The San Jose Sharks have fired David Quinn after a season that saw San Jose finish with the second-fewest points in the salary cap era.

Quinn’s firing after two seasons Wednesday came less than a week after the Sharks (19-54-9) lost three straight games and five of their last six and ended the regular season with the worst record in the NHL.

“After going through our end of the season process of internal meetings and evaluating where our team is at and where we want our group to go, we have made the difficult decision to make a change at the head coach position,” Sharks general manager Mike Grier said in a statement. “David is a good coach and an even better person. I would personally like to thank him for his hard work over these past two seasons. He and his staff did an admirable job under some difficult circumstances, and I sincerely appreciate how they handled the situation.”

Quinn oversaw the New York Rangers for three seasons but was fired after the 2020-21 season, having missed the playoffs after the team had reached the postseason in his second campaign.

The Sharks hired Quinn before the 2022-23 season to oversee a team in transition. The Sharks had missed the playoffs only twice between the 2003-04 and 2018-19 seasons but had missed the postseason in three straight years before Quinn’s arrival.

Two weeks before Quinn was hired, the Sharks traded venerable defenseman Brent Burns to the Carolina Hurricanes. During Quinn’s first season, the team also traded away star forward Timo Meier at that year’s deadline and would ultimately trade away star defenseman Erik Karlsson, who won the Norris Trophy, to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the offseason.

The Sharks finished the 2022-23 season at 22-44-16, the fourth-fewest points in the NHL, and received the No. 4 pick in the NHL draft, which saw them select United States national team development forward Will Smith, now at Boston College, as part of their rebuild.

Quinn’s second season was expected to be even more challenging.

The Sharks opened 0-10-1 and were 3-15-2 through their first 20 games. From Dec. 15 through Jan. 9, they lost 15 straight games. In late February, they had a nine-game losing streak that was broken with a March 9 win over the Ottawa Senators before another streak of nine consecutive defeats.

San Jose had the fewest goals scored per 60, the most goals allowed per 60, the most scoring chances allowed per 60 and the second-lowest team save percentage, all contributing factors in the Sharks finishing with the NHL’s worst record.

Those numbers also played a role in the Sharks finishing with a minus-150 goal differential, which is also the lowest differential in the salary cap era.

Finding a new coach will come in an offseason that could also see the Sharks take a major step in their rebuild by winning the draft lottery for the first time in franchise history. Winning this year’s lottery would allow the Sharks a chance to take the consensus No. 1 pick in Boston University freshman center Macklin Celebrini, who won the Hobey Baker Award as the top men’s collegiate player in the nation.

Celebrini was born in North Vancouver, and his family moved to the Bay Area after his father, Rick, accepted a job with the Golden State Warriors. Celebrini played a year with the San Jose Jr. Sharks years before he went to BU, where he scored 32 goals and 64 points during his freshman year.

Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Brett Pesce suffered a ‘significant’ lower body injury that will keep him out some time, sources told ESPN.

The noncontact injury was sustained during the Hurricanes’ Game 2 comeback win over the Islanders on Monday. Carolina leads the first-round series 2-0 as the games shift to New York on Thursday.

A source told ESPN that Pesce could possibly play through the injury in these playoffs, though he will likely miss at least the next few games.

Pesce, 29, is one of the Hurricanes’ top defensemen, playing 19:49 in the Game 1 victory. He left Game 2 after playing just 8:47. It is unclear when the injury occurred. He played in 70 games in 2023-24, missing a month after undergoing surgery for a lower-body injury in late October.

Veteran Tony DeAngelo will likely slide into Pesce’s lineup spot on right defense.

The Canes’ depth defensemen include Dylan Coghlan, who played in just one game for Carolina this season. The Canes also have highly touted prospect Scott Morrow, who signed with the team in April. Morrow, 21, joined Carolina following his junior season at the University of Massachusetts.

William Nylander remained out of the Toronto Maple Leafs‘ lineup as they lost Game 3 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series against the Boston Bruins on Wednesday.

The Leafs winger had already missed Games 1 and 2 with an undisclosed injury. Toronto trails 2-1 in the series after Wednesday’s 4-2 loss.

Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe had said there was “a chance” of Nylander stepping back in after he was a full participant in the team’s morning skate. Keefe said the final decision would hinge on how Nylander responded throughout the day.

Wednesday was the first time since his injury that Nylander had been in the Leafs’ regular rotation at the pregame skate, appearing on a line with Calle Jarnkrok and Pontus Holmberg. Nylander had been on the ice at least twice before Wednesday’s workout but stayed mostly on the perimeter doing his own work.

Once the main portion of Wednesday’s session concluded, Nylander performed extra drills with the Leafs’ projected scratches. That left some question about whether he’d be ready for Wednesday’s action.

Toronto was likely to get an offensive boost if Nylander played. He is coming off a 40-goal season with a career-best 98 points. He also has been a consistent playoff performer, registering 17 goals and 40 points in 50 postseason contests.

With Nylander unavailable, Keefe stuck with the same lineup he used in Games 1 and 2. That put rookie Nick Robertson back in on Toronto’s third line, where he’s been entrenched since the postseason started. Auston Matthews also was back in his top-line spot after skipping the Leafs’ morning skate for extra rest.

Meanwhile, the Bruins turned back to Jeremy Swayman in net for Game 3. Boston secured a dominant 5-1 victory behind Swayman in Game 1 then went with goaltender Linus Ullmark in a 3-2 Game 2 loss. Boston also shuffled the deck on its backend, replacing injured defenseman Andrew Peeke with Mason Lohrei and slotting him onto the top pairing with Charlie McAvoy.