The San Jose Sharks spent the offseason acting like a team ready to turn the page.
GM Mike Grier backed that up with a busy summer, adding Darnell Nurse, Jacob Trouba, and Mason Marchment to a roster built around Macklin Celebrini, one of the NHL’s brightest young stars. Those weren’t the kind of moves you make to finish in the bottom five again. They were the kind you make when you expect a real climb.
On paper, San Jose should be better. Celebrini already looks like a franchise player, the blue line is sturdier than it was a year ago, and the overall supporting cast has clearly improved. That’s why the real question hovering over the Sharks now is whether Ryan Warsofsky is the right coach for this stage of the job.
Warsofsky did what he was brought in to do. He steered a rebuilding team through hard seasons, helped young players develop, and guided the Sharks to a 39-35-8 record last year, a 34-point improvement that earned him a multi-year extension. That part of the process is in the books.
What comes next is different.
San Jose has opened 4-3, so the record itself is fine. The way the Sharks have gotten there is where the concern starts.
Every one of their wins has come in overtime or a shootout, a shaky foundation for a team that’s supposed to be moving up the standings. And some of the losses have been even more revealing.
Warsofsky’s deployment decisions have already started to draw attention. Mason Marchment has struggled to find his game, yet he keeps getting top-line chances. Against Connor McDavid in a recent matchup with Edmonton, Warsofsky initially kept Celebrini away from the Oilers’ superstar, and McDavid took over until the Sharks finally made the adjustment.
That’s been a theme: San Jose often looks like it’s responding instead of setting the tone.
The numbers aren’t flattering either. The Sharks sit near the bottom of the league in goal differential at minus-six, and while Celebrini missing several games didn’t help, that doesn’t explain everything. Too frequently, San Jose plays like a team trying to survive rather than one trying to take control.
Even when they’re behind, the Sharks tend to lean conservative and passive instead of pressing the issue. The growing pile of overtime games says plenty about that approach. They’re hanging around, hoping the late breaks fall their way, rather than putting opponents on their heels.
That kind of style can pass during a rebuild. It doesn’t fit a team that’s supposed to be graduating from it.
If the Sharks do decide they need a different voice, Bruce Cassidy would make sense near the top of the list. He’s already proven he can get results from veteran-heavy rosters while keeping the defensive structure tight. He led the Vegas Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup in 2023 and has consistently had his teams competing at a high level.
Cassidy wouldn’t be the right fit for every club, but San Jose is no longer supposed to be a club still searching for its footing. The roster now includes established veterans, Celebrini at the center of everything, and rising expectations from both ownership and the fan base. At some point, development has to give way to results.
It’s still early, and seven games won’t tell the whole story. The Sharks are above .500, and that matters.
But the warning signs are already there. Too often they look flat unless Celebrini bails them out.
Too often the answers aren’t there when the game tilts against them. Adjustments have been uneven, the line choices have been questionable, and the overall feel is still too cautious.
Grier made his offseason moves with one clear message: the Sharks are supposed to start winning now. If the roster keeps taking a step forward while the results stay stuck in place, the next big decision may be whether Warsofsky is the coach for the rebuild - or whether San Jose needs someone better suited to finish what this roster is finally trying to start.
In Other News...
Sam Dickinson Is Giving The Sharks A Blue Line Decision To Make
Sam Dickinson has started turning a recent opportunity into something bigger for the Sharks blue line. In the 3-2 shootout win over Nashville, the young defenseman handled a career-high workload and was on the ice more than anyone else on the team, a notable step for a player who had been scratched earlier in the season. Coach Ryan Warsofsky said Dickinson has looked more consistent lately, and that kind of progress tends to matter in a defense corps still sorting itself out.
Darnell Nurses status only adds to the conversation. He was a full participant in practice, but the upper-body injury still leaves him day-to-day ahead of the upcoming game against Detroit, where he is expected to be a game-time decision. If Nurse is able to return, the Sharks will have a straightforward choice to make, but Dickinsons recent stretch has given them a reason to think carefully about how they want that blue line arranged. [Read more 🡒]