SAN JOSE — All that surrounds the Sharks right now is hope.
There’s hope their aging core can benefit from a long summer. There’s hope several forwards at the midway point of their careers can improve over last season. There’s hope their young players in their second or third year as professionals can make a positive impact.
What the Sharks lack is a guarantee any of it will happen.
As they get set to start the 2017-18 season Wednesday at home against the Philadelphia Flyers, five-plus months after a first-round playoff exit, the Sharks have as much to prove right now as they did more than two years ago when they missed the playoffs and Pete DeBoer took over as head coach.