Sharks, other non-playoff teams likely to have longer training camps

GMs from seven teams, including SJ’s Wilson, asked for extra time

It appears the Sharks and six other teams that did not qualify for the NHL’s postseason earlier this year are on track to have extra time to train and practice together before the start of any main training camp.

This summer, general managers from the seven teams asked the NHL if they could get an extended training camp — possibly as long as two weeks — before the start of the 2020-21 regular season. The GMs were seeking the same chance to skate the 24 other teams got during Phase 3 of the NHL’s Return to Play before the start of the postseason.

In an email to this newspaper, NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly wrote the league and the NHL Players’ Association have a general agreement on the structure of extra pre-camp workouts for those seven teams, but the two sides have not yet finalized any details.

Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic first reported the tentative agreement between the league and the union.

Besides the Sharks, the other six teams that did not participate in the NHL’s Return to Play this summer were the Anaheim Ducks, Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings, Los Angeles Kings, New Jersey Devils and Ottawa Senators. None of the seven teams have played a game or practiced as a team since the NHL paused play March 12.

Official dates for the start of training camps and the 2020-2021 regular season have not been announced. Earlier this month, though, the NHL and NHLPA targeted Jan. 1 as a start date for the regular season.

A handful of Sharks players have been skating at the team’s practice facility in recent days, including Logan Couture, Tomas Hertl and Kevin Labanc.

The Sharks could use the extra time to not only evaluate how their younger players are progressing, but to learn systems of coaches Bob Boughner, Rock y Thompson and John Madden. Boughner was officially hired as the Sharks’ full-time coach on Sept. 22, with Thompson an associate coach and Madden an assistant.

Sharks general manager Doug Wilson said Oct. 9 he had been on a NHL’s Board of Governors call recently but had not yet heard a specific answer about having the opportunity for extra camp time.

Wilson said then the Sharks were “putting the onus on ourselves to get our guys ready.”

“We’ve got our coaches reaching out to players and doing everything that we can,” Wilson said.

With the likelihood of a shortened, compressed regular season, extra importance will be placed on having a good start, something that eluded the Sharks the last two seasons.

“We were chasing out tail in both those years.” Wilson said.