The San Jose Sharks are going to be one of the better teams in the National Hockey League sooner rather than later.

After years of contention from the early noughties until the late 2010s, the Sharks bottomed out and were one of the worst teams in the league. Well, that was until last season. After finishing at or near the bottom of the league from 2019-20 until 2024-25, the Sharks missed the 2026 playoffs by just four points. 

And they’ve only gotten better this past off-season. Let’s take a look at their major acquisitions and who departed the team.

What major acquisitions did the Sharks make this off-season?

By missing the postseason, the Sharks entered the draft lottery. Despite having just a 10.4 per cent chance to move into the top three, they did just that by landing the second overall pick. With it, they selected Ivan Stenberg, a fantastic piece for the team moving forward.

That was one of two top-10 picks they had, as they also selected Keaton Verhoeff with the ninth-overall selection. Entering the draft, the Edmonton product was viewed as one of the best defencemen available.

Rounding out their draft, they were able to select two more notable defencemen, Ryan Lin with the 21st overall pick, and Alexander Karmanov, a 7-foot-1 Moldovan defenceman later in the draft. This only made their pipeline that much better, as they join youngsters like Macklin Celebrini, Michael........

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