Star Wears: Sharks award shark tooth necklace to player of game

Welcome to Star Wears, where our Short Shifts squad will highlight each participating NHL team’s unique and creative way to honor their player of the game after each victory, handing them a token of appreciation that usually lasts at least one season, and sometimes takes on a life of its own.

Team: San Jose Sharks

Item: Shark tooth necklace

Origin Story: The team had some very odd choices to start the season, including a box of tissues, a small hammer, what appeared to be a large lint roller. “Nothing that we should have been using,” Ryan Reaves joked in video the team shared on social media.

City/Team connection (dubious or otherwise): This one’s pretty simple, since they are the Sharks. Let’s not over think it.

Fun Fact: Sharks are polyphyodonts, meaning they don’t have roots and shed and replace teeth in as little as 24 hours. Some species of shark lose over 30,000 teeth in their lifetime. The shark tooth necklace is rooted in Hawaiian tradition and is sometimes seen as a representative of the Aumakua, or an ancestor that has taken the form of an animal or other natural object to watch over descendants.

Quotable: "We had nothing, and I wanted to get something that could last. Whether we use it next year or not, [I wanted] something that could stand the test of time." Reaves said. He also put forward an important stipulation to the tradition. “The rule is you got to wear this, no tarp with your interview,” the veteran forward says in the team video.