Ryan Warsofsky officially has two full NHL seasons under his belt as head coach, although he’s still the youngest active NHL coach at age 38.
And this season, he got a chance to coach the San Jose Sharks to a lot more wins, and a lot more tight losses. The Sharks went from 20 wins to 39, earning 34 more points along the way.
He says he’s learned a lot this year.
“I learned a lot about relationships and people and how tight this league is – how hard it is to continue to win in it and be consistent in winning,” Warsofsky said. “And as soon as you think you have it figured out, it smacks you in the face a little bit. I’ll look back and we’ll review the season, and do a lot of auditing of myself and and try to get a little better.”
In particular, he said he’s grown when it comes to communication with the referees, calming down in certain moments. Also?
“Sometimes you don’t realize what the players have gone through, or you keep beating them up,” Warsofsky said. “Do you need to spin it a little bit more positive? Or is today a day where you can be a little bit more negative, in a sense, but more so teaching and the way your tone is and your voice is? Just thinking about those scenarios as the season goes on.”
Warsofsky spoke about surprise players, what he’ll remember, being emotional about the end of the season, and more.
On the family energy of this year’s San Jose Sharks…
I think it’s the only way you can really win at the end of the day, is you got to have that family feel and everyone’s welcome. We have a lot of players and people from a lot of different backgrounds, different countries, different cultures, raised by single parents, only child, four brothers and sisters, and everyone’s brought up a little bit differently. You’ve got to welcome everyone and make everyone feel very important, and everyone is important. So for me it’s a big step in creating a culture, and that’s how you have to win. Everyone’s got to feel important and valued and has got to have a voice, and play for one another, and believe in one another. That all bleeds into all that. So it’s just a big belief of my philosophy.
On Macklin Celebrini’s year…
I don’t think anyone had those expectations, but he certainly exceeded them, and he did a hell of a job this year, individually and helping our group and dragging guys into it. That’s who he is as a player, and he’s just going to get better and better. It felt like every time we thought he had a ceiling, he blew the ceiling right off. I had a good meeting with Mack in training camp, and I knew that was he was on a mission. I will say that. There was a look on his face that he was ready to go. He had put the preparation and the work in in the summer, and he got more and more comfortable as the season went on it seemed.
On positive surprises from his lineup…
Ty Dellandrea, before he got injured, was a big surprise for us, solidifying that 3C there, right shot center had a really good year. Zack Ostapchuk comes up, another guy has a really good year. Barclay Goodrow, reinvented his game, thought he was great down the stretch for our group. I thought William Eklund, the last month, really came alive in the way he needs to play as an inside presence. Dmitry Orlov.
I could go through every single player, and I don’t mean to disrespect anyone I don’t. I think there’s been a lot of guys, a lot of growth. Mario Ferraro, for him to experience that, I thought it was so awesome for him. He’s been through a lot. Alexander Wennberg played really good hockey for us. Sherwood’s been a great addition. Again, I could go up and down our lineup. Michael Misa has come a long way. Sam Dickinson’s came a long way. So lot of growth within our group.
On being emotional after the final game of the season…
It was a lot of things, it was season being over, talking to media 15 minutes after it. I’m with these guys more than I’m with my family. I hate getting emotional, but you put a lot into it, and then faces change and team changes. Mack is special. Will’s special. William Eklund. They’re all special. You build a lot of relationships with these players throughout the year, and we did a lot of special things, and a lot of laughter, a lot of arguments, a lot of discussion, a lot of video sessions, a lot of individual meetings. You go through a lot.
It was a great group. They were coachable. They cared for one another, and that’s what it’s all about. They played for one another, and yeah, we came short, but I think they should be damn proud of what they did. I don’t know why I get emotional about it, but it was a fun, fun year that probably not a lot of people expected. No one thought we’d have 39 wins. So I give a lot of credit to those guys of just continue to push, whether we challenged them, they answered it. And I know we fell short, but I don’t want them to be defined by that.
On what Sam Dickinson needs to work on to become a top-four defenseman…
He’s going to have a big summer. A lot of it comes down to conditioning and being in condition. It’s a lot for a 19-year-old kid to come in the National Hockey League and play those types of minutes and this type of season. So we’ll start there, and then just some things that we need to continue to improve on – scanning, seeing the whole ice, seeing the second layer coming at you. As a defenseman you got to be able to end those plays and see it, close on it quicker. There’s still, obviously, we’ve seen the junior offense, but we get to see the NHL offense, and that doesn’t mean he has to be 120-point guy in the NHL, but there’s more offense that we can untap there.
On what happier moments he’ll remember from this season…
In Winnipeg the other night I think it was 6-1 with about three minutes left, and there was a lot of joy in the bench, a lot of laughter. We were disappointed, obviously, we weren’t in the playoffs, but we were finishing the season on a high note. There was a sense of relief, but it was the guys’ probably the last time we were all together. To be honest with you I didn’t really have a pre-scout meeting we usually have. Just went into the group and said, ‘We got to compete extremely hard tonight. We got to play for one another like we have all year.’ And we know what the Winnipeg Jets – that’s no disrespect to Winnipeg – but we were just in that type of situation, back to back. So we went out there and we did that.
I think it was Will and Mack, said ‘I don’t think we need any more pre-scouts.’ And we had a good chuckle about it and a good laugh. And those are the memories that I’ll take home with me. Those are the little things in the grind of the season and the stress and the ups and downs, you think you win and you’re relieved, you lose and you think the world’s coming to an end. So there’s a lot that goes into it, but those are the moments and those relationships are what you cherish.
On how William Eklund improved in the final month of the season…
I love the way he ended the season, played on the inside, got under team’s skin, was dominating in the offensive zone with puck possession. That line was really good for us. I thought he finished the season the right way.
How can the Sharks minimize goals and chances against…
First thing I’ll dive into is we got to keep the puck out of our net, that’s for sure. We’ll look back, and we’ll look at all the goals against, and we’ll look at whether that’s penalty kill, short handed goals, any situation. We’ll look at it, and we’ll make some changes that need to be made, but that will be step number one is keeping the puck out of our net. Step number two is our mindset to start the season needs to be, ‘We’re going out there to win games and get going.’
On how motivating this season is for the San Jose Sharks going forward, compared to recent seasons…
Definitely more motivating. It’s a lot more fun playing down the stretch that type of hockey, and playing in those types of games. Obviously, Nashville at home was a big game, and we go down 3-0. We did claw back, but that will be a game that we’ll look at as probably a measuring stick, in a sense, of when we’re in that situation again, how we need to start that game on time.
On Collin Graf’s year…
Obviously had a really good year. No one probably predicted 21 goals. Did a lot of good things. Was our first guy over the boards on our penalty kill, good stick. Got another guy, I think can continue to get stronger. He’ll get more comfortable, play him up and down our lineup, but more of a guy that was slated as a checking line forward and moved up at times. We will see where the ceiling is.
On his plans for the offseason…
Stay here in San Jose for a little while. It’ll be nice, my kids are in school, so that would be good to hang with my family. My son’s in baseball right now, and I love baseball, so it’s nice to – the baseball field is my therapy, so I can get away a little bit. So I’ll spend some time with family and do a little traveling, and then head back east and see some more family, and then before you know it, I’ll be seeing your guys’ faces all over again.