The Sharks have filled out several corners of their hockey operations staff, headlined by the addition of Nathan Airey as their emergency backup goalie for the 2026-27 season.
Airey, 23, comes to San Jose after three seasons at the University of Minnesota. He appeared in 35 games from 2023 to 2026 and finished with a 16-11-3 record. Before entering the transfer portal after his junior year, he went 3-7-1 with an .888 save percentage.
San Jose also made changes behind the bench and in the training room. Eric Pinsky is the new assistant video coach, taking over for Cody Ward, while Josh Woodard has been hired as head equipment manager. That role had belonged to Mike Aldrich for 32 years before his retirement.
The organization added two more scouts as well, bringing in Cameron Burt and Tyler Holske to the amateur scouting group. Scott Greenberg is the team’s new head physical therapist.
The move to a full-time EBUG fits the NHL’s updated collective bargaining agreement, which now requires each team to carry a traveling emergency goalie in case a regular netminder becomes unavailable. Around the league, those EBUGs will wear No. 00.
That is a shift from the old setup, when each NHL city typically had a local goalie on standby who could step in if both teams ran into injury or illness trouble. San Jose already had to scramble for emergency help twice last season after rookie goalie Yaroslav Askarov became unavailable.
Before a Dec. 9 game against the Philadelphia Flyers, the Sharks signed Colgate goalie Justin Kowalkoski to an amateur tryout after Askarov got sick. Later, Askarov suffered a lower-body injury ahead of a March 12 meeting with the Boston Bruins, and San Jose brought in former Union College goalie Kyle Chauvette.
Neither emergency goalie ended up playing. The Sharks lost to the Flyers and beat the Bruins.
Pinsky is a San Jose native and is entering his fifth year with the organization. He had been the video coach and manager of hockey operations for the Barracuda, the Sharks’ AHL affiliate. Woodard was the Barracuda’s head equipment manager last season after spending the previous two years as an assistant.
Greenberg will work primarily with Mike Potenza, the director of high performance, and the medical staff “on all physical therapy services and rehabilitation of Sharks players.”
Burt, 39, is from Detroit and spent his playing career as a defenseman in the AHL, ECHL and Europe. The Sharks said this is his first front-office job with a pro hockey team; he previously worked as a player development coach and mentor for various junior teams in the Total Package Hockey Academy.
Holske, 35, is from Attleboro, Mass., and played goalie at Southern New Hampshire University from 2010 to 2014 before two professional seasons in Europe. He is currently the GM and head coach of the South Shore Kings of the United States Premier Hockey League (USPHL) in the National Collegiate Development Conference (NCDC).
The amateur scouting staff now includes Burt and Holske alongside Pat Funk (Minnesota), Jaren Burke (Ontario), Ryan Russell (Western Canada) and Neil McKenney (OHL).
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Among the changes, the club added fresh eyes in amateur scouting, a new head physical therapist and a full-time emergency backup goalie, while also elevating two staffers into expanded NHL responsibilities. Eric Pinskys promotion to assistant video coach and Josh Woodards move to head equipment manager fit the pattern of a team trying to tighten every layer around the roster, even if the most interesting question is how much of that internal reshuffling will show up once the season gets going. [Read more 🡒]