3 Breakout Candidates for the San Jose Sharks in 2026-27

The San Jose Sharks surprised many last season with their improvement over 2024-25, but they fell just shy of a playoff berth. Expectations are different heading into 2026-27. San Jose is done rebuilding; they have their sights set on the playoffs.

Inexperience doomed the Sharks at the end of the season when play became more physical, and mistakes were amplified, but those may have been the growing pains the young group needed to exorcise their playoff demons. The raw Sharks core is another year older and another year wiser, creating an opportunity for three players, in particular, to break out and show their blossoming talent.

Michael Misa

Misa’s rookie season is difficult to grade because he missed half the campaign with an ankle injury as well as scheduled games off to help the 18-year-old get acclimated to the NHL. On paper, his nine goals and 12 assists in 45 games don’t jump off the page.

But stats don’t always tell the full story. Misa proved his maturity by his willingness to go into the dirty areas to score greasy goals. He recorded a 52.2 Corsi for percentage, which was higher than some notable NHLers, including Utah Mammoth star Logan Cooley. This was a solid campaign from a teenager learning how to play a man’s game while rehabbing an ankle injury. 

On most of his goals, Misa either crashed the net to bury a loose puck or alertly put a rebound past the goaltender. In the second half of the season, Misa’s decision to attack and his refusal to give up on plays turned into scoring opportunities, allowing him to capitalize on pucks up for grabs. 

At times, the game was too quick for him to keep pace, which is understandable for a teenager playing significant NHL minutes. His progress became apparent after he recovered from his injury, as his ability to process what was happening started to catch up to his natural talent. He improved at a similar pace to Will Smith, who also showed significant growth in the second half of his rookie year. 

Misa will likely see a lot of different wingers this season as he starts on the third line until he is consistent enough to warrant second-line minutes. Igor Chernyshov will certainly see time with the young center. The two have established chemistry from when they played together for the Ontario Hockey League’s Saginaw Spirit.

Other players that he could build chemistry with are newly acquired power forward Mason Marchment and 2026 second-overall pick Ivar Stenberg, whose game is supposedly NHL-ready – although he will likely spend a lot of time in the middle six as the coaching staff aims to ease the soon-to-be 19-year-old into the NHL as they did with Misa. 

Due to the similarities of their rookie campaigns, I expect Misa to emulate Smith’s second season when he scored 59 points in 69 games. That would be a nearly 72-point pace in an 84-game season, but Sharks fans should still be content if he finishes in the 60s instead. 

Igor Chernyshov

Igor Chernyschov was the Sharks’ third pick, 33rd overall, in the 2024 Draft, following Macklin Celebrini and Sam Dickinson. Yet, he showed flashes of first-round talent in 2025-26, with 19 points in 28 games, bookending his season with a scorching-hot start, scoring eight points in his first seven games, and four goals in his last four. 

What happened in the middle? He was sent down to the American Hockey League to see some game action during the Olympic break. He also experienced the expected ups and downs for a 20-year-old rookie, and he suffered a brutal concussion against the Montreal Canadiens on March 14, causing him to miss four games.

The Russian winger popped immediately, showcasing his physical style and his ability to hunt for the puck like a pig does truffles to create chaos around the net. Chernyshov likes to shoot, whether he flashes his silky mitts close to the goaltender or his quick release sneaks one into the net. He is a very skilled offensive player who always has his head up looking for an opportunity to score, which should come in bunches if the Sharks’ newfound sniper carries over his solid chemistry with Celebrini into the upcoming season. 

Between Smith and Celebrini, Chernyshov should continue to get ample opportunity to score with those two passing to a player whose shot has an almost magnetic attraction to the net. It should surprise no one if he scores a ton of goals in 2026-27. 

He scored goals in 47% of his games in a small sample size. In an 84-game season, that would put him on pace for 39.79 goals. It may be a stretch to predict a 40-goal campaign from Chernyshov, but 30 is within the realm of possibility for this budding goal scorer. 

Yaroslav Askarov

Last season marked a year of highs and lows for the Sharks’ rookie goaltender, and none higher than his incredible month of November. Askarov’s stats sparkled, with an 8-2 record, a 1.88 goals-against average (GAA) and .947 save percentage (SV%). His eight wins tied Evgeni Nabokov for most wins in a calendar month for a rookie goaltender in franchise history. 

The rest of his season tells a different story. While Askarov showed elite potential in November, every other month reflected his shortcomings and the overall struggles of the team’s defense. His next best month was March, when he posted a 2-1-1 record with a 3.53 GAA and .879 SV%. December was his only other month with a winning record, winning six games and losing four. He finished 21-20-4, with a 3.63 GAA, which ranked 58th in the NHL and a .884 SV%, which was tied for 48th. 

Askarov’s stellar November is a reason for optimism, churning out truly excellent play between the pipes before Christmas. The rest of the season showed he has room to grow, but admittedly he isn’t fully to blame. The Sharks’ defense was one of the worst in the NHL last season. San Jose finished 30th in the league in both shot attempt differential (-3.9) and shots on goal differential (-0.1), meaning they averaged 3.9 fewer shot attempts and 0.1 fewer shots on goal than their opponent every game. 

Mid-range shots gave Askarov the most fits, particularly on his glove side, where he had a .857 SV% compared to the .884 league average. He made up for those struggles by nearly matching the league average SV% in high-danger chances at .810 compared to .811. He also showcased his athletic ceiling on prime scoring chances throughout the season with highlight-reel saves that avalanched most games due to the inept defense in front of him. Each game felt like the Sharks lazily allowed easy high-danger scoring chances and gave up multiple breakaways a game.

At his best, Aksarov stretches like a rubber band to make improbable kick saves and can sprawl in desperation to bat pucks out of danger, but at his worst, he lets in softies glove side and his misadventures playing the puck backfire into his own net. The good news is that reinforcements have arrived.

The Sharks upgraded their back end by adding Jacob Trouba, Darnell Nurse and Michael Kesselring, who are replacing defensive liabilities like John Klingberg, Nick Leddy and Mario Ferraro – in some games, they seemed to compete with each other for who could hang the goalie out to dry the most. 

After his first full season learning how to be a starting NHL goaltender and adding momentous improvements to the blue line, Askarov is primed to string together more consistent play that resembles his stalwart play from November rather than the rest of his roller coaster season.

The Sharks are a young team with a lot of promise. If they want to get to the playoffs for the first time since 2019, players like Misa, Chernyshov and Askarov need to take a step forward to back their general manager Mike Grier, who made offseason moves indicating the rebuilding phase is over. The future is now, so guys other than Celebrini need to prove it.