The Apple podcast title, The Deep Dive, decoding
the San Jose Sharks from 71 losses to merch kings
and the long road back. What does it take to
build a sports franchise from scratch, endure
the worst record in NHL history, and still outsell
almost everyone in merchandise? In this deep
dive, we plunge into the turbulent, fascinating
history of the San Jose Sharks, from their humble
beginnings at the Cow Palace and the iconic red
triangle branding, to the heart -stopping 2016
Stanley Cup final run and the dramatic Mike Greer
-led rebuild of 2026. Whether you're a diehard
hockey fan, a Bay Area sports enthusiast, or
just love a story of wild turnarounds and epic
playoff comebacks, this deep dive extracts the
most surprising facts and aha moments from the
Sharks' Wikipedia archives. Join us. Welcome
to another custom -tailored deep dive designed
completely for you. Glad to be here. Yeah, today
we have a massive stack of source material in
front of us. Oh, massive is an understatement.
Right. We are looking at the comprehensive Wikipedia
history of the NHL's San Jose Sharks. A truly
wild ride. It is. And whether you're catching
up on Bay Area sports history, prepping for a
trivia night, or you're just insanely curious
about how a professional sports team becomes
a massive cultural phenomenon while simultaneously
driving its fan base absolutely crazy. Which
they definitely do. Exactly. You are in the right
place. Yeah, because our mission today isn't
just to read off a boring sports timeline. We
are looking at a fascinating case study. A roller
coaster, really? Yeah. This is a story. about
extreme highs crushing lows some truly brilliant
marketing and a franchise that is currently navigating
one of the most brutal modern day rebuilds in
sports history for sure We're extracting the
ultimate highlights to respect your time and
give you the most memorable nuggets from this
team's history. I honestly cannot wait to get
into this because when you look at the origins
of this team, it reads like a Hollywood script.
It really does. Okay, let's unpack this. Let's
rewind to the late 1980s. Setting the scene.
Right. So the Bay Area had not had a professional
hockey team since the Golden Seals packed up
and left town in 1976. So it was basically a
hockey desert. A total hockey desert. Enter the
Gunn brothers. Ah, the Gunns. Yeah, they owned
the Minnesota North Stars at the time, but they
wanted to bring hockey back to the Bay. They
saw the potential. They did. So they struck this
massive compromise with the NHL. They agreed
to sell their share of the Minnesota team in
exchange for the rights to a brand new expansion
team in San Jose. Which was slated to begin in
the 1991 to 1992 season. Exactly. And the price
tag for this new franchise, $45 million. Which
is, I mean... 45 million. Bucket change today.
Exactly. When you look at the multi -billion
dollar valuations of sports franchises today,
it's nothing. Oh, absolutely. But the real story
of this era is how they built the brand from
absolute scratch. Yes. The naming contest. This
part is so funny to me. It's like a classic 90s
move. They opened it up to the public and over
5 ,000 names were submitted. And the winning
name was actually The Blades. The San Jose Blades.
But the owners immediately vetoed it. Good call
on their part. Yeah, they felt it had way too
many negative associations with weapons and gang
violence. So they went with the runner -up, the
San Jose Sharks. What's fascinating here is the
sheer brilliance of that branding pivot. How
so? Well, the owners didn't just pick a sea creature
at random from a hat. They tied it deeply to
the region's geography. Right. Off the coast
of Northern California, there's a specific area
in the Pacific Ocean known as the Red Triangle.
The Red Triangle. Yeah. It is globally famous
for its massive population of great white sharks.
By tapping into that local lore, they weren't
just a new corporate entity being helicoptered
in. It actually meant something to the area.
Exactly. They felt deeply rooted in the Bay Area's
environment. And that inspired what would become
an absolute cultural obsession. The colors. Yes.
The teal, black, white, and orange color scheme.
You literally cannot talk about the 90s without
talking about San Jose Sharks teal. It was everywhere.
Starter jackets, hats, everything. But here's
the incredible contradiction of those early years.
Their first two seasons, they played at the Cow
Palace in Daly City. Which is, let's be honest,
basically an agricultural arena. Right. And on
the ice. They were atrocious. I mean, historically
brutal. Unwatchable at times. In the 1992 to
1993 season, they set an NHL record with 71 losses.
71. It's hard to even fathom losing that much.
Imagine you were a fan showing up to the arena
that year. It was a guaranteed rough night. And
yet, despite being historically terrible on the
ice. They were an absolute juggernaut at the
cash register. It makes no sense. I know. During
that 71 loss season, the Sharks accounted for
27 % of the entire NHL's merchandise sales. Over
a quarter of the league sales. Think about that
market share. They generated $150 million in
merch. Wow. Among all North American sports leagues
at that exact time, the only team selling more
merchandise than the San Jose Sharks. Let me
guess. Go ahead. The Michael Jordan era Chicago
Bulls. The Michael Jordan era Chicago Bulls.
That is just staggering. It really proves the
power of a good logo. It totally does. And speaking
of marketing wins, we have to mention their mascot,
S .J. Sharkey. Oh, the debut. Yeah. He made his
debut in a 1992 game. by literally emerging from
inside a Zamboni. Just popping right out of the
ice resurfacer. It's just so perfectly weird
and theatrical, which really sets the tone for
their next big move in 1993. The new building.
Right. That's when the team finally moved into
their permanent home, the San Jose Arena. What
locals now lovingly call the SAP Center. Or the
Shark Tank. And moving into the Shark Tank came
with the birth of one of the greatest entrances
in professional sports. Oh, I get chills just
thinking about it. If you've never seen it, picture
the lights in the arena going completely dark.
The Jaws theme starts pulsing through the speakers.
Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Exactly. And then slowly
lowering from the rafters is this massive 17
-foot open shark mouth. It's huge. It has these
glowing red eyes. Heavy fog is pouring out of
it. And the starting goaltender skates out onto
the ice directly through the mouth, leading the
entire team. It is pure theatrical intimidation.
Nothing else like it. It's incredible. And moving
into that new arena actually coincided with an
absolute miracle on the ice. The 1993 to 94 season.
The big turnaround. Right. They bring in a new
coach. Kevin Constantine, and the team pulls
off a 58 point jump in the standings from the
previous season. 58 points. To this day, that
remains the biggest single season turnaround
in the history of the National Hockey League.
And that turnaround set the stage for one of
the greatest upsets you will ever see in sports.
The 1994 playoffs. This is legendary. The Sharks
sneak in as the eighth seed, the absolute bottom
of the playoff barrel. They are matched up against
the heavily favored, top -seeded Detroit Red
Wings. A true David versus Goliath scenario.
Nobody gave San Jose a chance, yet they pushed
the series to a decisive Game 7. And then...
And then a player named Jamie Baker scores the
game -winning goal to eliminate Detroit. I get
chills just reading about the crowd reaction
to that Jamie Baker goal. The building practically
shook off its foundation. It was monumental.
To put that into historical context for you,
when the Sharks beat the Red Wings, they became
the very first eighth seed in North American
professional sports history to defeat a first
seed in a playoff series. Across any sport. Anywhere.
They shattered a glass ceiling that existed across
the NHL, the NBA. A true Cinderella story. But
just to show you how completely bizarre the 90s
were for this franchise, I have to throw in this
wild anecdote from the sources. Oh, the flood.
Yes. In 1995, the Sharks experienced the only
rainout in the history of the NHL. A rainout
for an indoor sport. Right. The Guadalupe River,
which runs right by the arena, completely flooded
its banks. The water levels were so high that
nobody... Even the players. Not the players,
not the fans, not the referees. Nobody could
actually physically get into the building. They
had to cancel an... indoor ice hockey game because
of rain. The perfect metaphor for the franchise,
really. Totally. Unpredictable, dramatic, and
totally unique to their environment. But as we
move forward in the timeline, the narrative shifts
from quirky expansion team to absolute juggernaut.
Things get serious. Very. We enter the era of
general manager Doug Wilson starting around 2003.
This is when the Sharks transform into a perennial
powerhouse. Oh, the golden era. They start acquiring
these legendary larger -than -life players. Huge
names. You get Jumbo Joe Thornton arriving via
trade in 2005, and he immediately wins the league
MVP. Dominant. And then you have Jonathan Chichu,
who completely erupts that same year to win the
league's goal -scoring title with 56 goals. Just
an offensive machine. Suddenly, the teal is feared
not just because of a cool logo, but because
they will physically run you out of the building.
Exactly. The late 2000s and the 2010s were defined
by their regular season dominance. They were
the absolute kings of the 82 -game schedule.
Right. This peaked in the 2008 to 2009 season
when they won the President's Trophy. Which is
awarded to the team with the best overall record.
Right. They racked up a franchise record 117
points. But if we connect this to the bigger
picture, this era... also established the defining,
agonizing narrative of the San Jose Sharks. The
heartbreak. Yes. Phenomenal, world -beating regular
seasons, followed by completely devastating playoff
heartbreaks. The rollercoaster. If you were a
fan during this time, you had no fingernails
left. None. Let's talk about the lows first,
because they were brutal. The 2014 playoffs against
the Los Angeles Kings. This one hurts. The Sharks
go up three games to none in the series. They
are one win away from moving on. Just one win.
And then a complete collapse. They lose four
straight games. It was only the fourth time in
the long history of the NHL that a team lost
a series after being up 3 -0. The emotional whiplash
is staggering. But then you have the inverse.
The incredible highs that keep the fans coming
back. Right. Because they did it too. Exactly.
Just a few years prior. In the 2011 playoffs,
also against the Kings, the Sharks are down 4
-0 in Game 3. Most teams would just fold right
there. Instead, they mount an impossible comeback,
tying the game and eventually winning 6 -5 in
overtime. It's a franchise that forces you to
expect the unexpected. And it all culminates
in the 2015 -2016 season. The big run. Peter
DeBoer comes in as the head coach. And the team
finally, finally breaks through the Western Conference
ceiling. They reach their first ever Stanley
Cup final. Long overdue. The atmosphere in the
Bay Area was electric. Now, they ultimately fell
short, losing the series to Sidney Crosby and
the Pittsburgh Penguins. But just reaching the
summit validated a decade of regular season dominance.
It did. But perhaps the most purely cinematic
moment of this entire era came a bit later in
the 2019 playoffs. Oh, man. Game seven against
the Vegas Golden Knights. This is a sequence
that will be studied by hockey historians forever.
I was hoping we'd get to this. Imagine being
in the shark tank for this game. The tension
must have been unbearable. Game seven. The Sharks
are down 3 -0 in the third period. There are
only about 10 minutes left in the entire season.
It feels completely over. Fans are probably heading
for the exits. Then, a call. controversial five
-minute major penalty is called against Vegas.
Right. The Sharks go on the power play and they
proceed to score not one, not two, not three,
but four goals on that single five -minute advantage
to take the lead. On one penalty. The building
was absolute bedlam. Incredible. Vegas actually
tied it up in the final minute to send it to
overtime, which just adds to the unbelievable
tension. Of course they did. And then in sudden
death overtime, Barkley Goodrow scores the series
winner for San Jose. It is widely considered
one of the wildest, most improbable comebacks
in the history of the sport. Just reading the
play -by -play and the source material makes
my heart rate. Pure adrenaline. But here's where
it gets really interesting. And by interesting,
I mean incredibly difficult if you love this
team. Because after that 2019 Vegas miracle,
the contention window doesn't just close, it
slams shut, locks, and the glass breaks. We enter
the modern era from 2019 to 2026. It is the stark
reality of the salary cap era. In sports. When
you push your chips to the center of the table
for a decade and a half to chase a championship,
eventually the bill comes due. The draft picks
are gone. The prospects are gone. Exactly. The
team begins missing the playoffs year after year.
The leadership void becomes apparent with the
captaincy sometimes left completely empty. It
leads to a massive organizational reset. A totally
clean slate. Right. In July of 2022, they make
a historic front office hire, bringing in Mike
Greer. his general manager. This was a monumental
moment as Greer became the first black general
manager in the history of the NHL. And Greer
steps into a situation where he has to do the
most painful thing a GM can do, tear down a beloved
roster. It's never easy. You are watching a completely
ruthless, necessary deconstruction. Fan favorites
who define the franchise for a generation are
shipped out. Brent Burns, traded. Timo Mayer,
traded. And then there is the Eric Carlson situation
in 2023. Oh, this one is crazy. Carlson has an
absolutely historic season for a defenseman.
He records 101 points, winning the Norris Trophy
as the league's best at his position. An unbelievable
year. And what does the team do? They trade him
to the Pittsburgh Penguins shortly after. Right
after his best season. It perfectly illustrates
the painful reality of a rebuild. Your best assets
must be liquidated for future draft capital,
regardless of how well they're playing right
now. is so tough for the fans you also have the
emotional farewells patrick marleau who holds
the nhl record for most games ever played has
his number 12 retired a legend it was a beautiful
nod to the glorious past but it stood in such
sharp contrast to the struggles of the current
team on the ice then Logan Couture, the captain
who spent his entire illustrious career with
the Sharks, officially retires in 2025. The ties
to the golden era are completely severed. Which
brings us to rock bottom. You cannot discuss
this rebuild without looking at the start of
the 2023 to 2024 season. Oh boy. The on -ice
product was historically bad. They tied an NHL
record for the longest losing streak to start
a season, going 0 -10 -1. During that stretch,
they also became the first team since 1965 to
allow 10 goals in consecutive games. Back to
back games giving up 10 goals. Yes. And the frustration
behind the scenes really boiled over publicly.
The sources highlight an incredibly raw moment
from the start of the 2025 to 2026 season. The
quote. The quote. The team is on a five game
losing streak and head coach Ryan Worsoski gave
a quote to the press that immediately went viral.
He literally said I'd give up one of my children
for an effing win. Wow. He later apologized for
the comment, but talk about a reality check.
It shows just how intense the pressure cooker
of losing at the professional level truly is.
It highlights the extreme human element of a
rebuild. These are highly competitive professionals
stripped of the tools to win on a nightly basis.
However, the architecture of professional sports
is designed to reward this exact kind of pain.
When you hit absolute rock bottom, you get access
to the game's brightest future stars. The light
at the end of the tunnel. Because all that losing
finally paid off in the draft lottery. Precisely.
For the first time in the history of the franchise,
the Sharks won the 2024 NHL Draft Lottery. Finally
some luck. Right. This allowed them to select
a generational talent, Macklin Celebrini, with
the first overall pick. And they followed that
up in 2025 by drafting another elite prospect,
Michael Misa, second overall. So the foundation
for the next great era of San Jose hockey is
officially being poured. Exactly. So what does
this all mean? When you step back and look at
the entire Wikipedia history we've journeyed
through today, you start with a team playing
in a rodeo arena, breaking records for losing
while simultaneously selling more teal jackets
than anyone on Earth. That's true. You evolve
into the shark head entrance, the biggest turnaround
in history, the Jamie Baker upset. You transition
into a decade of Jumbo Joe, regular season dominance,
agonizing playoff collapses, and the miracle
against Vegas. What a timeline. And now you are
in the grid. It means that you are looking at
a perfect microcosm of organizational life cycles.
Okay, unpack that a bit. Well, sports franchises,
much like any massive business or even a personal
endeavor, operate in distinct phases. There is
the scrappy, innovative startup phase. There
is the peak success phase, where the goal is
simply to maintain altitude. And then inevitably,
there must be a period of necessary deconstruction
to make way for the future. A teardown. Right.
The sharks have lived through every single extreme
of this cycle. It really is a masterclass in
resilience, both for the organization and the
fan base that keeps packing the shark tank. And
as we wrap up our analysis of the source material
today, I want to leave you with this final thought
to mull over. Lay it on us. Consider how the
sharks leaned entirely into a hyper -specific
regional brand identity from day one. The teal,
the physical shark head entrance, the red triangle.
Does anchoring a team so deeply to an aesthetic
and local lore make it easier for a fan base
to endure decades of extreme emotional whiplash?
That is a brilliant question to end on. Thank
you so much for joining us in this deep dive
into the history of the San Jose Sharks. Keep
asking questions, keep exploring, and as always,
stay curious.