Kurtenbach: The Sharks’ rebuild has run its course. Now comes the hard part

SAN JOSE — The Sharks’ success was once so constant, so reliable, so predictable, that they ran out of room to hang their accolades.

With twenty playoff appearances in 24 years, the Sharks literally filled up an entire banner at their practice facility, top to bottom, with their postseason berths.

It was such steady excellence that the team had to commission a new banner just to keep up.

They hung it after their 21st playoff berth in 2019. It was a fresh slate that was made to be filled as quickly as the first banner.

And yet “2019” — small font, just like all the years on the first banner — sits there alone six years later.

We all know the deal. The drought arrived quickly, and the Sharks didn’t fight it long. Darkness before the light, right?

But it’s also been rebuild so deep, so thorough, so painfully methodical that you could almost mistake it for a permanent state of being.

Listen, now’s not the time to get impatient. Luckily, no one is demanding a Stanley Cup parade down Santa Clara Street in June of 2026.

But how about surprising the league and being in a position to talk about making this year’s tournament?

How about giving 2019 some company sometime soon?

Gavin McKenna — the surefire No. 1 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft — is a hell of a prospect, but if he’s drafted by the Sharks, can it be because of absurd lottery luck, and not a well-earned consolation prize?

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Rebuilds are sold as a means to an end.

The end shouldn’t be a mythical, unseen place moving forward — it needs to start coming into focus for San Jose.

Yes, six years is enough. It’s time for the Sharks to move to the stage beyond rebuilding.

Call it feistiness, pluckiness, or just downright competitiveness — the moment has come for the Sharks to turn the promise of the last half-decade into a semi-frequent reality.

Because losing can become a habit, and it’s a tough one to break.

It’s also the kind of habit that, itself, can break even the most talented, can’t-miss players.

And to the Sharks’ credit, they know it.

“It’s just time to start building here,” forward William Eklund said last March. “Me, personally, I think it’s time to stop losing. I want to win, and I’m sick of losing.”

That sentiment was shared across the board with Sharks players who spoke to the media on Thursday after the first day of training camp.

The expectation is progress. That means something like a 10-win jump. It’s about beating someone — or someones (looking at you, Ducks, Kraken, and Flames) — in the Pacific Division standings.

It’s about “doing the things we talk about,” Eklund said Thursday.

Yes, this might be the year before the breakthrough, but without taking that step forward, the breakthrough will never come. (Just ask the Buffalo Sabres, who haven’t made the playoffs since 2011.)

“There’s only one spot to go, and that’s up,” forward Tyler Toffoli — who might be the Sharks’ next captain — said. “I think we’re all on the same page and we don’t want to be in that [last-place] position again.”

Luckily, this is a team that has enough to actually turn that corner — the talent is in place in the South Bay.

All that misery has turned into Macklin Celebrini, who is two Junes away from being able to drink a beer in the United States legally, but is the kind of talent that can score 100 points in an NHL season before that happens.

“He got a taste of it last year,” Toffoli said. “The one thing that really stands out to me — you guys don’t get to see it — he hates to lose, more than anybody. I think he’s putting a lot of pressure on himself to turn things around here, and his work ethic, just in practice, should help that.”

It’s turned into Will Smith, 20, whose second-half surge (32 points in his last 42 games, followed by notching seven assists for the USA en route to a gold medal at the World Championships), confirmed that he can be a very effective Robin to Celebrini’s Batman.

“We know how long it’s been and what the fans here deserve,” Smith said.

It turned into the original wunderkind, Eklund, who signed a three-year, $16.8 million deal and is poised for a 20-plus goal season.

“It’s [about] closing the games we’ve been close to winning,” Eklund said. “There were a lot of games we were in last year that we have to turn those into wins.”

It turned into the top goalie prospect in the game, Yaroslav Askarov, acquired last year for a first-round draft pick.

And with 11 losses in a row to end the 2024-25 season, it turned into forward Michael Misa, the No. 2 overall pick in this past summer’s draft.

“There’s a reason he put up 300 points last year,” Barclay Goodrow said of Misa (who scored a mere 134 points in 65 games in the junior OHL last season). “He’s incredibly skilled… It’s going to be special to watch him.”

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Of course, there are still questions about forward depth and the blue line, but with sharp veteran additions this offseason to bolster the 23-man roster, the Sharks’ top-end talent— even if so much of that talent is young and not even close to fully realized — should be enough to move them out of the basement for the first time

Lest anyone start to become too comfortable down there.

“We’re kinda done handing out opportunities just because you’re a first-round pick or maybe there’s no one else,” head coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “There’s guys coming… the competition you get is what creates the culture that you want as an organization.”

“Start earning everything. Earning respect around the league, from other teams, players, coaches, officials, fan bases, and all that,” general manager Mike Grier said.

“I think they got the message.”