from Eric Duhatschek of The Athletic,

If you’re talking full 82-game seasons, not seasons shortened by pandemics or lockouts, then it’s been more than two decades since a team won fewer than 20 games. That was Atlanta back in 2001-02. The Thrashers had 19 wins. Colorado, in 2017, when they had that 48-point season and got Makar, had 22 wins. But San Jose, which remains winless in 10 games — 0-9-1 — has a chance to be historically bad. They have only 10 goals scored in 10 games. Their goals for/goals against differential is a minus-35. For the first handful of outings this season, their goaltending kept them in games on nights they were wildly outplayed. That’s not happening lately. The Sharks clearly miss Logan Couture’s leadership, but the problems run far deeper than that.

Without Couture, who has been out since the start of the season with an undisclosed lower-body injury, without Erik Karlsson and Timo Meier, they look rudderless. And arguably, their second most talented forward after Tomas Hertl, Alexander Barabanov, is out four-to-six weeks with a broken finger.

It’s too early to predict which team might finish atop the NHL standings, but it is not too early to assume the Sharks are going to settle into the basement, which would give them the greatest odds to win the 2024 draft lottery and draft Macklin Celebrini, the Boston University freshman, first overall next summer.

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