San Jose Sharks
Sharks Locker Room: Eklund Spoils Mukhamadullin’s “Secret”
It’s been a lost season for Shakir Mukhamadullin so far, but it’s not too late to find his game.
The brand-new father, who missed practice on Friday for the birth of his first child, scored the game-winner in the San Jose Sharks’ 5-4 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday, snapping his team’s five-game losing streak, and keeping them in the periphery of the playoff race. He also made the save of the game, stopping Jack Roslovic’s open net bid in the first period.
But perhaps more importantly, the 6-foot-4 blueliner was solid defensively and moved the puck assertively.
“Sees the ice well,” head coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “Good details with his stick.”
The question for Mukhamadullin, however, isn’t talent. The 2020 first-round pick is long, mobile, and better with the puck than without.
Instead, the question is consistency and health.
Mukhamadullin has been plagued by injuries, big and small, throughout his career. Just this season, Mukhamadullin has missed time because of three short-term injuries.
Consequently, Mukhamadullin has played just 27 games this season, notching four goals and eight points, while averaging 16:20 a night. He’s also been healthy scratched with regularity though, not a consequence of his injuries.
Speaking with multiple NHL scouts throughout the season, the truth of the matter is, that’s on Mukhamadullin. None of them blame the San Jose Sharks coaching staff or other popular boogeymen.
For whatever reason, Mukhamadullin hasn’t been able to establish himself as an everyday blueliner on a very shallow Sharks defense. Only two defensemen, Dmitry Orlov and Mario Ferraro, have avoided healthy scratches this season. Frankly, the San Jose blueline is a land of opportunity right now for any reliable rearguard.
Mukhamadullin is 24 and not waiver-exempt anymore, so the clock is ticking on the once-top prospect to once and for all seize regular minutes on the San Jose Sharks.
The pending RFA has 25 games to go this year to show his mettle.
Forget the first two thirds of the season. Tonight was a good start for a brand-new campaign for Mukhamadullin.
Can he, in the first meaningful NHL games of his career, begin to live up to his top-four potential?
Macklin Celebrini
Celebrini’s thoughts on his empty net goal:
Probably get [the shot] off as fast as possible.
I saw [Dmitry Orlov] out of the corner my eye. I thought he was [onside]. But, when you look back at it, it’s a little closer than I thought.
We just tried to attack quick, and I realized [Connor Ingram] wasn’t in net.
"He's such a special player and a special person. It was great to get to know him over there and play with him."
Macklin Celebrini chats with @GenePrincipe about the @SanJoseSharks massive win over the Oilers and what it was like to play with Connor McDavid in Milan 👇 pic.twitter.com/ZTn9tSKfIO
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 1, 2026
Shakir Mukhamadullin
Mukhamadullin, on his first period save on Jack Roslovic:
Just closed my eyes. (laughs)
Ryan Warsofsky
Warsofsky, on Mukhamadullin’s performance:
Yeah, really good. Big goal. Makes a really good play to [Toffoli] on the transition, sees the ice well. Good details with his stick. Thought he was good tonight.
Muck is learning, it’s not gonna go perfect every night, and you’re gonna make mistakes and you’re gotta kind of move on mentally. And Muck did a really good job of that all night.
Warsofsky, on Michael Misa:
Misa was good. He was skating. He’s coming, man. He’s coming. He’s come a long way. He’s getting more comfortable. I like that line again. It’s a really good line.
William Eklund
Not a big deal Sheng but Muk is 24 not 23. Turned 24 in January.
Thanks for the reminder!
Baby Shak!
Glad him missing Thursday’s game was not a coach’s lineup choice.
sheng is it hard to transcribe warsofskys words with proper punctuation? It seems like there is way too many punctuation marks in his sentences when you read his words. Is that proper grammar?
As much as I agree that, ultimately, it’s on the player to make himself too valuable to sit, it’s also on the coaching staff to put players in positions to develop and succeed. I don’t get the impression that Shak has an attitude problem so, given his clear potential, I’m still a bit puzzled why he’s sat so much in favor of vets who have already reached (or even receded from) their limited ceilings. My hope is that, even if he wishes he’d been playing more, Mukhamadullin feels treated fairly by the organization and knows the fans are rooting for… Read more »
Having watched Shakir on the Cuda, and then this season, well, it’s been quite the saga. Still definitely in the camp that there is a good player in there if he can stay healthy.
I tend to agree he got a little less that he deserved, but not a big deal, as this is still essentially a throwaway season, and it also just hopefully gave him more time to heal and light a fire under him as well.
All this staff does is give players the coaching a chance to seize a roster spot. You guys complaining about Shak seem to willfully ignore Graf, Upchuck, Misa, Kurashev, etc. clearly you guys don’t understand what the staff needs him to do to be an everyday NHLer. I would bet my house that the staff wishes it would click for him too because a 6’4” defenseman who can skate and make a great 1st pass can be a key cog to a championship team.
Not following your point here. Yes, some young players are playing regularly. I noticed. I wasn’t suggesting an evil conspiracy to hold him down, or a bias against young players in general. I was simply questioning whether it’s the best long term move for the team to sit this specific player while playing others who aren’t part of the future and haven’t played particularly well. I agree Mukhamadullin has room for improvement, especially in terms of the physicality of his game. I hope he is able to string some good games together, stay in the lineup and build some momentum.… Read more »
In addition to the Sharks, let’s go Flames and Hawks today. Kings name DJ Smith as their new head coach, I imagine they get a dead cat bounce but they’re still not the real deal and I think we can count on passing then. I still cannot understand why a team bolstered by Kopitar’s last season traded one of their best prospects for a 34-year-old winger.
Preds I dunno what to make of, I truly don’t know what version of that squad is the real one.
Hopefully the Kings move is just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic
Not sure why Muk has sat out so many times this season. It seems to me the coaches should have let him develop (by playing games) as much as possible to see if he can become an established blue liner. He has more upside than Klingberg & Liljegren so why not? Plus, the two of them will likely walk at the end of the season anyways. So, what do they have to lose?