Mike Grier is happy with Ryan Warsofsky\u2019s work.<\/p>\n
Grier put his money where his mouth is, extending the San Jose Sharks head coach, entering the last year of his contract, to an extension.<\/p>\n
Terms were not disclosed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you to Hasso [Plattner] and Jonathan [Becher] and Mike for giving me the responsibility. They gave me my first crack in the National Hockey League,\u201d Warsofsky said \u201cSuper excited, grateful, humbled by what they\u2019ve done. It\u2019s a great place to live. It\u2019s a great organization. They treat people and families first-class.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRyan\u2019s done a good job. His staff\u2019s done a good job,\u201d Grier said on Thursday, the first day of training camp. \u201cHe\u2019s someone who works hard. He\u2019s put in the time. He has good relationships with the players.\u201d<\/p>\n
Warsofsky was promoted to San Jose Sharks head coach on Jun. 13, 2024, after serving two seasons as an assistant coach. And in his second year as bench boss, Warsofsky spearheaded a 34-point improvement in the standings.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not just 2024 No. 1 pick Macklin Celebrini\u2019s ascension to superstardom last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been able to get a lot out of different players,\u201d Grier said. \u201cNot just our top guys, but some of the guys in the middle and back of the line-up.\u201d<\/p>\n
That includes the development of less heralded prospects like Igor Chernyshov and Collin Graf and Zack Ostapchuk.<\/p>\n
The next step for Warsofsky is to guide the San Jose Sharks to the playoffs for the first time since 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited to work with this group and push this group,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis ability to connect with the group and push the group has been impressive. And he\u2019s still learning on the job and growing,\u201d Grier said. \u201cFrom our standpoint, I think there\u2019s still a lot of growth left for him. And I think every year, he\u2019ll just keep becoming a better and better coach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ryan Warsofsky, on how he can improve as a head coach:<\/p>\n
Making sure we communicate the details and how we need to play, and being really clear with that, with my messaging and what have you.<\/p>\n
Warsofsky, on Michael Misa\u2019s first day of camp:<\/p>\n
His pace was high. That\u2019s what separates him is when he gets moving.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s starting to pick up some things away from the puck. The game will slow down for him. He had a really good second half, so we want to build off that.<\/p>\n
Warsofsky, on how Celebrini gets better:<\/p>\n
He\u2019s obviously grown quite a bit. He\u2019s a mature kid as it is. But you\u2019ve seen him out here early. He was here in August, ready to go, and trying to get as many guys as he possibly could to come out early. I\u2019ve seen that growth from him.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s important when I meet with him is he knows how\u2026we need to keep the puck out of our net. I think that\u2019s a big growth for me.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s going to continue to get better in certain areas. One will be the power play. That\u2019s something that I know he wants to be better at and help be more of a threat as a five-man unit as well, and helping his teammates and having some poise on it.<\/p>\n
Warsofsky, on the key to a better San Jose Sharks power play:<\/p>\n
Sometimes, you just need a little patience on it\u2026I thought we got a little excited when we got on there, and that sometimes happens with young players. Your whole life, you grow up and you get a power play, that\u2019s where your skill comes out, and you can make teams pay. In this league, you got to have a little bit of patience.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s some good players on penalty kills. There\u2019s big defensemen with good sticks. There\u2019s good, smart forwards that have made a living playing on the penalty kill. And sometimes, you just got to have a little bit of patience to calm it down a little bit. That\u2019s something that we\u2019ll really preach here early on.<\/p>\n
Warsofsky, on how Will Smith gets better:<\/p>\n
I think he can drive offense more. He can be a real threat off the entry. I think he can be a guy that we can hopefully trust late in games and play a really good defensive style of game.<\/p>\n
He looks stronger. He looks quicker. He looks like he\u2019s in great shape. He put in a lot of work. I met with him through the summer, the first thing I saw when we met is he looks stronger. And that was in July. So he\u2019s definitely worked hard this summer.<\/p>\n
Warsofsky, on what Mason Marchment adds next to Celebrini and Smith on the first day of camp:<\/p>\n
Create space. He\u2019s played with high-end players before.<\/p>\n
I wouldn\u2019t look too much into it. Things will change as we go through camp.<\/p>\n
Warsofsky, on the potential impact of new defensemen Darnell Nurse, Jacob Trouba, and Michael Kesselring:<\/p>\n
Yeah, I saw that firsthand today in that scrimmage with Kesselring and Nurse. They can move pucks. They got poise. They\u2019re big. They\u2019re long. Their puck play is going to really help us, as will Troubs.<\/p>\n
I watched a lot of video of him. I don\u2019t think he gets enough credit for how much he can handle the puck and make plays.<\/p>\n
Warsofsky, on Sam Dickinson\u2019s improvement:<\/p>\n
Put some work in. He\u2019s in good shape. He\u2019s a little bit stronger, a little bit quicker. His skating looks really good. But yeah, it\u2019s a big year for Sam to take another step.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Grier is happy with Ryan Warsofsky\u2019s work. Grier put his money where his mouth is, extending the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[3524,90987,7501,4345,13247,3517,10370,4400,1035,55945,66125,3259,4401,4637,1036,1037,88,90,89,98,3578,26194],"class_list":["post-467641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-collin-graf","tag-darnell-nurse","tag-extension","tag-hasso-plattner","tag-head-coach","tag-igor-chernyshov","tag-jacob-trouba","tag-jonathan-becher","tag-macklin-celebrini","tag-mason-marchment","tag-michael-kesselring","tag-michael-misa","tag-mike-grier","tag-power-play","tag-ryan-warsofsky","tag-sam-dickinson","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-will-smith","tag-zack-ostapchuk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467641","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=467641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}