jock Blog about the San Jose Sharks.
It’s true. The Sharks are on my mind as 2025 draws to a close and I thought to myself: “How’s about the ol’ year-end Bay-In-Review Jock Blog?” to round out the calendar year.
An age-old columnist trick.
My idea was: Which Bay Area pro team enters 2026 with the brightest future?
— Is it the formerly golden Golden State Warriors, who are currently below .500 and are now more focused on Joe Lacob’s inbox and sent emails than trying to win a basketball game?
— Is it the forever .500 Giants, who are doomed to live in the shadow of the greatest baseball team in the history of the universe, the intergalactically unbeatable Dodgers?
— Is it the 49ers, who have 10 sorta-incredible wins in 14 games, despite a season-long injury list that is longer than your average 8-year-old kid’s list for Santa?
I generally draw my Jock Blog line at the holy trifecta of 49ers/Giants/Warriors, as both of my devout readers know. Today, I change those rules.
That’s how electric and bright the future is for the Sharks, who agree with my take so much that their social media hashtag is #TheFutureIsTeal. They may want to go mix in #TheFutureIsInTheJockBlog.
So let’s add to the list:
— Is it the Sharks, who have missed the 16-team NHL playoffs *six* consecutive seasons, but currently hold the No. 8 spot in the Western Conference and feature the most exciting young star in the sport, our very own Macklin Celebrini, all of 19 years old and already compiling stats that compare with the likes of Sidney Crosby and Wayne Gretzky?
With apologies to the impressive season stitched together by Kyle Shanahan’s gritty, last-place-schedule-enjoying 49ers, the answer is:
THE SAN JOSE SHARKS, kids.
The Sharks have the brightest future of any Bay Area sports team as we head into 2026, as I was just saying to my ticket stub from a 1992 Sharks game at the Cow Palace. Shout out Pat Falloon.
Listen. I’m not going to front like I’m Don Cherry here, sports fans. (Google him, Gen Z.) And I have always acknowledged that those of us born before, say, 1980 grew up in a Bay Area that did not have hockey, with apologies to the low-profile California Golden Seals. We are not puck experts, setting aside the massive appreciation we all have for “Slap Shot” as one of the greatest sports movies of all time. Throw a viewing party for that 1977 classic and we’ll be puttin’ on the foil.
And Sharks success is not new.
The Joe Thornton-Pat Marleau-Joe Pavelski years were among the best runs in Bay Area sports history. From 1997-2019, the Sharks made *nineteen* playoff appearances, and won a series in at least twelve of those. They never won the Stanley Cup. That fact will forever be a regret for that generation, but the noise the Shark Tank made for two decades also defined sports memories for so many, particularly the South Bay — which is, of course, Sharks Territory.
But then the Sharks went into the darkness. For lack of a better word, they sucked. No post-seasons for six consecutive seasons. But sucking, for lack of a better word, came with a benefit: high draft picks.
Like the Houston Astros or Chicago Cubs who went dark for years, high draft picks result in generational talent, if you pick right. The Astros and Cubs won World Series championships because they drafted players like Carlos Correa and Alex Bregman and Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber, all in the top five.
The Sharks appear to be on a similar path by selecting Will Smith with the fourth overall selection in 2023 — Smith is 20 years old and is in the top-50 in points in the NHL as of this writing.
And then came June 28, 2024, when the Sharks used the first overall selection on Celebrini.
Cue the sound of a rocket engine taking off.
You don’t have to be Judi Jupiter to know that Celebrini has “it”, and by “it” we mean speed, dexerity, skill and good old-fashioned Canadian-bred hockey toughness and humility.
As recently as Tuesday night, Celebrini scored two goals and had two assists in a Sharks win over Calgary at the Tank, and one of the goals was a “spin-o-rama” highlight that had social media feeds overheating.
The 19-year-old kid is third in the NHL in points, way up there in the thin air with the likes of 23-24 Hart Trophy winner Nathan MacKinnon of Colorado, who has won a Stanley Cup, and Edmonton’s Connor McDavid, a three-time Hart Trophy winner and the only unanimous winner of the award other than Gretzky.
That’s the company Celebrini is keeping.
The Future is not only Teal, it’s Macklin. The Sharks are currently on pace to make the playoffs, if this keeps up. And that may be an annual, sports fans.
So it’s a runaway, really. The brightest future in the Bay Area wears skates and plays on ice. The Giants, Warriors and 49ers just have to try to keep up.
