Five lessons Sharks can learn from 2026 Stanley Cup finalists Vegas, Carolina originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
What can the Sharks learn from the 2026 Stanley Cup finalists, the Vegas Golden Knights and Carolina Hurricanes?
This is an especially pressing question for San Jose to ponder on the eve of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, as it just missed making the playoffs this year. The young Sharks look to snap their seven-season playoff drought next year.
Beyond that, general manager Mike Grier wants to build a consistent contender just like Vegas and Carolina. The Golden Knights won the 2023 Stanley Cup and have made at least the conference finals in four of their nine seasons of existence. The Hurricanes have made the Eastern Conference Finals in three of the last four years, finally breaking through to the championship round this season.
Here are five lessons of success that the Sharks can learn from the 2026 finalists. It’s worth noting that there is no single path to hoisting the Stanley Cup, so San Jose shouldn’t be looking to simply copy Vegas or Carolina.
Ruthless Decision-Making?
Hate it or love it, the Golden Knights are the epitome of putting winning above pretty much anything else in their decision-making.
For example, their “What have you done for me lately?” mentality with head coaches: Vegas has fired three head coaches, Gerard Gallant, Peter DeBoer and Bruce Cassidy, all within three seasons of at least a conference finals appearance.
John Tortorella, who took over for 2023 Stanley Cup winner Cassidy in March, finished the regular season 7-0-1, and has won 12 of 16 playoff games.
This ruthlessness also has extended to general manager Kelly McCrimmon’s roster decisions, like the acrimonious parting with fan favorite goalie Marc-Andre Fleury after his Vezina Trophy-winning season.
What does this mean for Grier?
There are, of course, some decisions that many Sharks fans will be glad that Grier doesn’t follow in McCrimmon’s steps, such as signing goalie Carter Hart after his sexual assault case acquittal or spending a first-round pick on Trevor Connolly and his checkered past.
But in the coming years, Grier will have to make some unpopular decisions to build a winner, and no one has done that with more success than the Golden Knights.
Size Isn’t Everything?
The Hurricanes appear to place less of an emphasis on size than the Golden Knights … and maybe Grier.
Carolina has five regular skaters listed under 6-foot-0, 5-foot-8 Logan Stankoven, 5-foot-10 Seth Jarvis, and 5-foot-11 Jackson Blake, Shayne Gostisbehere, and Sean Walker. In contrast, Vegas doesn’t have any skater listed under 6-foot-0.
It’s also worth noting that two of these smaller Canes, Gostisbehere and Walker, are defensemen, whereas 6-foot-1 Rasmus Andersson is the Knights’ smallest.
Since the beginning of his regime, Grier has stressed adding size throughout the organization.
Of course, size isn’t an either-or thing — Grier has drafted a handful of smaller prospects in the last four years, for example — but the Hurricanes are a reminder that not everybody in the NHL is thinking bigger.
Don’t Need a No. 1 Defenseman?
When it comes to the Sharks’ next step, most of the chatter is about improving their defense.
Carolina and Vegas are examples of teams winning without a Norris Trophy-caliber defenseman; case in point, their most decorated rearguards. Jaccob Slavin, the Canes’ go-to shutdown blueliner, finished fifth for the Norris in 2019, but more often than not, is outside the top 10. Shea Theodore, playing 1D minutes in the playoffs for the first time in his career, has two sixth-place Norris finishes on his resume, in 2020 and 2021, but otherwise hasn’t been in that conversation.
Both teams, however, are loaded up with excellent defensemen up and down their line-ups, especially Olympians Slavin, Theodore, Andersson, and Noah Hanifin.
Everyone, of course, wants a true-blue No. 1 a la Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes, but there are only a handful of defensemen like that in the league. As the Sharks navigate their return to prominence, Carolina, Vegas and two-time defending champion Florida Panthers are proof positive that you can win without a kingpin blueliner.
Price of Goaltending?
The Hurricanes, in particular, are winning without expensive goaltending.
Between Frederik Andersen and Brandon Bussi, Carolina is spending $4.25 million AAV, just 4.5 percent of the cap, which is at the lower end of the NHL. Between Hart and Adin Hill, Vegas is spending $8.25 million AAV, 8.6 percent of the cap, which is about average.
You don’t need a Norris Trophy winner to win a Stanley Cup — and you don’t need a pricey goalie either.
The Sharks are spending just $5 million AAV between Yaroslav Askarov and Alex Nedeljkovic right now, but it’s a reminder that when it comes time for Grier to pay the piper between the pipes … he might not have to?
“F–k Them Picks”
That’s a Los Angeles Rams meme from 2022, so widespread that general manager Les Snead wore a T-shirt with that slogan at his Super Bowl victory parade.
Snead is still living up to that slogan, with Monday’s earth-shattering trade for superstar defensive end Myles Garrett, sending 2024 first-rounder Jared Verse and three future picks, including a 2027 first-rounder, to the Cleveland Browns.
The Golden Knights are the NHL’s equivalent of the Rams: They’ve traded nine of their short-lived franchise’s 11 first-round picks, and their 2026 and 2027 firsts, for stars like Max Pacioretty, Mark Stone, Jack Eichel, Hanifin, Tomas Hertl and Andersson. Five of those six players are on this Vegas squad.
The rebuilding Sharks, as they should, have guarded their first-round picks like Fort Knox over the last half-decade, but hopefully for the franchise, that time is coming to an end soon. In the future, maybe the Sharks won’t trade firsts at the rate of the Golden Knights (or Rams), but it’ll be a sign that they’ve come out of the rebuild and are trying to win a Stanley Cup again.
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