The Carolina Hurricanes opened their 2024-25 season by announcing the full opening roster. When the Carolina Hurricanes and San Jose Sharks faceoff tonight at Lenovo Center, it will be a special occasion for Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky. Warsofsky, who worked in the Carolina organization for four seasons before joining San Jose, will now face his former organization for the first time since becoming an NHL head coach. Warsofsky first joined the Hurricanes' organization in 2018, following five years — two as head coach — with the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL (where he was also coaching alongside current Washington Capitals coach Spencer Carbery). In his first year with the Canes organization, Warsofsky was an assistant coach on Mike Vellucci's staff with the Charlotte Checkers who then went on to win the Calder Cup that season, which 2017 first-round pick Martin Necas was a big part of. After Vellucci took a job with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Warsofsky got the promotion to head coach. When the organization then migrated their affiliation to the Chicago Wolves, Warsofsky went with them where they ended up winning yet another Calder Cup. Following that second Calder Cup though, Warsofsky took a job with the San Jose Sharks as an assistant coach on David Quinn's staff all leading to where he is today as the current head coach in San Jose. "I think he's very astute and, man, he was a worker," said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour. "He wanted to take in all the information that he could and then had his own ideas. But he was very personable. We really liked him. When he was with us, I was getting tons of calls on him and it was easy to say, 'Yeah, this is a guy you should hire.' It was very easy." "I learned a lot from Roddy and he was just so supportive of my career through the years in Charlotte and Chicago and even getting to the NHL," Warsofsky said. "We talked a lot through the summers of different decisions I was going to make whether it was right or not and he's been awesome." Warsofsky went further, emphasizing how much he looks up to Brind'Amour as a coach too. "He had a really big impact on me," Warsofsky said. "The most I learned was how consistent he is, not just as a human being, but how he coaches his team. The day in and day out. The small, focus level he gets his team to play with. The structure that they play with is extremely detailed and everyone is on the same page. They're connected. I like a lot of the things he does within his systems. "I think he just stays with it every single day. He just stays on his group every single day to play the right way, to have good habit, winning habits and that's why they're the most consistent team in the National Hockey League you could say in the last five years. I know people say, 'Oh they haven't won a Stanley Cup,' but if you look at every team that's won a Stanley Cup, they all go through their ups and downs of getting there and I think this team has another chance to win the Stanley Cup this year because of the foundation because he put in place." Beyond Brind'Amour, Warsofsky will also be coaching against a handful of his former players, namely Jack Drury, Jalen Chatfield and Pyotr Kochetkov who all were on that 2022 Chicago Wolves Calder Cup team. "I talked to Jack this morning and I still keep in touch with all those guys," Warsofsky said. "When you win, that's what happens. You form these lifelong relationships because you did something really, really special. It's awesome to see these guys and what they mean for this team in particular. Not just guys who come up and play a few games, but that are relied upon. I love those guys and I can't speak enough about their character of human beings more than they are players." One could really tell from talking with him — even briefly —how much care, belief and pride Warsofsky has for former players even after a few years apart. "It is so awesome to see Jack who had a really good opportunity here," Warsofsky said. "I loved that kid. He's just a competitive leader, plays the right way, coachable. I think the world of him and Chatty is very similar. A competitive kid who works extremely hard, plays through injuries. There's a reason they're playing here at this level, at a high level. Because obviously they've gone through the American League but then they got here and stepped right into an opportunity. Same with Kochetkov. What I think about all three of those guys is the competitiveness that they bring day in and day out. Tuesday, Thursday, don't matter. They're the same guys and they give you everything they have." Now, Warsofsky is in charge of a new group and is tasked with turning around a young room full of talent, headed by first overall selection Macklin Celebrini, but there's a lot of belief in his ability to do that job, at least in Carolina. "Number one, he knows what he's talking about," Brind'Amour said. "That's the first thing. You have to have a coach who knows the game and then you have to be able to articulate it with the specific group you have. I think the fit is very, very important. There's a lot of good coaches that maybe the fit isn't right for that team and I think being a teacher with a younger group is a great fit for him and the organization." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Additional Quotes On Pyotr Kochetkov: He's got a swagger about himself and that's what I like. He's a gamer. Obviously you guys have seen it day in and day out, right? You'd see some crazy things in practice and you'd have to rope him in a little bit, but that's what makes him special. Sometimes you have to let the Ferrari open up a little bit and that's what he is. We have a similar guy in Askaraov that reminds me of Kochetkov a bit. They're gamers, they have swagger, they have confidence and you have to let them play their game. You can't tinker with them too much because that's what makes them special. Kochetkov has obviously been really good and a little nicked up throughout the year, but he's a great guy and a really important part of our team. Not just as a goalie, but he had some personality. He's a little bit different of a personality and something we didn't have in Chicago when we got him. He helped us a lot in that stretch. On the rumors/stories that the Hurricanes threatened to fire him in 2022 if Kochetkov didn't play in the Calder Cup Final: It couldn't have been more overblown, the whole thing. Obviously I still talk to Tom quite a bit and Donny and Wendell. That whole thing was so overblown. There were discussions of who we wanted to play and the situation we were in. We were up 3-0 and Kochetkov had started training camp in the KHL I think almost 11 months straight he had been playing hockey. So we had those types of discussions, Roddy was involved in those discussions and that was the most overblown thing when I saw that story come out. On the culture that Carolina built: It's unbelievable. A big part of it is guys like the Staals and the Slavins. The culture rises and then the young guys just blend right in and they understand what the standard is. It's what good teams do. I think when you have high character and you have competitive people, there's really no issues. You see around the league that the teams have the standard and it dips down because those younger players aren't coming up to meet those standards. I think again, going back to Roddy, he's just done such a good job of changing the culture here. I think it's something that doesn't get looked on enough."
