It has been an up-and-down rookie season for Michael Misa, the Sharks’ No. 2 overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.
But Sunday certainly was a high point for the teenage center, who scored his first career game-winning goal to give San Jose a 2-1 overtime win over the Winnipeg Jets at SAP Center.
Not only was it his first overtime goal, but it also was the first time Misa even had been on the ice in overtime with the Sharks.
“First shift I’ve ever got in OT and just tried to make the most of it,” Misa told reporters postgame. “[William Eklund] made a nice drop pass to me, and I figured I’d just wheel in there and see what happens, and yeah, puck ended up right back on my stick.”
After playing in seven of the Sharks’ first 12 games of the 2025-26 NHL season, Misa missed over two months with the team as he dealt with a right ankle injury and then played for Team Canada at the IIHF World Junior Championship. But since returning to San Jose’s lineup on Jan. 11, he has been a mainstay in all 14 games since.
Coach Ryan Warsofsky shared why he finally called on Misa in overtime on Sunday.
“I mean, he’s earned it,” Warsofsky said after the game. “He has earned it by the way he’s played, and that’s something we talked [about] way back in training camp, ‘You earn your ice. You earn your spot on this team.’ And he certainly has earned the ice he’s getting, and he’s going to get more and more, but he earned that OT shift.”
Including Sunday’s game-winner, Misa now has four points in three games since the Olympic break — which Warsofsky said really helped the rookie’s confidence.
After he earned the third star in front of a packed house at the Tank, NBC Sports California’s Tara Slone asked Misa what he did during the three-week break.
“Not much, just saw some family, got on the ice a couple of times, but yeah, pretty relaxing break, to be honest,” he answered.
Whatever Misa did clearly worked, but it’s also part of a larger trend of his development throughout the season, according to his teammates.
“I think he’s not the same player when he came in and now,” defenseman Vincent Desharnais explained. “How he uses his speed — he’s such a fast player, an intense player. It’s funny because I keep telling him that. … Sometimes it’s intimidating; there’s some big bodies. He’s very young. But his growth has been amazing, and it’s going to be exciting to see what’s his ceiling.”
“Yeah, he’s been great,” added Will Smith, who scored the Sharks’ first goal on a difficult rebound in mid-air. “I think you can definitely see he’s playing with more confidence now, and he’s getting a lot of chances, and he’s starting to bear down on those and put them in the back of the net, so it’s fun to see.”
Any overtime goal is special, but Misa’s arguably was more impressive given who it was against: Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck, who effectively put the United States on his back in the gold medal game of the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics exactly one week earlier against Macklin Celebrini’s Canadian squad.
In fact, Hellebuyck stopped all six of Celebrini’s shots on net in that game, which also went to overtime. Hellebuyck arguably was just as good on Sunday, making 31 saves before Misa’s eventual winner — perhaps a bit of Canadian revenge for his Sharks teammate and fellow countryman Celebrini.
“He’s 18, and he just dangled through three guys and put it in against one of the best goalies in the league,” Desharnais said of Misa, who actually just turned 19 on Feb. 16. “It was pretty awesome to see, and everyone was really happy for him.”
The future certainly is Teal with Misa and Celebrini leading the Sharks’ front line.