It’s not just Macklin Celebrini that other teams are taking notice of.
The San Jose Sharks are defining an identity, which Florida Panthers head coach Paul Maurice and defenseman Jeff Petry spoke on at morning skate on Saturday.
“They’re right well into their structure,” Maurice said. “I think that you could expect a certain style of game out of San Jose every night, and that’s the structure part of it, very, very fast, very quick. They forecheck with aggressiveness.”
Petry compared the Sharks to recent opponent Anaheim Ducks: “They have skill up front, and they play a fast game. There’s other teams, they have that skill and speed, but they play a heavier game. Anaheim and San Jose tonight, they want to play that speed and skilled-style game.”
This isn’t just in the offensive zone either.
“Even in the neutral zone or the defensive zone, it’s no longer a passive team. There’s not a lot of switch-offs. There’s not confusion about who’s got whom,” Maurice said. “So the structure is right in place.”
A structured San Jose Sharks team? In this economy?
But of course, it is NHL-leading scorer Celebrini driving the bus. That’s not hyperbole, the simple fact is that Sharks, 6-2-1 in their last nine, are playing a game that emulates their 19-year-old superstar.
It’s speed and skill, but with a defensive conscience.
“I think that they’re quite a bit ahead of where they might be [because] you have a different style of player in Celebrini,” Maurice said. “He’s just the things that we talked about, his willingness to be good. There’s a bit of a [Aleksander] Barkov in that, too. He doesn’t cheat the game to put up numbers.”
We’re just 15 games into the 2025-26 season, but Maurice can see the future of the San Jose Sharks, and just maybe, it might be like the future of the back-to-back defending Stanley Cup champs.
“Process of a rebuild, you acquire as much talent as you can, and then a structure has to come into that,” Maurice said. “So it’s talent, structure, and then at some point, you bring in the great veteran people just to fill your roster, which is what’s happened to the Florida Panthers over the years.”
San Jose Sharks (6-6-3)
Yaroslav Askarov should start.
Sam Dickinson will come into the line-up for Shakir Mukhamadullin, otherwise, the line-up is same as yesterday.
These are Warsofsky’s reasons: “Just consistency through his shifts [is important]. To put him back on his right side, and flipping back and forth at a young age is really not ideal. That’s was really the message. This is not a punishment. This was back-to-back games. Want to get Dicky in there. Want lefty-righty. [Vincent Desharnais has] been good on our penalty kill. This is a good power play.
“Sometimes, watching the game is not the worst thing in the world for young defensemen. We think the world of the kid. He’s a great kid. He works extremely hard. He’s coachable. He’s gonna be a really good player. It was just match-up based in the back-to-back.”
So lines should look like:
Toffoli-Celebrini-Smith
Kurashev-Wennberg-Graf
Skinner-Dellandrea-Cardwell
Goodrow-Gaudette-Reaves
Orlov-Liljegren
Ferraro-Klingberg
Dickinson-Desharnais
Askarov
Florida Panthers (7-6-1)
Daniil Tarasov will start for Panthers.
Former #SJSharks update: Gadjovich is out 3 months after upper-body surgery suffered 10/25.
Gregor will play, Kunin will not.
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) November 8, 2025
#FlaPanthers morning skate lines in San Jose:
Luostarinen – Lundell – Marchand
Verhaeghe – Rodrigues – Reinhart
Boqvist – Bennett – Samoskevich
Greer – Schwindt – Gregor
Forsling – Ekblad
Mikkola – Jones
Sebrango – Petry
— Rob Darragh (@darraghfla) November 8, 2025
Where To Watch
Puck drop between the San Jose Sharks and Florida Panthers is at 7 PM PT at SAP Center. Watch it live on NBC Sports California. Listen to it on the Sharks Audio Network.
