Ryan Warsofsky values his fourth line’s identity.

“Big, heavy, physical, hunts pucks, creates momentum, changes momentum,” the San Jose Sharks head coach said before the Olympic break. “We like what our fourth line brings. That’s [the] identity of it.”

That’s center Zack Ostapchuk, flanked by wingers Barclay Goodrow and Ryan Reaves, for most of this season.

“You have to trust them in the defensive zone. I have a lot of trust in those three players,” Warsofsky said. “They gain your trust by what they do on the ice and how they practice and what they’ve done in their careers.”

Between Reaves and Goodrow, that’s over 1,800 regular season and playoff NHL games, over a dozen deep playoff runs, and two Stanley Cups for Goodrow. They’re also, even in this advanced stage of their careers, constantly praised for their leadership and defensive positioning and character and work rate.

Enforcer Reaves also adds an intimidation factor, a truly rare thing — yes, I know some will say for a reason — in today’s game. That’s clearly valued in San Jose though, as it’s GM Mike Grier who traded for Reaves over the summer. Goodrow is a go-to penalty killer.

As for Ostapchuk, it’s truly impressive that he’s stuck with the San Jose Sharks since his November recall.

Ostapchuk is still waiver-exempt, so like young Collin Graf earlier in the season, the fact that the 22-year-old has stuck around, when it’s more convenient for a deeper-than-ever Sharks organization to send him down, is a true tribute to his development as a bona fide NHL center.

All this may not be what some Sharks fans — who are wondering why Pavol Regenda or Adam Gaudette or Ethan Cardwell or fill-in-the-name aren’t playing — want to hear. They may want more offensive potential, size and/or youth be damned, on the fourth line. They may wonder why this current fourth line’s publicly-available metrics — something that the Sharks are aware of — aren’t getting them sat.

To that point, we know the “bad” stats — this line, per Natural Stat Trick, is among the worst in the league in 5-on-5 Goals For %, for example. Their Expected Goals For % is markedly better though, suggesting they can use a little more finishing luck, that they are getting scoring chances.

Also, guess who’s top-three among Sharks forwards in 5-on-5 High-Danger Chances Against Per 60? Reaves leads San Jose in this category, Alex Wennberg is second, and Goodrow is third, suggesting that the fourth line is holding up their end, at least defensively.

But anyway, this fourth line’s identity is a Warsofsky philosophical decision, at least with the options available to him.

“If we don’t have it, [they] can give us an identity of a shift, to just simplify our game a little bit,” he said. “I think, even though they’ve made some mistakes, and they had a little dip in their game, in LA and that Columbus game, but they got right back on it.”

Jack Han and I had a discussion about the Sharks’ fourth line here!

San Jose Sharks (27-24-4)

Yaroslav Askarov will start.

This is how the Sharks lined up at 5-on-5 and the power play the last two days.

Regenda, Gaudette & Mukhamadullin look like scratches

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) February 26, 2026

#SJSharks power play groups, same as yday…

PP1: Klingberg-Celebrini-Smith-Sherwood-Wennberg

PP2: Orlov-Misa-Eklund-Kurashev-Toffoli

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) February 26, 2026

Calgary Flames (23-27-6)

Optional morning skate for #Flames in San Jose.

Northern California native Dustin Wolf is in the starter’s net ahead of tonight’s game against Macklin Celebrini and #TheFutureIsTeal. pic.twitter.com/wB3val5LK5

— Derek Wills (@Fan960Wills) February 26, 2026

Where To Watch

Puck drop between the San Jose Sharks and Calgary Flames is at 7 PM PT at SAP Center. Watch it live on NBC Sports California. Listen to it on the Sharks Audio Network.