Mario Ferraro should get an excellent opportunity to have his best season in the NHL for the San Jose Sharks.
Mario Ferraro has a prime opportunity for a breakout season for the San Jose Sharks.
With Erik Karlsson seemingly on the way out, Ferraro must take his game to the next level to help fill that void.
The Toronto native is a strong skater with a high defensive IQ. His skating ability allows him to jump up in the rush, which will be missing when EK65 is moved.
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Although his offense hasn't gotten to another level, there always seems to be a potential for the offense to be added to Ferraro's game.
In 56 games in 20-21, Ferraro had 17 points (one goal, 16 assists), his career high.
Ferraro has never finished with a positive plus-minus, but he has yet to play for a San Jose Sharks team that made the playoffs.
One thing that could help the 2017 second-round pick get to the next level is to shoot the puck more. In 72 games last season, the defenseman had 66 shots on goal.
At the start of the season, he ran the second powerplay unit for San Jose but couldn't create much and eventually lost his spot to Matt Benning and Henry Thrun.
On Dec. 22 against the Minnesota Wild, Ferraro had 4:09 PPTOI and failed to register a point in a 5-2 win. He also finished with one shot.
The alternate captain is a young player still but earned the A on his jersey. He commands the bench and is a player that teammates want to play with. Ferraro recognized he didn't have the strongest season last year during his exit interview back in April.
"Moving forward, I want to be better at controlling my emotions. I think this year, it got frustrating, for sure. It's a frustrating season," Ferraro said. "You know, nobody likes to lose, and we don't accept losing. I think I let my emotions get the best of me a little bit out there, and that's something I want to do a better job at controlling. I believe in myself to be able to do it."
Frustration was the name of the game for the San Jose Sharks and for the blueliner.
The other part of Ferraro's hockey life is that going into next season, it will be the first time the Sharks defense coach will be the same. Ryan Warsofsky will be behind the bench running the defensemen.
"It's definitely not easy. I've gone through a lot of coaching changes," Ferraro said. "[Warsofsky] is the kinda guy who's gonna challenge me to be better, even in some moments where I might challenge him back a little bit. He's been really, really solid this year, and I'm excited to have another opportunity to be able to play on the defensive end with him right over my shoulder. I think the rest of the D corps could definitely agree with that."
Consistency behind the bench could be precisely what Ferraro and the defense need, and with EK65 halfway out the door, the San Jose Sharks will need a defenseman to take their game to the next level.
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