San Jose goalkeeper John Tortorella rips

The The San Jose Sharks have had tough losses before in the 2025-26 campaign. Once again, this team went winless. Some of their problems were related to goalkeeping. San Jose turned to rookie Jaroslav Askarov on Friday night as they looked for their first win over the Utah Mammoths. Things didn’t go according to plan, and former coach John Tortorella wasn’t happy with what he saw.

Askarov allowed six goals on 34 shots against Mammoth. Utah was led by Nick Schmaltz, who recorded the second hat trick in franchise history. In the end, Utah defeated San Jose 6-3 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City.

Tortorella, who now works for ESPN, talked about the problems plaguing the Sharks. As he usually does, the former head of the NHL bench did not hesitate to express himself in as blunt a way as he could. And him he didn’t hold back when talking about the goalkeeper in San Jose.

“San Jose has put some good minutes into these games, but then the goalie nails them with the stupidity of some of these games,” he said, via Sharks beat reporter Curtis Paschelka.

The Sharks’ goaltending hasn’t been great in 2025-26

The Sharks had high hopes for the 2025-26 season. And, to be fair, we’re only a few games into the new year. unfortunately, San Jose’s goaltending didn’t exactly inspire confidence so far this campaign.

The season opener in San Jose is a glaring example. They had the lead over the Vegas Golden Knights with less than a minute left in the game. However, San Jose missed several empty net attempts. And goalkeeper Alex Nedeljković allowed the equalizer at the other end of the ice.

The match went into extra time, and Nedeljković was again in the center of attention. He came out near the blue line in an ultra-aggressive attempt to play the puck. But Reilly Smith managed to block his clearance attempt. He stood behind Nedeljkovic and scored the easiest goal of his life to win.

Since then, San Jose has struggled mightily. The Sharks are the only team in the NHL allowing more than five goals per 60 minutes, according to Evolving Hockey. These stats don’t even take into account their loss to the Mammoths on Friday night.

The Sharks need to figure something out, and soon. It’s early in the season, but persistent goaltending problems could be game-changing. San Jose has a chance to get back on track Sunday night when they play Nedeljkovic’s former team, the Pittsburgh Penguins.