{"id":29482,"date":"2025-10-30T01:09:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T01:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/29482\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T01:09:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T01:09:08","slug":"san-jose-sharks-have-to-make-decisions-on-sam-dickinson-michael-misa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/29482\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks have to make decisions on Sam Dickinson, Michael Misa"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2013 San Jose Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said the team still has not finalized a decision<\/a> on whether to keep defenseman Sam Dickinson in the NHL past the nine-game threshold \u2013 which would burn the first year of his entry-level contract \u2013 or return him to the London Knights<\/a> of the Ontario Hockey League.<\/p>\n

Of course, there\u2019s little question about what the 19-year-old Dickinson \u2013 who has done just about everything he can do<\/a> in the OHL \u2014 wants right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for anybody, being here, you learn more just with everything that\u2019s here,\u201d Dickinson said on Wednesday about staying with the Sharks. \u201cThe coaches, the people, and the players, there\u2019s just more to be learned here for anybody. For me personally, I\u2019d like to say that this is the place for me, and that I\u2019m prepared to make the jump to this level full-time. But again, that\u2019s not my decision and out of my hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery game, every day, every practice, just work as hard as I can, compete and prove that I\u2019m able to stay here.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Sharks\u2019 decision on Dickinson by general manager Mike Grier<\/a> is needed soon.<\/p>\n

Since cracking San Jose\u2019s roster <\/a>earlier this month, Dickinson has already dressed in eight NHL games,<\/a> and the Sharks (2-6-2) continue their homestand against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday, the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday, and the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The Sharks then play at Seattle on Nov. 5, and return home to play the Winnipeg Jets, last season\u2019s Presidents\u2019 Trophy winners, on Nov. 7 and the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers the following day. As daunting as that schedule is, the Sharks would likely be reluctant<\/a> to scratch their still-developing 11th overall pick from the 2024 NHL Draft for several games in a row.<\/p>\n

Dickinson was on the ice for the Kings\u2019 first goal against, as he was unable to block a shot from defenseman Brandt Clarke that Corey Perry later tapped in. But Warsofsky thought Dickinson\u2019s play improved afterward, although he finished with 12:04 in ice time, less than the 14:19 he had averaged in his first seven games.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe big thing is, is he making the same mistake over and over that we\u2019ve kind of just talked to him about, or do we see growth in that area?\u201d Warsofsky said. \u201cDo we see fewer mistakes throughout the game? It is a game of mistakes, so you have to balance that out. There\u2019s teams that are probably a little bit more challenging than other teams as far as matchups.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019ve seen some growth in his game. I think he\u2019s gotten better, especially last night, got better as the game went on. He\u2019s done some good things. There are some things he\u2019s going to continue to work on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sharks have to decide what\u2019s the best path forward for Dickinson, who is coming off a season for the ages with London. In a combined 72 games, regular season and playoffs, Dickinson had 122 points and was a big part of the Knights\u2019 run to the Memorial Cup before he was named the Canadian Hockey League\u2019s top defenseman.<\/p>\n

Is there any benefit of returning Dickinson to major junior hockey at this point, or, worse, potentially seeing him regress against competition that he\u2019s already dominated?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough,\u201d Warsofsky said. \u201cA lot of it is habit-based. Can we get the habits trending in the right direction? Nothing against the OHL, but you can go there, and he plays 35 minutes a night. You can really create some bad habits by doing that. He can get away with a lot there that you can\u2019t get away with here in the National Hockey League. So that\u2019s something that we\u2019ll have conversations about. We already have had some conversations about that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a game of mistakes. But are the habits starting to trend upward toward NHL habits, or do we still see the junior habits?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sharks have also not finalized a decision on whether to keep forward Michael Misa<\/a> or return him to the OHL. Misa had just 10:10 in ice time against the Kings in his sixth NHL game. But whereas Dickinson is still searching for his first NHL point, Misa has a goal and two assists in six games.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s done some good things,\u201d Warsofsky said. \u201cHe\u2019s going to be a really good player, and I think it\u2019s the first time he\u2019s gone through something that\u2019s really challenging, as is Sam, and as we saw last year with (Will Smith and Macklin Celebrini), in a sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to come down to, can he get to his strengths more times than not. Is he going to hit speed bumps along the way? For sure, every young player is going to. But is the game starting to slow down, where he can get to his tool set, and we\u2019ll have that conversation when we have to. He\u2019s done some good things in games, and sometimes he\u2019s got a little bit of the deer in the headlights.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is a financial component to the Sharks\u2019 decision, as well.<\/p>\n

Celebrini and Smith, whose respective salary cap hits are a shade under $1 million,<\/a> will soon be due significant raises as they are slated to become restricted free agents after the 2026-2027 season. If Dickinson and Misa burn the first year of their entry-level deals,<\/a> which are similar to Smith\u2019s and Celebrini\u2019s, they could be RFAs after the 2027-28 season and might also be in line for a much bigger payday.<\/p>\n

Right now, the Sharks\u2019 decision on both players is all about hockey and what\u2019s best for their long-term development.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s conversations about, where does it put the team, where does it put the roster? At the end of the day, what\u2019s best for the player and what\u2019s best for the team?\u201d Warsofsky said. \u201cIf they can handle it, and if we believe they can handle it, they\u2019ll stay here. If not, then we\u2019ll go through those processes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 San Jose Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said the team still has not finalized a decision…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[9081,3259,17522,21852,1036,1037,88,90,89,98],"class_list":["post-29482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-london-knights","tag-michael-misa","tag-new-jersey-devils","tag-ohl","tag-ryan-warsofsky","tag-sam-dickinson","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-sharks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29482","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=29482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}