The San Jose Sharks are quite on the fence to begin the 2024-25 NHL season after a poor start and not even coming up with a single win in their first six games. With Macklin Celebrini out for two more weeks, it does seem that the team will have less chances of winning in their games now more than ever.

This is the second season that the Sharks have already been struggling out of the gate to begin a campaign, with the previous season going 0-10-1 to this year’s 0-4-2 record as of the time of writing. So far, it has been a challenging campaign for the team, Celebrini’s absence is expected to bring more problems for the team at this point in time.

The Sharks are coming into the season with a lot of new. They have a new rookie in Celebrini, a new first-year head coach in Ryan Warsofsky, and yet the only thing that isn’t different so far is the way they started out the season – on a losing stride. And it seems that they are still struggling to figure things out.

An Unfortunate Rookie Injury

Selected first overall in the 2024 NHL Draft, Celebrini was expected to be the real deal for the Sharks this season as he was hyped to be one of the impressive performers in the class. However, due to a lower-body injury, the Sharks are now relegating Celebrini to the injured reserve list, which means that he’ll be out for action in the next two weeks.

“He's week to week, but I would say we'll [probably] give you another update in two weeks," general manager Mike Grier said of Celebrini’s status. "He's going to miss some games here to start, but I think he's getting his skill work done off the ice. He's doing his gym work. I don't think it's going to hinder any of his development.”

It can be remembered that Celebrini was injured right off the bat in his debut back in October 10. He finished his game with a goal and an assist in their 5-4 overtime loss to the St. Louis Blues, showing impressive performances despite playing only a few minutes.

“It's definitely been helpful for him to spend some more time in the gym, to keep building up his body to get used to the rigors of the League,” Grier added. “When he gets back, he's going to be going against teams' top pair D most nights."

A Season Start of Disappointments

According to head coach Ryan Warsofsky, the Sharks have also a host of injured players, such as forward Thomas Bordeleau (lower body) and defensemen Marc-Edouard Vlasic (upper body) and Shakir Mukhamadullin (lower body). These players did not join the first game of their three-game road trip against the Anaheim Ducks.

For Grier, the Sharks are still in the process of development – a work in progress as he calls it. The Sharks needed to play their last six games without Celebrini, and that certainly did not help with the way their season has unfolded so far.

"The last two years definitely have been tough, but there's a lot of new guys in the room,” Grier said. “There's a new coaching staff, so to expect guys to come out and gel right away, chemistry-wise, learn the system, what the coaches want, the expectations, and everything, it's going to take some time."

So far, it does seem that the Sharks are still in need of a massive improvement, and it cannot be denied that the team is really far from their expected rise to dominance this season. All that would rest on how Celebrini can return to action as fast as he can to help the team win.