3 Sharks Who Need a Strong Training Camp to Crack 2026-27 Roster

A breakout season led by Macklin Celebrini in 2025-26 showed the San Jose Sharks are ready to transition from a perennial rebuilder to a playoff team, reinforced by the additions they have made in the offseason. Jacob Trouba, Darnell Nurse and Michael Kesselring provide a badly needed facelift for the blue line, while Mason Marchment and Ivar Stenberg add to the team’s impressive forward depth. With minimal spots left to fill on the roster, Adam Gaudette, Ty Dellandrea and Luca Cagnoni need to have strong training camps if they want a role on the upstart Sharks. 

The Pacific was dubbed the “Pillow Fight” division by Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid to describe its lack of competitiveness. The Vegas Golden Knights won the Pacific with only 95 points, which wouldn’t even qualify for a top three spot in any other division. Fortunately for the Sharks, playing in the NHL’s weakest division gives them a realistically easy path to end their seven-year playoff drought. Two teams that edged the Sharks out for the playoffs in 2025-26 declined in the offseason while they got better. 

The Anaheim Ducks are having a meltdown spurred by the historic Leo Carlsson offer sheet, which has caused Cutter Gauthier’s extension drama, and their blue line is decimated with the departures of half their starting defense. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Kings lost their captain Anze Kopitar to retirement and are poised to regress out of the wild card spot they clinched in 2025-26. The Sharks’ dynamic scoring options and logjam at forward are reasons for excitement in 2026-27, but it also leaves questions for who should make the roster. 

Young, talented forwards who are guaranteed playing time: Celebrini, Will Smith, Michael Misa, and Collin Graf. Veterans who are guaranteed minutes: Marchment, Tyler Toffoli, Kiefer Sherwood, and Alex Wennberg. Fourth line center Zack Ostapchuk signed a four-year, $9.4 million extension with San Jose that expires in 2030, so the organization clearly expects him to be an every game player. Chernyshov and Stenberg are also exciting prospects that are expected to play in the top three lines for San Jose immediately.

Barclay Goodrow will be given plenty of opportunities as well. Sharks bench boss Ryan Warsofsky has established a trust in the former Stanley Cup champion, but the fourth liner’s impact has shown regression which leaves one spot open on the fourth line that is up for grabs.

Adam Gaudette and Ty Dellandrea

Gaudette and Dellandrea are the two forwards on the outside looking in. The main contributions from both players are polar opposites, so it will be interesting to see what the Sharks feel outweighs the other in overall importance. Gaudette provides an impressive depth scoring punch, sacrificing defensive intensity, while Dellandrea is a defensively oriented forward that doesn’t add much scoring at all. 

Gaudette scored 17 goals in 2025-26 with the 209th highest average time on ice (TOI) in the NHL at 11:28 per game. Of players who averaged 12 minutes or less per game, Gaudette scored the most goals in the league. The only other players to crack double digits with similarly limited ice time were James van Riemsdyk (15), Kailer Yamamoto (13), Max Sasson (13), Eric Robinson (12), Mark Jankowski (11) and Casey Cizikas (10). Gaudette’s goal production is incredibly efficient, scoring 17 goals in just 66 games in 2025-26.

Defense is the reason why a fourth liner who scores almost 20 goals isn’t a lock to play every game. Gaudette isn’t an incredible skater. Per NHL EDGE, he ranked below average in average speed and speed bursts over 20 mph. He also doesn’t block a lot of shots. Dellandrea blocked more shots than Gaudette despite playing in 20 fewer games. 

The Sharks need help on special teams, finishing with the 16th best power play and the 26th best penalty kill. Gaudette helped round out the Sharks’ second power play unit with 65.3 TOI, and Dellandrea played a large role on the short-handed unit with 120.9 TOI.

Dellandrea’s role as a penalty killer and his team-best 51.9 faceoff percentage (FO%) is why he is on the roster, especially since he adds virtually nothing on offense. His career high for goals and points is nine and 28, both coming in 2022-23 for the Dallas Stars. That is the only season Dellandrea has played a full 82 games and the only time he has played at least 70 games. In 2025-26, he had only 11 points in 46 games.

Gaudette needs to be more competitive defensively, and Dellandrea needs to add more offensively. Overall, Gaudette is the player the Sharks should prioritize, since fourth-line scoring at the clip he provides is rare. Meanwhile, Dellandrea’s FO% isn’t important enough to justify a roster spot when the penalty kill he played a heavy role in was one of the worst in the NHL. The Sharks have forwards like Graf, Wennberg, Sherwood and Ostapchuk who have more than one thing they are good at and can play more roles in a given game compared to Dellandrea. 

Gaudette’s scoring ability, and his availabilty, simply is more valuable to the Sharks right now than what Dellandrea adds defensively. The additions of Trouba and Nurse will significantly help improve their defense anyways, making Dellandrea’s game nonessential. If Gaudette and Dellandrea are on an even playing field, Gaudette should be the last man on the roster. 

Luca Cagnoni 

The last player that needs to stand out at training camp is Cagnoni. The Sharks are in need of better power play options following a season where Dmitry Orlov and John Klingberg ran point on the man advantage. Orlov is a good player that has a role on the Sharks, but his game is better suited as a dependable third-pair defenseman who can play on the penalty kill, not as the defenseman on the first power-play unit. Meanwhile, Klingberg looks like he may have played his last NHL game as injuries have cut his career short and have seriously limited his physical abilities.

Power play quarterback is a glaring need for San Jose, who needs to fill a spot on both power-play units in 2026-27. Kesselring and Sam Dickinson should get an opportunity, but if Cagnoni wants to make the team, he needs to flash his best attribute which is running a power play. 

Undersized at 5-foot-9, Cagnoni has to rely on his offensive skillset to catapult him out of the American Hockey League (AHL) and into the NHL. While on the San Jose Barracuda, the Sharks AHL affiliate, Cagnoni starred in his role as the team’s best offensive defenseman. In 2024-25, Cagnoni’s 52 points while facilitating the AHL’s best power play earned him a spot on the AHL All-Rookie team and personally had the league’s 2nd most power-play points in 2025-26 with 23. 

Cagnoni’s offensive game looked NHL-ready in the Sharks’ last three games of the 2025-26 season despite not recording any points in the small sample size. If he wants to make the team, he needs to do what he is already good at offensively, but more importantly, he needs to demonstrate that he can handle himself defensively. With smaller defensemen like Cagnoni, he will need to prove to Warsofsky that he can be trusted to not get pushed around physically and make the same boneheaded mistakes on defense that cost the Sharks a playoff berth.

Cagnoni has a golden opportunity to help boost the Sharks’ mediocre power play from last season. He and Gaudette need to install defensive growth, while Dellandrea is going to have to significantly improve his offensive output to crack the roster in 2026-27.