When will the San Jose Sharks win the first championship in the history of the franchise?
By Conor Power
It's Super Bowl Sunday, and the San Francisco 49ers prepare to take on the Kansas City Chiefs as they look to win the Super Bowl for the fifth time in franchise history. It's been a long time since the dominance of Joe Montana and Bill Walsh that popularized the West Coast offense. When Steve Young came in and replaced him, they won the Super Bowl again. The 49ers won championships, so when will the San Jose Sharks bring a championship of their own to the Bay Area?
Well, we know right now the team is in a deep rebuild. There isn't going to be a push for the cup in San Jose for a few years at least as players like William Eklund, Will Smith, and Quentin Musty start to build the core of the future that can be supplemented with free agent additions, That is still a little way away as Will Smith has not signed his entry-level deal and Quentin Musty is still in the mire of the OHL.
It's going to be at least 3 years until the Sharks are in a position with the young core to compete. They'll need reinforcements, and that is hopefully coming with the likes of Kasper Halttunen, Thomas Bordeleau, and Shakir Mukhamadullin. The time will come for these young kids to take the reigns of this once-proud organization and take it back to the spotlight that beckons for the top teams in the league.
One day, hopefully soon, we will see the Sharks hang a Stanley Cup Championship banner from the rafters of the SAP Center. There will be a day when the champions of the best hockey league in the world will be from the Bay Area and it will cap off the championships of the area. But for now, we all join the San Francisco 49ers in wanting another championship for the local teams.