Michael Misa is going to the AHL.

San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky announced that the 2025 No. 2 pick, out since Nov. 5 with a lower-body injury, will be going to the AHL on a conditioning loan.

Misa is expected to make his AHL debut for the San Jose Barracuda on Friday against the Tucson Roadrunners. The 18-year-old center is also projected to play on Saturday against the Roadrunners.

“It’s going to be good for him, go down there, touch the puck. You got to respect that league. It’s not as easy as everyone thinks, you’re gonna walk in there and just start lighting up the scoresheet,” the San Jose Sharks bench boss said. “It’s a challenging league. It’s a heavy league. It’s an older league, it’s getting a little bit younger, but there’s some guys that play hard, that are fighting at 30 years old to maybe get their first [NHL game].”

An AHL conditioning loan is two weeks.

Per PuckPedia, because Misa was on IR at time of his AHL conditioning loan, he won’t count against the San Jose Sharks’ 23-man roster, unlike Vincent Iorio, who counted against the NHL roster when he was in the AHL for a conditioning stint recently.

Potentially in the cards for Misa, also, is joining Team Canada for the 2026 World Junior Championships. Canada begins their World Juniors training camp on Dec. 12. The tourney begins on Dec. 26 in Minnesota.

Plan is for Misa to play this weekend against Tucson, per Warsofsky.

Not sure how long he will be down there on his conditioning loan or if this is a prelude to joining Canada for WJCs.

Misa already welcomed with open arms by Cuda, Musty has already invited him out to dinner

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) December 3, 2025