Logan Couture’s injury effectively ends the San Jose Sharks season

This season has been a disaster for the Sharks, and losing Logan Couture for several weeks could very well be the final nail in the coffin.

After the last San Jose Sharks season came into an end at Enterprise Center in Game 6 of the Western Conference Final, this season may have unofficially come to an end in the same place.

The Sharks lost their captain/leading point scorer on Tuesday night against the St. Louis Blues, when Logan Couture had an awkward collision with the boards after getting tangled up with Blues defenseman Vince Dunn, and needed to be helped off the ice with a clear leg injury.

https://twitter.com/BrodieNBCS/status/1214732491723960320?s=20

Pierre Lebrun reported that Couture is ruled to be out week to week with a fractured ankle, and more specifically that he could be out at least ‘six weeks’.

The Sharks made it official on Thursday that Couture will be out several weeks with a fractured ankle.

As if things weren’t already going bad enough for the Sharks even with Couture in the lineup, losing him long term squashes any last bit of tangible hope that the Sharks could somehow turn this season around.

Losing a captain is a gut punch to any team in the league, but this loss goes far beyond just that. Without him, their forward depth is even more gutted. Couture is the Sharks leading point scorer with 36 points and their top line center. He does about everything imaginable for the Sharks, and removing him from the lineup all but ensures that this season is lost for the Sharks.

The Sharks currently sit at third last in the Western Conference and 26th overall in the league with 42 points, eight points back of the final wildcard spot in the West. Their playoff odds are a mere 7% according to MoneyPuck, and 1% according to SportsClubStats. Those odds are yet to factor in a Sharks team without their best player.

Is there anything at all that the Sharks can do to turn the season around? They’ve already fired former head coach Pete DeBoer, and need absolutely everything to turn around in order to have even the slightest chance to sneak back into a playoff spot. Even if they still had Couture, this comeback effort would be an absurd long sot. Without Couture leading the way, you can just about pack it up and call this season a wrap.

As if this disaster of a season isn’t bad enough, the Sharks do not have their own first round pick this season because of last seasons Erik Karlsson trade with the Ottawa Senators. That pick currently has a 23.3% chance of turning into a top three pick according to Tankathon. The Sharks only own two picks in the first four rounds of the draft, and need to find a way to recoup some of those assets at the trade deadline.

In short, there’s basically no hope to save this season for the Sharks barring a miracle even bigger than the Blues last season, and there is no high draft pick to fall back on for a failed season. With not much hope for change in the future based on how they’ve locked the core of this team long term, this could be the beginning of long few years for Sharks fans.