For the first time in franchise history, the San Jose Sharks will prepare to defend a Western Conference Championship, and are expected to open their 2016 Training Camp next month at Sharks Ice at San Jose.
The Sharks will hit the ice for their first team training sessions on Friday, Sept. 23, beginning at 9:30 a.m., which will also serve as Media Day for members of the Bay Area media. As in previous years, the training camp roster will be broken into two groups, which will practice on different rinks at different times at Sharks Ice.
For the first time since 2004, the World Cup of Hockey Tournament will be held from Sept. 17 to Oct. 1, 2016. Eight teams —Team Canada, Team Czech Republic, Team Finland, Team Russia, Team Sweden, Team USA, Team Europe and Team North America — will compete in a best-on-best, Olympics-style international hockey championship. All games will be played at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ont.
Eight Sharks players were selected to represent their native countries in the World Cup of Hockey. Those players are: Joe Pavelski (United States); Brent Burns, Logan Couture, Joe Thornton and Marc-Edouard Vlasic (Canada); Mikkel Boedker (Team Europe); Joonas Donskoi (Finland); and Tomas Hertl (Czech Republic). Therefore, they will not be in San Jose for the start of training camp.
Many of the tournament’s games will be carried live on the ESPN family of networks. The tournament schedule, TV information, team rosters and much more can be found here.
Sharks Rookie Camp will open at Sharks Ice on Sept. 15 before the rookies head to Colorado to participate in the 2016 Rookie Showcase against prospects from the Colorado Avalanche and the Anaheim Ducks. The tournament will take place Sept. 17-19, at the Westminster Promenade in Westminster, Colo.
A detailed, daily training camp schedule and team breakdowns will be announced in the coming weeks, as well as a roster of players participating in the Rookie Showcase.
Practice sessions at Sharks Ice will continue to be open to the general public.
The Sharks will “live stream” their first four preseason games (Sept. 27 – Oct. 5) on SJSharks.com. Full radio coverage on 98.5 FM KFOX and the Sharks Radio Network will kick off the final two games of the preseason, Oct. 7 at Arizona and Oct. 9 at Anaheim. Radio coverage will begin with the popular 30-minute pre-game show, “Sharks Warm-Up,” followed by another popular segment, “Coach’s Chalkboard” with new Sharks Head Coach Peter DeBoer, and then the game broadcast.
