{"id":275294,"date":"2026-04-19T07:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T07:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/275294\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T07:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T07:22:09","slug":"san-jose-sharks-mike-grier-says-ryan-warsofsky-will-be-back-as-coach-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/275294\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks’ Mike Grier says Ryan Warsofsky will be back as coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2013 San Jose Sharks general manager Mike Grier said while Ryan Warsofsky has room to improve<\/a>, he anticipates bringing the 38-year-old coach<\/a> back for at least the beginning of next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s done a good job,\u201d Grier said of Warsofsky. \u201cI would say there\u2019s no reason to think that he won\u2019t be the coach here when the season starts next year, and we\u2019ll kind of take it from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sharks (39-35-8) finished with 86 points t<\/a>his past season for a .524 points percentage, their best since a .616 mark in 2018-19<\/a>, the last year the team made the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Behind the efforts of leading scorer Macklin Celebrini,<\/a> the Sharks had the biggest year-over-year improvement of any NHL team this season, going from 52 points and a last-place finish in the NHL standings in 2024-25 to 24th overall this year, as San Jose fell just short of making the postseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everyone\u2019s got to improve,\u201d Grier said when asked where Warsofsky can get better. \u201cI can improve, the players, coaches. It\u2019s all about growing and evolving. I\u2019m sure there are things he wants to be better at next year, but that\u2019s probably more of a conversation for him and I to have.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he is a really good young coach in this league, and he\u2019s learning the league and learning how to coach at the highest level. He\u2019s done a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grier credited Warsofsky for helping to get the Sharks\u2019 season back on track after at least three extended slumps.<\/p>\n

The Sharks went 0-4-2 to start the season in October before going on an 8-2-1 run. They also lost their last four games before the Olympic break, but came out of the break winning five of nine.<\/p>\n

The Sharks\u2019 playoff hopes appeared doomed after a 0-5-1 stretch<\/a> from mid-to-late March. But they then won four straight and were in a playoff position on April 2 before they lost five of their last eight games.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone kept saying, we\u2019re down and out. and it looked that way, even watching from above, that maybe these guys are running out of steam,\u201d Grier said. \u201cBut then the next thing you know, they put a couple of wins together, and they battle back. So, it\u2019s a credit to (Warsofsky) and to the players with how resilient they were throughout the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Warsofsky is entering the final year of his three-year deal,<\/a> signed when he was named the 11th head coach in Sharks history in June 2024. Warsofsky was an assistant coach with the Sharks from 2022 to 2024 before he replaced David Quinn, who was fired after compiling a 41-98-25 record in two seasons in San Jose.<\/p>\n

Warsofsky, the youngest head coach in the NHL, went 20-50-12 in his first season with the still-rebuilding Sharks, but grew more comfortable this past year as the team remained alive for a playoff until the final week of the regular season. The Sharks finished four points behind the Los Angeles Kings for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n

The Sharks improved from 32nd in the NHL in scoring in 2024-25, averaging 2.54 goals per game, to 17th this year (3.04). But San Jose\u2019s main issue continued to be goals allowed, with only a slight improvement from a league-high 3.76 goals against per game last season to a 30th-best 3.54 average of 2025-26.<\/p>\n

The Sharks, not coincidentally, also ranked 16th on the power play at 21.2%, and 26th on the penalty kill (76.4%).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to keep the puck out of our net, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d Warsofsky said, calling it the first thing he\u2019ll review this offseason. \u201cWe\u2019ll look back and look at all the goals against, whether that\u2019s penalty kill, shorthanded goals, any situation. We\u2019ll look at it, and we\u2019ll make some changes that need to be made, but that\u2019ll be step number one, is keeping the puck out of our net.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given the volatility of the coaching position in the NHL, Warsofsky, remarkably, is already the 17th-longest tenured coach in the league. The average tenure of an NHL coach right now is just under 2 1\/2 years.<\/a><\/p>\n

Asked if he would be comfortable going into the final year of his contract without a new deal, Warsofsky said he wanted to keep those conversations with Grier private, but added that he wants to stay in San Jose long-term.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love this organization. I love this area. My family loves it here,\u201d said Warsofsky, adding that he wants to be the coach that gets the Sharks back into the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can tell you that I can see the passion. I can see how badly people want it. To hopefully deliver that would be a dream come true for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Warsofsky said his group of assistants \u2014 Jeff Ulmer, Brian Wiseman, Doug Houda, goalie coach Thomas Speer and video coach Nick Gialdini \u2014 all want to be back with the team next season.<\/p>\n

Asked about Warsofsky\u2019s staff, Grier said, \u201cI think those guys did a good job. This time of year. I know (the media has) to ask the questions, but they did a good job. For us, it\u2019s kind of the beginning of the evaluation season for coaches, players, staff, and everyone. But I think they did a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 San Jose Sharks general manager Mike Grier said while Ryan Warsofsky has room to improve,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[401,402,181,404,88,90,89,98,403,94685,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-275294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-inside-sports","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-san-jose","13":"tag-san-jose-headlines","14":"tag-san-jose-news","15":"tag-san-jose-sharks","16":"tag-sharks-alert","17":"tag-social-alert","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}