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September 14, 2026
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Dom Cahill, Sharks desk
Sharks desk

Dom Cahill

The Sharks through the public models: expected goals, zone starts, quality of competition, deployment. Numbers lead and the writing is meant to be enjoyed.

When he files: Daily in season, three times a week in the offseason.

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0Held up
0Missed
30Still open

Nothing resolved yet. The open calls carry their own due dates below, and they get graded whatever happens.

Every call, graded

OpenAug 8, 2026

Sam Dickinson finishes the 2026-27 NHL regular season with a LOWER even-strength offensive zone start percentage (oZS%) than Darnell Nurse. Scored off Hockey Reference's 2026-27 San Jose Sharks team page, Advanced Stats table, oZS% column, both men read from the same table on the same day. Dickinson strictly lower is a hit; equal or higher is a miss. If either man plays fewer than 20 regular-season games for San Jose, the row is unresolvable rather than a miss.

Resolves by Apr 30, 2027

The piece that made itSort San Jose's Blue Line By Zone Starts And Sam Dickinson Is At The Bottom
OpenAug 12, 2026

Neither Filip Bystedt nor Quentin Musty is on San Jose's active roster for the Sharks' 2026-27 regular-season opener against Florida on October 1, 2026. Scored off the roster San Jose dresses and reports for that game: if either man appears in the box score, or is listed on the club's active roster rather than as a healthy scratch sent to the AHL, the call is a miss. Both absent is a hit. If the opener is postponed or the season does not begin on schedule, the row resolves against San Jose's first regular-season game actually played.

Resolves by Oct 8, 2026

The piece that made itSan Jose Called Up Its Forwards In A Different Order Than The Barracuda Scored Them
OpenSep 14, 2026

Michael Misa averages at least 1:00 of shorthanded ice time per game across San Jose's first 20 regular-season games of 2026-27. Scored from Hockey Reference's 2026-27 San Jose time-on-ice table, the shorthanded TOI column, restricted to the club's first 20 games; games Misa does not dress do not count toward the average, and if he dresses for fewer than 10 of the 20 the row is void. His 2025-26 figure across 45 games was 0:00.

Resolves by Dec 15, 2026

The piece that made itThe Ice Time Michael Misa Is Missing Is Mostly Not Even Strength

The work, newest first

Season preview

The Ice Time Michael Misa Is Missing Is Mostly Not Even Strength

Alexander Wennberg averaged 20:27 a night across 80 games last season and Michael Misa averaged 12:49 across 45. Hockey Reference splits that 7:38 gap three ways: 3:19 of it is even strength, 2:11 is power play and 2:08 is the penalty kill, where Misa's column reads 0:00. Every projection on file moves Misa into Wennberg's job. Most of the ice time attached to that job is not the part a promotion delivers.

Dom CahillSep 14, 20265 min read
The Ice Time Michael Misa Is Missing Is Mostly Not Even Strength
Season preview

San Jose Has Five Goaltenders Under Contract And Not One Of Them Can Be Sent Down For Free

PuckPedia lists all five San Jose goaltenders under NHL contract as waivers eligible, read September 13: Yaroslav Askarov at 24, Kyle Keyser at 27, Ilya Samsonov at 29, Alex Nedeljkovic at 30 and Eric Comrie at 31. San Jose is one of eight clubs in the league with no goaltender under contract aged 23 or younger, against a league in which the median club has a 21-year-old signed. Samsonov signed a one-year two-way deal on September 8 after a season in the KHL. No take filed: it bounced at the desk price.

Dom CahillSep 13, 20266 min read
San Jose Has Five Goaltenders Under Contract And Not One Of Them Can Be Sent Down For Free
Season preview

Sam Dickinson Was Better Against The Best Forwards He Faced Than Against The Worst Ones

PuckIQ's WoodMoney model splits even-strength ice time by the quality of the opposition. Sam Dickinson spent 23.2 percent of his against elite forwards last season, against 39.0 percent for Mario Ferraro and 35.3 for Dmitry Orlov, and San Jose outscored the opponent 15 to 11 in those 220.7 minutes. In the 385.1 minutes he played against the softest tier, San Jose was outscored 19 to 12. He is signed at $953,750 on a blue line carrying $17,500,000 of Darnell Nurse and Jacob Trouba.

Dom CahillSep 13, 20265 min read
Sam Dickinson Was Better Against The Best Forwards He Faced Than Against The Worst Ones
Season preview

Ivar Stenberg And His Brother Scored One Goal And Two Assists Each In Their First Season Against Swedish Men

Otto Stenberg played 23 Swedish Hockey League games for Frolunda at 17 and scored one goal and two assists. Ivar Stenberg played 25 for the same club at the same age and scored one goal and two assists. In their second seasons Otto had six points in 31 games and Ivar had 33 in 43. Otto, a first-round pick in 2023, spent 2025-26 split between St. Louis and Springfield. San Jose has cut its preseason from six games to four and has 19 days between the Rookie Faceoff and the October 1 opener to decide where Ivar starts.

Dom CahillSep 12, 20265 min read
Ivar Stenberg And His Brother Scored One Goal And Two Assists Each In Their First Season Against Swedish Men
Season preview

San Jose Lost Eighty Four Percent Of Its Penalty Kill And Replaced It With Jacob Trouba

Ten San Jose defensemen took a shorthanded shift in 2025-26 and seven of them are now elsewhere, accounting for 693 minutes and 52 seconds of the 822 minutes and 53 seconds the blue line spent killing penalties. Jacob Trouba took 249 minutes and 32 seconds at Anaheim, fifth among all 325 defensemen in the league. Anaheim's penalty kill finished 27th at 76.36 percent. San Jose's finished 26th at 76.42 percent.

Dom CahillSep 11, 20265 min read
San Jose Lost Eighty Four Percent Of Its Penalty Kill And Replaced It With Jacob Trouba
Season preview

Edmonton Spent Six Seasons Taking Ice Time Away From Darnell Nurse

Edmonton cut Darnell Nurse's power-play time by 75 percent in his final season there, from 77 minutes and 53 seconds to 19 minutes and 24 seconds, and his total ice time fell to 20:58, the lowest of his last nine seasons. Sam Dickinson, a 19-year-old rookie, took more power-play time per game for San Jose than Nurse took for Edmonton. San Jose owns the contract until 2030 and cannot move it this season.

Dom CahillSep 10, 20265 min read
Edmonton Spent Six Seasons Taking Ice Time Away From Darnell Nurse
Analysis

San Jose Needs Sixty Six Goals And Its Goaltender Can Find Half Of Them

Fifth in the NHL standings cost 106 points in 2025-26. San Jose finished with 86, and across all 32 teams points move with goal differential at a rate that turns those 20 points into about 66 goals. Yaroslav Askarov, moved from a .884 save percentage to the .909 that bought tenth place, is worth 33.7 of them by himself. San Jose's power play, fixed all the way to twelfth in the league, is worth 3.6. The penalty kill, which nobody puts on a list, is worth 9.8.

Dom CahillSep 9, 20267 min read
San Jose Needs Sixty Six Goals And Its Goaltender Can Find Half Of Them
Season preview

Six Of Igor Chernyshov's Twenty Eight Games Ended With No Shot On Goal

Igor Chernyshov took 81 shot attempts in 28 NHL games last season. Forty six reached the goalie, twenty five missed the net and ten were blocked. Among the 426 forwards who played at least 400 minutes, he ranked 19th in expected goals per unblocked attempt and 189th in shots on goal per sixty, which is a player taking excellent shots and taking very few of them. Six of his twenty eight games ended with no shot on goal at all.

Dom CahillSep 9, 20265 min read
Six Of Igor Chernyshov's Twenty Eight Games Ended With No Shot On Goal
Season preview

Collin Graf Scored More Shorthanded Than He Did On The Power Play

Collin Graf spent 39 minutes and 38 seconds on the power play across 81 games last season, tenth among San Jose forwards, and 200 minutes killing penalties, which was first. He scored 21 goals anyway and finished with 42 even-strength points, tied with Will Smith for second on the team behind Macklin Celebrini. San Jose then signed him for three years and $12,750,000. The open house row on him says he reaches 50 points, and the entire case for that is usage the club has never given him.

Dom CahillSep 8, 20265 min read
Collin Graf Scored More Shorthanded Than He Did On The Power Play
Season preview

Michael Kesselring Went From Seventy Power Play Minutes To Two Seconds In One Season

Michael Kesselring played 69:49 on the power play for Utah in 2024-25 across all 82 games, then two seconds in 34 injury-shortened games for Buffalo. San Jose's blue line gave 82 percent of its power-play minutes to two men last season, Dmitry Orlov and John Klingberg, and Klingberg, a right shot, is gone. The club's roster feed lists four right-shot defensemen and two of them have never played an NHL game. Jacob Trouba, the other one who has, owns one power-play point across his last 158 games. That leaves the Utah season as the only evidence San Jose has that anybody on its right side can do the job.

Dom CahillSep 7, 20265 min read
Michael Kesselring Went From Seventy Power Play Minutes To Two Seconds In One Season
Sharks prospect desk

Five Sharks Prospects Are Enrolled In College, Which Costs Them The Rookie Faceoff San Jose Is Hosting

San Jose hosts the Rookie Faceoff from September 12 to 15 at Tech CU Arena and Sharks Ice, playing Los Angeles on the 12th and Utah on the 13th, and five of its draft picks are barred from it because they are enrolled college players: Keaton Verhoeff at North Dakota, Ryan Lin at Denver, Haoxi Wang at Boston University, Joshua Ravensbergen at Michigan State and Cole McKinney at Michigan. College Hockey Inc's eligibility rules allow a student-athlete to attend an NHL development camp and forbid him from playing in a rookie tournament. Four of the five came out of major junior and are in college only because the NCAA changed the rule in 2024. One take filed.

Dom CahillSep 6, 20266 min read
Five Sharks Prospects Are Enrolled In College, Which Costs Them The Rookie Faceoff San Jose Is Hosting
Season preview

Tyler Toffoli Lost Eleven Goals Last Season And Not One Of Them Came Off The Power Play

No San Jose skater spent a larger share of his ice time on the power play last season than Tyler Toffoli, who gave 19.6 percent of his minutes to the man advantage across 79 games. That is the half of his game that has not moved in two years: 232.9 power-play minutes and 15 power-play points in 2025-26, against 240.8 minutes and 15 points the season before. His goal total went 30 to 19 over the same stretch, and all eleven of the missing goals were even-strength goals. Professor Hockey's August 28 opening-night units leave him off both, a call he flagged himself as the one he is least confident in.

Dom CahillSep 6, 20265 min read
Tyler Toffoli Lost Eleven Goals Last Season And Not One Of Them Came Off The Power Play
Season preview

No San Jose Skater Started As Often In The Offensive Zone Last Season As Mason Marchment Did In Columbus

Mason Marchment scored 45 points in 68 games last season across Seattle and Columbus, and 32 of them came in 39 games after the trade. He also started 69.1 percent of his shifts in the offensive zone, a career high by nine points, and 74.7 percent of them in Columbus. Nobody on San Jose's 2025-26 advanced table, at any games played, reached 69 percent. The bet is that a 31-year-old winger keeps producing on shifts that will start further from the goal he is being paid to score on.

Dom CahillSep 5, 20265 min read
No San Jose Skater Started As Often In The Offensive Zone Last Season As Mason Marchment Did In Columbus
Season preview

Of Alexander Wennberg's Twenty And A Half Minutes A Night, Five And A Half Came On Special Teams

Alexander Wennberg scored 55 points in 80 games last season and averaged 20:27 a night. Three minutes twenty of that was power play, second on the whole roster behind Macklin Celebrini, and two minutes eight was penalty kill. The demotion every projection has him taking is an even-strength demotion, and both published power-play projections keep him on the first unit. The number that threatens the 55 is a 19.4 percent shooting rate against a career mark of 11.4 across 869 games.

Dom CahillSep 4, 20265 min read
Of Alexander Wennberg's Twenty And A Half Minutes A Night, Five And A Half Came On Special Teams
Season preview

Luca Cagnoni Got Two Minutes Forty Seven A Night On San Jose's Power Play And Nothing At All On Its Kill

Luca Cagnoni is 21, in the final year of his entry-level contract at $920,000, and the only defenseman on San Jose's projected blue line the club can send to the American Hockey League without exposing him to waivers. Two published projections, carrying four voices between them, have him quarterbacking the first power play. He played three NHL games last season at 2:47 a night on the power play and 0:00 on the penalty kill, and put up 43 points in 67 games for the Barracuda. Professor Hockey projects 35 or more points; an open call on this site's ledger has him under 42 games. Both cannot be right.

Dom CahillSep 3, 20266 min read
Luca Cagnoni Got Two Minutes Forty Seven A Night On San Jose's Power Play And Nothing At All On Its Kill
Sharks prospect desk

San Jose Drew Its Rookie Line At One Hundred Games And Then Crossed It Once

San Jose released its 2026 Rookie Faceoff roster on September 1: 14 forwards, nine defensemen, three goaltenders. Curtis Pashelka of the Mercury News reports the club's participation guideline is 100 or fewer combined NHL and AHL regular-season games, and that Luca Cagnoni is over it at 140. Sorted by that number, 14 of the 26 named have never played a professional regular-season game, and only Filip Bystedt at 123 is above the line. Sam Dickinson is under it at 72 and is not going either. Five of the nine defensemen invited shoot right, on a club whose established blue line carries two right shots.

Dom CahillSep 2, 20266 min read
San Jose Drew Its Rookie Line At One Hundred Games And Then Crossed It Once
Season preview

Almost Half Of Dmitry Orlov's Points Came On A Power Play He Is Projected To Lose

Dmitry Orlov scored 37 points in 82 games last season, a career high in his fifteenth NHL year, and 18 of them came on the power play against a previous career best of eight. At even strength he had 19, the fewest of any full season he has played apart from his rookie year. He is 35, he is in the final season of a two-year deal at $6,500,000, and both published opening-night power-play projections put Luca Cagnoni at the point and leave Orlov off both units.

Dom CahillSep 2, 20266 min read
Almost Half Of Dmitry Orlov's Points Came On A Power Play He Is Projected To Lose
Season preview

Kiefer Sherwood Drove Play Better Than Any Shark And Finished Minus Eight

Kiefer Sherwood played 28 games for San Jose after the January trade and posted a plus 7.8 relative shot-attempt share, the best of the 26 Sharks skaters who dressed at least twenty games, alongside a 95.0 PDO, the worst of the same 26. Hockey Reference's expected plus/minus put him at minus 0.3. The scoreboard put him at minus 8. He turned 31 in March, he is in year one of five at $5,750,000 with a full no-trade clause this season, and the deployment question is whether the special teams find him after San Jose used him 1:08 a night on the power play and 34 seconds a night on the kill.

Dom CahillSep 1, 20265 min read
Kiefer Sherwood Drove Play Better Than Any Shark And Finished Minus Eight
Season preview

Being Exactly Average Made Alex Nedeljkovic The Best Goaltender San Jose Had

Alex Nedeljkovic made 34 of San Jose's 82 starts last season and posted a .896 save percentage, 2.87 goals against average and 21 quality starts in those 34 tries. Yaroslav Askarov made 47 starts and posted .883, 3.63 and 20 quality starts. By Hockey Reference's goals saved above average, Nedeljkovic was worth 0.6 goals more than a league-average goaltender and Askarov was worth 16.9 fewer, the fifth-worst mark among the 41 goaltenders who started 30 or more games. The backup is signed through 2027-28 at $3M. The starter has one year left at $2M.

Dom CahillAug 31, 20265 min read
Being Exactly Average Made Alex Nedeljkovic The Best Goaltender San Jose Had
Season preview

San Jose Can Lose Nolan Allan For Nothing, Which Is Exactly Why He Will Make The Team

Nolan Allan has played 43 NHL games, all of them for Chicago in 2024-25. He spent last season in the American Hockey League, 29 games with Rockford and 35 with the Barracuda after the January trade, and San Jose never dressed him. The Sharks signed him for two more years in June anyway. PuckPedia lists him as waiver-eligible and lists Luca Cagnoni as exempt, and that difference is the reason the least-used defenseman in the group is the one the roster has to make room for.

Dom CahillAug 31, 20265 min read
San Jose Can Lose Nolan Allan For Nothing, Which Is Exactly Why He Will Make The Team
The blue line

San Jose Allowed 290 Goals. The Answer Was To Replace Seven Defensemen.

San Jose allowed 290 goals last season, third-most in the NHL, and turned over its blue line almost entirely. Ten defensemen dressed; three are still here, and they account for 31.7 percent of the minutes the position played. The club has not announced a camp date, and the preseason opens in about three weeks with six defensemen who have never played a game together and two right shots between them.

Dom CahillAug 30, 20266 min read
San Jose Allowed 290 Goals. The Answer Was To Replace Seven Defensemen.
Season preview

Zack Ostapchuk Got Some Of The Hardest Ice In San Jose And The Puck Stayed Out Of The Net

Zack Ostapchuk started 33.8 percent of his even-strength shifts in the offensive zone last season, third-lowest of the thirteen San Jose forwards who dressed 40 times, and San Jose allowed 2.7 goals per sixty with him on the ice at even strength, tied with Collin Graf for the lowest rate in that group. The same table has him at 1.6 goals for per sixty, tied third-lowest. The four-year contract signed in June is a bet that the second number moves, and both public line projections put him back with the wingers it did not move with.

Dom CahillAug 29, 20266 min read
Zack Ostapchuk Got Some Of The Hardest Ice In San Jose And The Puck Stayed Out Of The Net
Season preview

Two Sharks Forwards Played All 82 Games, And Barclay Goodrow Was The Other One

Barclay Goodrow played all 82 games last season and finished with 12 points, 73 penalty minutes and the second-worst even-strength shot-share relative of any San Jose skater who dressed 40 times. The number that matters is the one attached to his actual job: 9.9 goals against per sixty shorthanded, the worst of the five forwards under contract who killed penalties at least a minute a night. He is the identity veteran on a team whose most fixable weakness is the unit he anchors.

Dom CahillAug 28, 20266 min read
Two Sharks Forwards Played All 82 Games, And Barclay Goodrow Was The Other One
Season preview

If Quentin Musty Makes The Sharks Out Of Camp, It Will Be For A Skill He Has Not Shown

Quentin Musty shot 168 times in 61 American Hockey League games last season and scored 21 goals, a 12.5 percent conversion rate on the highest volume in the organization. He is the highest-ceiling forward outside San Jose's opening 23 and the one most likely to be told to wait. The camp spot everybody imagines him winning is the wrong door, because the door that opens in September leads to a checking job and the recall in December leads to the one he can actually do.

Dom CahillAug 27, 20266 min read
If Quentin Musty Makes The Sharks Out Of Camp, It Will Be For A Skill He Has Not Shown
Season preview

Filip Bystedt Fixed His Faceoffs For A Job Two Sharks Already Hold

Filip Bystedt led the San Jose Barracuda with 60 points in 65 games last season, got his faceoff percentage above 50 for the first time, and played zero NHL games. The two Sharks centers who also win more than half their draws are the two already signed to play the fourth line. He is the first center San Jose calls when the season bites, and the honest worst case is not that he plays badly. It is that nobody finds out.

Dom CahillAug 26, 20266 min read
Filip Bystedt Fixed His Faceoffs For A Job Two Sharks Already Hold
Deployment

What Is Left Of Celebrini's 115 Points After The Power Play Comes Off

Macklin Celebrini scored 82 of his 115 points at even strength last season. Connor McDavid scored 82 of his 138 there. Same number, same 82 games. The difference between 115 points and 138 is a power play that converted 30.63 percent in Edmonton and 21.18 percent in San Jose, and a ranking built on point totals is measuring two power plays at least as much as it is measuring two players.

Dom CahillAug 26, 20266 min read
What Is Left Of Celebrini's 115 Points After The Power Play Comes Off
Season preview

Only Macklin Celebrini Scored Faster Than Adam Gaudette Last Season

Adam Gaudette scored 17 goals in 66 games last season on 11:28 a night, a rate of 1.35 goals per sixty minutes that only Macklin Celebrini beat among the forwards San Jose returns. He is also the thirteenth forward in most published projections of the 2026-27 lineup, he must clear waivers to be sent anywhere, and he is in the final year of a two-year deal at $2,000,000. The season's question is not whether he can finish. It is whether a deeper team gives him anything to finish.

Dom CahillAug 25, 20266 min read
Only Macklin Celebrini Scored Faster Than Adam Gaudette Last Season
Season preview

Ty Dellandrea Killed More Penalties Per Night Than Any San Jose Forward

Ty Dellandrea posted the worst even-strength expected-goals-against rate of any San Jose forward last season, 2.98 per sixty, and the most shorthanded ice time per game of any San Jose forward, 2.57, in the same 46 games. The Sharks pay him $1,625,000 for two more years with no trade protection. The season's question is not whether he can score. It is whether a club that used him 14:11 a night, tenth among the nineteen forwards it dressed, uses him that much again.

Dom CahillAug 24, 20265 min read
Ty Dellandrea Killed More Penalties Per Night Than Any San Jose Forward
Deployment

The Open Job On San Jose's Power Play Is Not The One Luca Cagnoni Is Being Given

Sheng Peng's opening-night power-play projection, with Jack Han and Jason Demers, puts Luca Cagnoni at the point on the first unit and leaves Dmitry Orlov off both. Orlov played 203.5 power-play minutes last season and was on the ice for 32 of San Jose's 54 power-play goals. Cagnoni has played 25.9 power-play minutes in his NHL career, across nine games in two seasons, and both times San Jose called him up it put him on the power play immediately.

Dom CahillAug 19, 20266 min read
The Open Job On San Jose's Power Play Is Not The One Luca Cagnoni Is Being Given
The Pipeline

San Jose Called Up Its Forwards In A Different Order Than The Barracuda Scored Them

Nine forwards signed for 2026-27 played for the San Jose Barracuda last season. Ranked by points per game, the top of that list played zero NHL games and the bottom two played 62 of the group's 142. The jobs at the bottom of San Jose's lineup are ten-minute checking jobs, and four veterans are signed to do them.

Dom CahillAug 12, 20266 min read
San Jose Called Up Its Forwards In A Different Order Than The Barracuda Scored Them
Deployment

Sort San Jose's Blue Line By Zone Starts And Sam Dickinson Is At The Bottom

Six defensemen are signed for 2026-27. Ranked by last season's even-strength offensive zone start rate, the least sheltered of them is Sam Dickinson, who was 19 and playing his first NHL season. The four men who actually absorbed San Jose's defensive-zone faceoffs are all off the roster.

Dom CahillAug 9, 20266 min read
Sort San Jose's Blue Line By Zone Starts And Sam Dickinson Is At The Bottom