Ryan Warsofsky wants to be the coach who returns the San Jose Sharks to the Stanley Cup playoffs. Falling short in 2025-26, when a surprising push petered out at the very end of the regular season, only intensified his mission to end what is now a seven-year drought.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can see how badly people want it,\u201d Warsofsky told reporters then. \u201cTo hopefully deliver that would be a dream come true for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
This could be a pivotal season for Warsofsky, who is entering the final year of his contract after being hired in June 2024 during the team\u2019s rebuild. While it\u2019s possible that he and Sharks general manager Mike Grier come together on an extension, the 38-year-old coach could also start the 2026-27 schedule without one in place. Either way, there will be expectations for him to improve on last season\u2019s 39-35-8 record now that Grier has built the deepest lineup of Warsofsky\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n
The Sharks added nearly $110 million in salary commitments to four players \u2014 Darnell Nurse, Jacob Trouba, Mason Marchment and Michael Kesselring \u2014 over multiple seasons to help \u201cpush this thing forward,\u201d as Grier said while lauding the support and financial backing of team owner Hasso Plattner.<\/p>\n
Winners and losers from the 2026 NHL Draft<\/p>\n
Scott Wheeler<\/p>\n
\u201cHasso\u2019s great,\u201d Grier said. \u201cVery fortunate to have him as our owner. He\u2019s very passionate about the Sharks and he\u2019s given me everything I\u2019ve needed to make any moves we felt necessary to try and improve the hockey team.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the GM tried to pour cold water on the suggestion that another playoff miss would be a disappointment, there isn\u2019t much doubt about which direction Grier wants to take the Sharks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, we\u2019re just trying to get better,\u201d Grier said. \u201cYou guys are the ones who are always trying to put the finish line and the goals on things. It\u2019s to get the team better and improve. I think we\u2019re a better team now than we were last year. So, if that gets us in the playoffs, great, but you never know how the season\u2019s going to go.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s a step in the right direction where we were able to address some of the things we wanted to address.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the NHL\u2019s opening-night matchups scheduled to be released Wednesday and the full 84-game slate to drop Thursday, we\u2019ll know when the Sharks\u2019 most anticipated season in years will begin. What could the San Jose lineup look like as Warsofsky heads into a season that could determine his future behind the bench?<\/p>\n
Forwards
\n Left wingCenterRight wing<\/p>\n
Igor Chernyshov<\/p>\n
Macklin Celebrini<\/p>\n
Will Smith<\/p>\n
Ivar Stenberg<\/p>\n
Michael Misa<\/p>\n
Tyler Toffoli<\/p>\n
Mason Marchment<\/p>\n
Alexander Wennberg<\/p>\n
Kiefer Sherwood<\/p>\n
Barclay Goodrow<\/p>\n
Zack Ostapchuk<\/p>\n
Collin Graf<\/p>\n
Extras: Adam Gaudette, Ty Dellandrea<\/p>\n
The Sharks have a compelling forward group, and the addition of Stenberg as the No. 2 pick in this year\u2019s NHL Draft only adds to what may be possible from a production standpoint \u2014 provided there is enough ice time to go around and the right combinations are found and click consistently as the season goes on. They ranked 17th in the league in goals per game last season, with 3.04. It would be a disappointment if they didn\u2019t do better in 2026-27.<\/p>\n
Chernyshov showed he could play with Celebrini on San Jose\u2019s top line, with an impressive 19 points in 28 games for the Sharks in a season split between the NHL and the American Hockey League\u2019s San Jose Barracuda. But the 20-year-old doesn\u2019t have a lock on that spot. The additions of Stenberg and Marchment give the Sharks multiple options, and either could be a candidate for top-line duty out of the gate, or if Chernyshov struggles.<\/p>\n
The top three left wings could be interchangeable. As tempting as it could be to have Stenberg start with Celebrini and Smith, a bigger body might be a better fit with supremely skilled talents who are on the smaller side. Chernyshov\u2019s previous chemistry with Misa in junior hockey could also play a role in his placement.<\/p>\n
The other intriguing aspect of this lineup is where to put the 23-year-old Graf. Entering his fourth season with the Sharks and second as a full-time NHL player, Graf broke out last season, establishing himself as a quality two-way player and one of the team\u2019s more defensively sound forwards. His placement in this exercise isn\u2019t a reflection of him; this is a deep forward group. With 21 goals and 46 points last season, Graf can play in the top six and pop up on left wing. Could he unseat Toffoli or Sherwood and bump either one down? Sure.<\/p>\n
The Sharks still must sign Graf to a new contract, but he isn\u2019t eligible to receive an offer sheet as a 10.2(c) restricted free agent. Once he is under contract, they\u2019ll have a group up front that should foster a healthy amount of internal competition. A lot of mixing and matching could be in the works, with no one outside of Celebrini guaranteed to spend all season on the top two lines. And that isn\u2019t necessarily a bad thing if players are effectively mixed.<\/p>\n
Defensemen
\n LEFT DEFENSERIGHT DEFENSE<\/p>\n
Darnell Nurse <\/p>\n
Jacob Trouba<\/p>\n
Sam Dickinson <\/p>\n
Michael Kesselring<\/p>\n
Luca Cagnoni <\/p>\n
Dmitry Orlov<\/p>\n
Extra: Eric Pohlkamp or Nolan Allan<\/p>\n
How much did the Sharks lean on Celebrini last season? It was he who led the team in ice time, not a defenseman. Orlov averaged 21:12 in 2025-26, and that\u2019s one reason last season\u2019s blue line will never be confused for being stingy \u2014 even if Natural Stat Trick had the Sharks much closer to the middle of the pack league-wide than near the bottom in scoring chances and high-danger chances allowed.<\/p>\n
The arrival of Nurse and Trouba should push Orlov down in the pairings and reduce the reliance on the 34-year-old at this stage of his career. It isn\u2019t as if Nurse or Trouba are true top-pairing defenders, but both are bigger and more likely to better handle tougher matchups. Whether they\u2019ll be paired up or split up will be up to Warsofsky and assistant coach Doug Houda.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re a better team defensively for sure,\u201d Grier said. \u201cWe\u2019ll be harder around our net. I think we\u2019ll be able to kill more plays.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trade for Kesselring figures to give him an opportunity after a rough lone season with Buffalo during which he got injured and didn\u2019t fit well on the Sabres\u2019 blue line. Warsofsky coached Kesselring in the United States\u2019 gold medal win at the 2025 World Championships, so there is a history between the two.<\/p>\n
Dickinson, meanwhile, topped 20 minutes on nine occasions over the last month and could push Orlov for a spot in the second pairing. Trouba could be an option as a partner for Dickinson given his support for Jackson LaCombe last season in Anaheim.<\/p>\n
Orlov can also play on the right side. Cagnoni and Pohlkamp will compete for the last opening remaining if the Sharks don\u2019t make another outside move for a rearguard. Allan and Mattias Havelid could also push to be on the opening-night roster.<\/p>\n
Are the Sharks why the Blackhawks traded for Bowen Byram?<\/p>\n
Corey Pronman, Scott Wheeler and more<\/p>\n
Goaltenders
\n StarterBackup<\/p>\n
Yaroslav Askarov<\/p>\n
Alex Nedeljkovic<\/p>\n
While a trade to bring three-time Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck to the Bay Area might make sense on paper, Askarov and Nedeljkovic should enter the season as the returning goalie tandem (barring a Hellebuyck move becoming reality). Nedeljkovic outplayed Askarov last season, though the Sharks have invested a lot in Askarov and want to see more consistency from the talented 24-year-old.<\/p>\n
The Sharks also signed veteran Eric Comrie to a two-year contract worth $1.15 million annually on July 1. Comrie, 31, served as Hellebuyck\u2019s backup in Winnipeg for the last two seasons and has a long history with the Jets organization as well as stops with the Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings and New Jersey Devils over the years. Because of the stress and injury factor in today\u2019s NHL, Comrie is necessary insurance as a No. 3 goalie with 102 games under his belt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ryan Warsofsky wants to be the coach who returns the San Jose Sharks to the Stanley Cup playoffs.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":766079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,835,99],"class_list":["post-766078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=766078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}