How Sharks Head Coach Ryan Warsofsky Can Avoid the Hot Seat This Season

The San Jose Sharks were a surprise team last season. Many expected the inexperienced club to be a bottom-five team like they had been the three previous seasons, but instead they rallied to hang in the playoff mix until they were eliminated in Game 80 of 82.

The Sharks were in playoff positioning in large part due to the emergence of Macklin Celebrini, who established himself as one of the best players in the NHL this past season with his performance at the Olympics and breaking the Sharks’ single-season point record.

2026-27 is the first season this decade with playoff expectations attached, so along with the Sharks’ young core needing to take another leap to get into the playoffs, their head coach will also need to improve in order to avoid being on the hot seat. 

Ryan Warsofsky is about to enter his third season as the Sharks bench boss, his first with pressure to perform. When the Sharks were bottom dwellers in his first two years, his job wasn’t to win games; it was to develop young talent. Now with the offseason additions completely overhauling their defense, their weakest unit that was one of the league’s worst, the Sharks have signaled their rebuild is over. The ink has dried on a five-year extension for Celebrini, and the announcement of his captaincy is likely to follow shortly, so the time to compete starts now. 

Warsofsky has shown flaws early in his coaching career, like blending his lines too much and favoring veterans over young players despite inferior play. Some of the criticism, like not utilizing Sam Dickinson on the power play his rookie year, is unwarranted. Other negatives that are warranted is not having his team ready to play some nights. The Sharks had 13 games where they allowed more than five goals. Obviously that is not good enough. Here are three things Warsofsky needs to accomplish if he wants to make the playoffs and put any doubts about his job to rest.

Don’t Start Slow

In 2025-26, the Sharks lost their first six games. In both of the seasons before that, they lost their first nine. In fact, the last time they didn’t start with at least a five-game losing streak was in 2021-22. That season, they won their first four. 

This is the most crucial test for Warsofsky, aside from making the playoffs. If this atrocious trend isn’t corrected in the upcoming season, he could be fired before Christmas. Good teams don’t sleepwalk into the season. They show up ready to go once puck drops in game number one. Warsofsky deserves grace in his first two years because the Sharks were expected to be a lottery team, but that is a luxury he no longer has. 

San Jose endured a 17-game losing streak from March 27, 2025 to Oct. 23, 2026. The forward group is too skilled, and the defense upgraded enough for lengthy losing skids like this to be unacceptable. What plagued the Sharks the most during bad stretches was their inability to keep the puck out of their own net and poor special teams.

Special Teams Improvements 

Teams that have the talent at forward like the Sharks cannot finish with a mediocre power play. They were dead in the middle at 16th in the NHL, scoring on 21.2% of their man advantages. A team that San Jose should directly compare themselves to and strive to emulate is the Montreal Canadiens, a similarly young team on the rise with a crop of skilled star forwards of their own. They finished 10th best in the NHL.

Celebrini highlights the man advantage, but a group including Will Smith, Igor Chernyshov, and potentially Tyler Toffoli or Ivar Stenberg is definitely capable of putting the puck in the back of the net at a higher rate. The Sharks young dynamic duo will be older, wiser and have further developed their tight chemistry; Chernyshov’s nose for the puck and keen awareness of when to put shots on net should generate a plethora of chances; Toffoli’s veteran knowledge will be crucial in keeping pressure going; and Stenberg’s unique small ice skillset could allow him to thrive, especially with so much attention on Celebrini and Smith.

The lack of power-play minutes for Dickinson was one of the topics of conversation among fans, but ultimately Warsofsky’s decision for the young defenseman to focus on learning how to play NHL caliber defense before being given the keys to the offense in his rookie season was the right call. Having learned from blemishes in the pro game, 2026-27 is the time where Dickinson should at least get an opportunity to try out for power-play quarterback. His offensive flash in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), recording 91 points in only 55 games, is why he was drafted 11th overall in 2024. 

The power play has less work to do to improve. What is more concerning is the Sharks’ penalty kill, which ranked 26th, killing just 74.4% of their penalties. The Presidents’ Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche executed at 84.6%, for example. 

The Sharks have added pieces that should make for a more competitive penalty kill. With the additions of Jacob Trouba and Darnell Nurse, the short-handed blue line is now far deeper. There were stretches that felt like the Sharks put far too much pressure on Dmitry Orlov to churn out competent minutes without much help. 

As the bolstered defense core will help with the Sharks’ glaring problem of puck watching and ignoring their responsibilities in 2025-26, the forward group has gritty pieces that do the little things right. Collin Graf is the star of the short-handed unit who always seems to make the right play, Alex Wennberg is another veteran who avoids unnecessary risk, and Barclay Goodrow still provides a tenacity that is useful for winning puck battles. 

The Sharks had stretches of solid play short-handed with Vincent Desharnais and Orlov, but it fell apart at the end of the season. Of course X’s and O’s are a coach’s responsibility, but it’s also Warsofsky’s duty to make sure his players are focused and playing with the right mindset. 

Amidst their struggles 5-on-4 to end the season, goalie Alex Nedeljkovic told NBC Sports Bay Area, “We just need to bear down a little more. Honestly, it’s four guys and myself outworking their five guys. That’s what it comes down to.”

It is a non-negotiable that Warsofsky needs to be better at having his group prepared when games start. Off nights can’t happen as frequently as they have.

Limit “Off” Nights

The Sharks gave up more than five goals 13 times in 2025-26 and 14 times in 2024-25. It doesn’t take a math genius to know that if you give up more than five goals, which is already a lot, in 15.9% of your games, the playoffs aren’t happening. The Sharks cannot afford to chalk almost a fifth of their season as automatic losses. 

San Jose’s defense has been among the league’s worst units for several seasons now, but they don’t have that excuse anymore. The team brought in Nurse, Trouba and Michael Kesselring to massively improve their back end. The Sharks should improve immensely at exiting the defensive zone and moving the puck to their gifted forwards.

Off nights happen, but they can’t happen at anywhere near the clip it has in Warsofsky’s first two seasons. Giving up six, seven or eight goals as often as they have is a fireable offense for a team with the talent and expectations that the Sharks have.

The culture has changed internally and externally for the Sharks. Come April 2027, it should be to end their seven-year playoff drought. If San Jose fails to do so, one of, if not all of these issues are likely at the forefront, and the Sharks will need to move on from Warsofsky because of it. 

If the Sharks rise to the occasion and make the improvements that they should on paper, then Warsofsky has earned more time with Team Teal. It was unfair to expect great things from their roster his first two seasons, but this roster is easily the best he’s had since stepping into the role in 2024. San Jose is entering 2026-27 with more excitement than they have in years, but with that kind of anticipation comes the burden that demands success. Hopefully Warsofsky is up to the challenge.