When this season started, someone uninitiated to the wonders of NHL hockey could have been forgiven for thinking the San Jose Sharks had already run away with the Western Conference title.

This was a team bounced from the conference finals two years in a row. A team with a future hall of fame inhabitant in Joe Thornton and one of the game’s brightest young stars in Logan Couture. A team used to living at the top of the standings, which made some aggressive offseason moves geared toward a serious run at some hardware.

But they ended up just looking lost all year. They never really got off the ground. And after the very last game of the season with the rival Los Angeles Kings, the Sharks found themselves squeaking into the postseason by the skin of their fangs, and were unceremoniously tossed from the tournament by a clearly-superior St. Louis Blues squad.

Obviously, a rearranging of personnel is inevitable. How high the changes go and who’s on the chopping block remains to be seen.

If general manager Doug Wilson isn’t shaking in his boots right now, perhaps he should be. His aggressive moves during last summer and at the trade deadline this year could be seen as a major reason the Sharks went from first to worst in the playoff picture in 2011-2012.

Wilson’s job should be safe, however. During his tenure, the Sharks have been among the most successful few franchises in the NHL, reaching the playoffs each season since he took over during summer of 2003. Firing Wilson, or for that matter head coach Todd McLellan, would be akin to baseball’s Boston Red Sox axing their leadership after missing October once, even though that same leadership gave them their first two titles since the Woodrow Wilson administration. It would be a gross overreaction.

One thing’s for sure, though. The veteran core of the team, Patrick Marleau and Thornton among them, will experience a shakeup.

Thornton is getting up there in years, so some may say trading him for valuable young talent would be in the team’s best interest. The truth is, though, he remains the best scorer on the team, and his continuing star power puts butts in seats at HP Pavilion. Moving him would be wildly unpopular, so he’s not going anywhere.

Marleau, on the other hand, may have outlived his usefulness to San Jose. Long among the top goal scorers in the game, Marleau has been incredibly inconsistent over the past few seasons. This unreliable performance came to a head when he failed to tally a single point in the five-game series against St. Louis. He did manage to have an effect on the outcome of the round, though. A late penalty to Marleau in Game 4 allowed St. Louis to collect a power play goal, allowing the Blues to go up 3-games-to-1 and all but driving the final nail into the Sharks’ coffin.

Bay Area hockey fans will surely remember Marleau’s remarkable contribution to San Jose’s success over the past decade. But at this stage in his career, they wouldn’t shed more than a single tear if he were to make his exit. Of course, Marleau’s no-trade clause and hefty $6.9 million salary over both of the next two seasons means even if he agrees to a swap, his value could be extremely limited.

If the Sharks don’t want to scrap all their veterans and start from scratch with a new batch of young guns, they’ll need a new look and a refreshed attitude heading into next season. They need to search the free agent market for help on the penalty kill, and they need to find young, explosive defensemen who can improve the team’s lack of physicality.

Otherwise, they may find themselves on the outside looking in next April for the first time in forever.

Alex Grotewohl can be reached at [email protected].