{"id":472447,"date":"2026-09-23T00:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T00:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/472447\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T00:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T00:00:09","slug":"san-jose-sharks-seek-improvement-from-sam-dickinson-in-second-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/472447\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks seek improvement from Sam Dickinson in second season"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2013 As a 20-year-old with size, tremendous skating ability, and plenty of offensive upside,<\/a> Sam Dickinson figures to play an important role on the San Jose Sharks\u2019 defense corps<\/a> for years to come.<\/p>\n

For now, though, the Sharks\u2019 coaching staff just wants to see how Dickinson\u2019s game \u2013 particularly in his own zone<\/a> \u2014 can grow from season one in the NHL to season two.<\/p>\n

After spending most of last season on the third defense pair,<\/a> Dickinson wants to play in more situations and grow into a top-four role. To do that, he needs to become someone coach Ryan Warsofsky can trust to make the right decisions at any given moment in a game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to free him up, in a sense, and let him play his game,\u201d Warsofsky said of Dickinson on Tuesday. \u201cBut there\u2019s also a responsibility going into year two of how you need to play so you can play the minutes that he wants to.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-3, 200-pound Dickinson finished his rookie season with 14 points in 72 games. His ice time increased from an average of 14:30 per game through October and November to 18:34 from December to April. He went from barely playing on the penalty kill to being one of the first defensemen<\/a> on the ice in those situations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to prove to the coaches that I\u2019ve built off of last year, and I can be more trustworthy in all scenarios of the game,\u201d said Dickinson, the 11th overall pick of the 2024 draft. \u201cThat\u2019s been a big focus of mine coming into camp, competing as hard as I can, learning as much as possible with the new things that are being implemented.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the Sharks are acutely aware of Dickinson\u2019s offensive capabilities \u2013 he had 122 points in 72 regular season and playoff games with the London Knights in 2024-25 \u2013 helping him cut down the quality scoring chances against seems to be the top priority.<\/p>\n

That includes boxing out, blocking shots, ending plays quicker in the defensive zone, and making a quality first pass.<\/p>\n

Per Natural Stat Trick,<\/a> Dickinson had 76 giveaways during 5-on-5 play last season, the third most among all Sharks defensemen, behind Dmitry Orlov (95) and Mario Ferraro (78). Dickinson was also on the ice for 242 high-danger chances against 5-on-5, compared to 211 high-danger chances for.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s going to be a heightened responsibility in those certain moments in the game,\u201d Warsofsky said. \u201cIt speeds up on him a little bit, and he tries to make something that \u2026 it\u2019s a high-risk play there.\u00a0He tries to jump on the other side when there\u2019s not a very high reward in that play.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo just having him understand those situations, I think, will clean up a lot of his game.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Sharks\u2019 preseason opener on Sunday in Anaheim, Dickinson lost position<\/a> on the Ducks\u2019 first goal, allowing Cutter Gauthier to slip by him on the boards near the defensive blue line and set up Jackson LaCombe for an easy 2-on-1 goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d want that first goal back. Just caught on the wrong side, and just need to fix the positioning there,\u201d Dickinson said. \u201cBut after that, I settled in a little bit, kind of found my game a little more, started moving my feet. I was really focused on the defensive side of everything with the new systems, and just wanted to be really solid there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously the goal against is not ideal,\u201d Warsofsky said. \u201cThere\u2019s certainly, you know, a lot of things that we need to get cleaned up and probably cleaned up pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickinson did not play in Tuesday\u2019s preseason game against the Vegas Golden Knights, but will likely see action in at least one more exhibition game. San Jose hosts Anaheim on Tuesday and travels to play Vegas on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re kind of getting ready to win here, and that\u2019s where the train\u2019s moving,\u201d Warsofsky said, referencing the end of the Sharks\u2019 rebuild. \u201cYou have to earn your ice time, you have to earn those responsibilities in certain situations. We\u2019ve still got three more exhibition games and a lot can play out.\u201d<\/p>\n

GAUDETTE UPDATE<\/p>\n

Sharks winger Adam Gaudette, who missed practice Saturday and Sunday, did not skate Tuesday and remains day-to-day with an upper-body injury. He\u2019s a little more sore than expected, Warsofsky said, and it remained unclear as to when he might rejoin practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 As a 20-year-old with size, tremendous skating ability, and plenty of offensive upside, Sam Dickinson…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[404,88,90,89,98,127],"class_list":["post-472447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-nhl","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472447","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=472447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}