DETROIT - Sam Dickinson is giving Ryan Warsofsky plenty to like right now, and the San Jose Sharks coach didn’t try to hide it after Thursday’s 3-2 shootout win over the Nashville Predators.
Dickinson logged a career-high 24:39 in that game and led the Sharks in ice time, a sharp jump for a sophomore defenseman whose previous best was 21:42 last season. Warsofsky said the minutes were well earned.
“He’s earned those minutes,” Warsofsky said. “He’s assertive with his skating and getting up the ice and is playing towards his strength.”
That’s a different place than Dickinson was at when he opened the season as a healthy scratch. The 20-year-old has been moving in the right direction ever since, according to his coach.
“A level of urgency in his game has taken a rise,” Warsofsky said. “He’s more confident in making plays.
He’s done a really good job of playing shift to shift. That’s the mindset you got to have when you’re trying to find your way in this league, kind of simplify it a little bit.”
Warsofsky added that Dickinson has now put together four straight solid games, with the coach pointing to a steadier overall stretch.
“We know what we’re getting shift to shift,” Warsofsky said. “His consistency has taken a step in the right direction.”
It’s still only four games, and there’s no sense in pretending the story is finished. But for a player selected 11th overall by the Sharks in 2024, the early signs are encouraging after those rough scratches to begin the season.
There was also movement on Darnell Nurse’s status Friday at Belfor Training Center. Nurse was a full participant in practice, though the Sharks are still listing him as day-to-day with an upper-body injury he suffered in Tuesday’s 6-3 loss to the Boston Bruins.
Warsofsky said Nurse is “probably a game-time decision” for Saturday’s game against the Detroit Red Wings.
Nurse was not on the first run of San Jose defensemen during drills Friday afternoon. Luca Cagnoni and Nolan Allan, both of whom handled themselves well in Nurse’s absence yesterday, skated ahead of him.
The Sharks’ practice forward lines matched what they used yesterday:
Chernyshov-Celebrini-Smith
Marchment-Wennberg-Toffoli
Stenberg-Misa-Sherwood
Goodrow-Ostapchuk-Graf
Gaudette-Dellandrea
We’ll see tomorrow morning.
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Sharks Suddenly Have A Goalie Decision They Cant Ignore
Alex Nedeljkovic has given the Sharks a steady lift in recent wins, including the 3-2 overtime victory against the Nashville Predators, and his early work has helped San Jose get out to a 4-3-0 start. With a .933 save percentage, he has looked like the more reliable option in net at a time when the team is still trying to settle into a rhythm.
Yaroslav Askarov, meanwhile, has not found the same consistency, posting an .848 save percentage in five starts and leaving the Sharks with a real decision to make about how they split the crease moving forward. The balance between rewarding Nedeljkovics form and giving Askarov enough runway to rebound is suddenly one of the more important questions hanging over the teams next stretch. [Read more 🡒]