Sharks’ Toffoli laments ‘stupid’ errors, wants big improvements next season

Ryan Warsofsky has what seems like a pretty simple fix for the San Jose Sharks.

Find more players who care as much as Tyler Toffoli.

“The goal-scoring is one thing, but what he does for our dressing room as a leader, helping these young players,” the Sharks coach said after Toffoli scored his team-leading 30th goal of the season in the Sharks’ 5-2 loss to the Calgary Flames on Sunday.

“As much as (he) wants to score, he wants to win. That’s what we need around here. We need guys who want to win and love to win. That’s what (Toffoli) is all about.”

Toffoli, a Stanley Cup champion now in his 13th NHL season, knew the rebuilding Sharks would experience some growing pains in 2024-25 when he decided to sign a four-year, $24 million contract with the team on the first day of free agency last July.

Sure enough, that’s exactly what’s happened, as the Sharks enter their game Monday against the Vancouver Canucks with a league-low 51 points. For the second straight year, the Sharks will have a 25.5% chance of winning next month’s NHL Draft Lottery.

Toffoli and everybody else in teal hope it’s the last time the Sharks have those kinds of odds. The team’s front office, the coaches, and the players in the room will have to ensure they don’t experience another year like this one.

“I think honestly, looking back, we’ve been in so many games this year and blown so many leads in stupid ways,” Toffoli said. “I think if everyone reflects in the right way going into the summer and comes into training camp next year, it can be a completely different season.”

The Sharks’ penchant for defensive lapses and third-period meltdowns this season has been epic. San Jose is 6-10-2 when tied after two periods, on top of being 12-8-4 when leading after 40 minutes.

In 80 games, the Sharks have been outscored 108-74 in the third period (17 of the opposition’s goals are empty-netters).

In the first period on Sunday, the Sharks (20-49-11) were their own worst enemy in the defensive zone, giving up a pair of preventable goals. San Jose then fell behind early in the third period and never recovered.

Asked about facing a desperate Flames team that needed a win to keep its playoff hopes alive, Toffoli said, “We should be a desperate team, too. We have guys who are playing for positions for next season. So there’s no excuse. I thought we played really well in the first period and gave ourselves a chance, and it just (stinks).”

Toffoli became the third player in Sharks history to record 30 goals in their first season in San Jose, joining Dany Heatley (39 in 2009-10) and Sergei Makarov (30 in 1993-94).

Toffoli scored 34 goals as a member of the Flames in 2022-23 and 33 last season, when he started the year with the New Jersey Devils before he was traded to the Winnipeg Jets.

Toffoli’s 97 goals over the last three seasons are tied for the 29th most in the league in that time.

“I take pride in it, and very fortunate being given an opportunity to play with really good players, and obviously trying to take advantage of my situation,” Toffoli said of goal-scoring prowess. “And I wish it were more.”

The Sharks figure to allocate some of their ample salary cap space this summer to address their goal-prevention issues, whether that’s bringing in another two-way forward, a veteran defenseman, a proven goalie, or all three.

The Sharks’ goal differential going into Monday’s game is a league-worst -101, 29 more than the Chicago Blackhawks. Even before they began their pre-trade deadline selloff, starting with sending Mikael Granlund and Cody Ceci to the Dallas Stars on Feb. 1, the Sharks’ goal differential was still last in the NHL at -61.

Adding some scoring punch to help support Toffoli and others – either this summer or next — should also have some appeal to the Sharks’ front office as well.

While the organization is optimistic that Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, William Eklund, and Collin Graf can take another step offensively next season, finding another scoring winger at some point would help jumpstart the Sharks’ rebuild. Before Monday, the Sharks were 31st in average goals per game (2.59).

Toffoli turns 33 later this month and doesn’t want to wait much longer for the Sharks to become a contender again. Neither does anyone else on his team.

“Personally, time is kind of running out in that sense,” Toffoli said last month. “I’m kind of hoping to be back in the mix here next year, if not the year after.”