In terms of development, people often focus solely on the growth of the players, rather than those behind the bench. Coming off his second year as head coach for the San Jose Sharks, Ryan Warsofsky helped the players grow considerably, but he also kept learning and developing in his own right.
“I learned a lot about relationships, people, how tight this league is, and how hard it is to continue to win in it and be consistent in winning. As soon as you think you have it figured out, it smacks you in the face a little bit,” Warsofsky said of his second season as an NHL head coach. “I'll look back, and we'll review the season to do a lot of auditing myself and try to get a little bit better.”
When asked where he grew the most as a coach in his second season, Warsofsky replied with a laugh, saying, “I think I've calmed down a little bit with the refs.” He then continued with a more serious response, “Sometimes what's what I think is important for me isn't always what's important for the group, and I think that's something that I've learned.”
Warsofsky’s work to improve his craft doesn’t stop during the offseason. “There'll be a lot of conversations with the people that I know, [the ones] I've really communicated with throughout the years, and there'll be new relationships that hopefully you'll learn from [as well],” he said when asked who he’ll get advice from over the summer. He mentioned Mike Sullivan, Spencer Carbery, John Tortorella, and Jared Bednar as a few of the coaches he’ll likely talk to over the summer.
The Sharks’ bench boss doesn’t just get advice from his colleagues around the hockey world, though. “I like to reach out to some other coaches in other sports and learn from them,” Warsofsky said. “We'll kind of look into going back to Boston and maybe meet up with the Boston crew there. Whether that’s Mike Vrabel [of the New England Patriots], hopefully, he’s cleaning his stuff up a little bit. Joe Mazzulla [of the Boston Celtics], he does a really good job [as well], so we'll see.”
A lot can change over the course of 12 months, which is something Warsofsky likely got very familiar with this season as well. His first season leading the Sharks was a difficult one, to say the least. During the 2024-25 season, they finished with a league-worst 52 points. During his second campaign, though, the team took massive strides forward. They not only moved up eight positions in the standings to 24th, but they finished the season with 86 points, marking a 34-point improvement in just a single season.
Sharks general manager Mike Grier is happy with what Warsofsky has been able to accomplish as head coach to this stage, saying, “I think he's still learning and growing as a coach. He did a good job of getting the group to buy in and get them to battle hard every night.”
Warsofsky will be entering the final year of a three-year contract with the Sharks, but Grier also mentioned that, “there's no reason to think that he won't be the coach here when the season starts next year. [Then], we'll kind of take it from there.”
Ryan Warosfsky has improved quite a bit as a 38-year-old head coach, and he’s growing with the players around him. It’s safe to say, though, the 2026-27 season will be a very important one for both the team and Warsofsky on an individual level.