As a 5-foot-9 defenceman, Ryan Warsofsky knew he didn’t have much of a future playing the game, so ensured he graduated from Curry College in Massachusetts with a degree in sports management.
But through brief playing stops in the Federal and Central leagues before a stint in Belgium, Warsofsky always brought a cerebral approach to the game and displayed good hockey sense.
Will any of that know-how help change the San Jose Sharks’ fortunes? Warsofsky was hired in June as the team’s head coach after the Sharks had the league’s worst record last season. At 15-36-8 before meeting the Canadiens Thursday night at the Bell Centre, San Jose was once again mired in the basement of the NHL standings.
While Warsofsky admitted to suffering countless sleepless nights, he remains grateful and humbled by the experience. At age 37, he’s the NHL’s youngest head coach — seven months younger than Sharks defenceman Marc-Edouard Vlasic.
“I don’t take it very lightly. There’s only 32 of these,” Warsofsky said following the team’s optional morning skate. “I knew I wasn’t going to play in the NHL. I kind of knew that year overseas that I wanted to get into coaching and be in the business. I felt like I knew the game pretty well. That was one of my better attributes as a player. I had some hockey sense and always thought as a coach.”
But don’t think Warsofsky didn’t cut his teeth to reach this level. He coached in the ECHL and American Hockey League for almost a decade. He was the youngest AHL head coach in Charlotte, leading that team and Chicago to Calder Cup championships, before becoming a Sharks assistant in 2022. When David Quinn was fired last April, Warsofsky succeeded him.
In the process, Warsofsky became the NHL’s first Jewish head coach in more than 30 years, since Bob Plager’s brief 11-game stint with St. Louis. That fact hasn’t been lost on Warsofsky. And coaching a team that has more Europeans than any other club, he believes his heritage might be an advantage.
“In the game of hockey, everyone’s come from a different background,” he said. “You might be Black. You might be White. You might come from Belarus, Sweden. People go through different things in their life and experiences that form who they are. You get to know someone, the first thing you see of them. Maybe they make a mistake and you don’t want to give them a second chance. It’s important that everyone learns from their mistakes. Everyone grows up differently in different situations.
“I think I can relate because I’m not that far off (in age) with some of these guys,” Warsofsky added. “I understand some of the things they might go through. The generation we see coming right now is a lot different … when it was my way or the highway. I don’t have all the answers. I think I’m very open with that. I have an understanding that these guys want to know the why and they want to be loved. You have to care about them as a person first. Then you get more from them as a player.”
While the Sharks were on a six-game losing streak before meeting Montreal and sported a league-worst minus-70 goal differential, Warsofsky’s message appears to be resonating with his players.
“I don’t think the age really matters,” forward Luke Kunin said. “He’s experienced. He’s competitive. He wants to win and he tries to trickle that (message) throughout the group. The relationships he has with the players. Being younger I think that’s even easier for him than maybe being an older guy. He’s hard on us. He wants us to be the best players we can. But he’s also approachable. We can talk things out. Having that relationship’s huge, especially for our young guys.”
“It’s cool having a rookie head coach,” said 18-year-old Macklin Celebrini, selected first overall by the Sharks in 2024 and a Calder Trophy rival to Canadiens defenceman Lane Hutson. “His energy. His passion. His want to win. He expects a lot from us. Even in the position we’re in, he’s pushing us to get better, set different goals and really push towards something, even if it’s not the playoffs.”
Warsofsky’s first message to the team at training camp was simple: Become more competitive in games and earn their opponents’ respect. Of the Sharks’ six recent losses, four have been by one goal, including two in overtime. Montreal defeated San Jose 4-3 on Feb. 4.
Warsofsky’s certain he’s a better coach now than the one who addressed the team at camp, one that has matured through experience.
“Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want,” he said. “We haven’t won some hockey games, but I’ve gotten some pretty good experience in situations we’ve been in that hopefully, in the future, I can look back on and feed off those.
“If I knew then what I know now as a coach, I would have been a hell of a player.”