San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) General Manager Mike Grier announced today that the club has signed Head Coach Ryan Warsofsky to a multi-year contract extension. Per club policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Warsofsky, 37, begins his third season behind the bench as the 11th full time Sharks Head Coach after being named to the role on June 13, 2024. This is his fifth season overall with the team, previously serving as Assistant Coach.
Warsofsky remains the NHL’s youngest active head coach in the NHL, and has been successful at nearly every level of hockey he has coached at in his career. Since becoming a head coach for the first time in 2016 with the South Carolina Stingrays, he has earned an IIHF World Championship Gold Medal as Head Coach with Team USA in 2025, a Calder Cup Championship with the Chicago Wolves (Head Coach, 2021-22) and Charlotte Checkers (Assistant Coach, 2018-19) in the American Hockey League (AHL), and owns a career 105-47-11-7 regular season record (.671%) in the AHL.
In just his second season under the helm as head coach of the Sharks, he helped orchestrate a significant turnaround of a team who finished last in the standings for two straight years. With his developmental approach to guiding several of the organization’s youngest players and a commitment to franchise’s identity and team culture, the Sharks authored a historic turnaround, having a year-over-year improvement of plus-19 wins, nearly doubling the team’s total wins from 2024-25, and 34 standings points, which marked the eighth biggest jump in wins over the last 30 years across the league. The on-ice success of Warsofsky’s direction resulted in the team in the hunt for the postseason for 80 of the team’s 82 games, just missing the playoffs by four points.
In the first half of the 2025-26 season, despite an 0-4-2 start, the Sharks from Oct. 22 through the end of the 2025 calendar season were one of the league’s top franchises, holding a 20-13-1 record (41 points) good for sixth among all NHL teams, and were the best franchise in that span in one-goal games, owning a 12-3-1 record (.750). Additionally, the team’s save percentage in the 34 games was tied for 10th-best, and the Sharks won a league-best 17 games despite being outshot by their opponent (17-9-1 record, .648%).
The signs of the franchise’s turnaround were already present in just his first season, as he has been tasked with the development of the team’s young players at the highest level and setting the foundation for future success to help return the team to a perennial playoff contender. San Jose led the NHL in scoring from players 22 and younger, finishing the year with 192 such points, second-most in club history behind only 2006-07 (197). Additionally, Macklin Celebrini, the organization’s first-overall selection in 2025, set several franchise rookie records and by the end of the season was named a Calder Finalist. Will Smith, despite having a slow start to the year, catapulted himself into the conversation, finishing top-5 among rookies in nearly every offensive category. Fabian Zetterlund, prior to his trade to Ottawa, was on track for a second consecutive 20-goal season, and William Eklund, Collin Graf, and Shakir Mukhamadullin all experienced significant improvements in their game, with Eklund setting career bests in goals, assists, and points.
Warsofsky earned his first NHL victory in the position on Oct. 28, 2024 at Utah, capping a come-from-behind win after trailing 4-1 in the third period, becoming the 100th-youngest coach (37 years, two days) in NHL history to record his first win, the fourth-youngest since 2000 and 22nd-youngest of his lifetime.
Warsofsky owns a career 20-50-12 record as Head Coach with the Sharks.
After the conclusion of the 2024-25 season, Warsofsky was named as Head Coach to Team USA for the first time, marking his second position with the team where he previously served as Assistant Coach for the 2023 IIHF World Championship team and helped USA to a fourth-place finish.
Warsofsky guided the youngest roster in the tournament, an average of 24 years old, to a Gold Medal finish, the first time since 1933 the country has won gold in the tournament and is the country’s second ever gold medal finish in the tournament. Team USA won nine of its 10 games (7-2-0-1), capping off the World Championship win in a dramatic 1-0 overtime win over Team Switzerland.
Prior to being named head coach of the franchise, Warsofsky served as an assistant from 2022-24, where he was responsible for overseeing the team’s defense and penalty kill. Working with one of the younger rosters in the NHL, the Sharks penalty kill ranked 18th in the NHL at 78.8%.
As a first year Assistant Coach in 2022-23, Erik Karlsson collected a franchise-record 101 points by a defenseman, helping the blueliner win his second Norris Trophy, and becoming the Sharks second player to win the award. Karlsson became the sixth NHL defenseman at the time to ever eclipse the 100-point threshold, and his 1.23 points-per-game was the third-best in the past three decades among defenseman who appeared in at least five or more games in any given season.
In the same season, the Sharks defensive unit scored the eighth-most points (tied) by defensemen, collecting 191 points, and held the third-most (tied) assists among team blueliners in the league. San Jose’s defensive core accounted for 30.0% of the team’s points, the highest rating among all NHL teams. The Sharks also held the eight-best penalty kill unit, earning an 82.4% efficiency while the team was a man down.
Warsofsky joined the Sharks following two seasons (2020-22) as head coach of the Chicago Wolves (AHL). He led the Wolves to the AHL’s best regular-season record with a 50-16-5-5 record (.724%) in 2021-22 and captured the 2022 Calder Cup, his second Calder Cup Championship, earning a 14-4 record over four different series during the playoffs. The year prior in his first stint with Chicago, Warsofsky guided the team to the third-best record in the league (21-9-1-2), but the AHL did not hold a formal playoffs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In his two seasons, the Wolves amassed a 71-25-6-7 record and the team’s penalty kill ranked in the Top-10 twice (2021-22, fifth; 2020-21, ninth) and the power-play ranked fourth in 2020-21.
Prior to his time with Chicago, Warsofsky worked with the Charlotte Checkers (AHL) for two seasons. He started as an assistant coach in 2017-18 and helped the team capture the Calder Cup 2017-18, overseeing the top penalty killing unit in the League (86.6%). The following year in the abbreviated season, he was named as the League’s youngest head coach (31) on July 10, 2019 and guided the team to a 34-22-5-0 and ranked third in both power-play and penalty kill percentage.
As head coach in the AHL with Chicago and Charlotte, Warsofsky earned a 105-47-11-7 record (.671%).
Warsofsky also worked with the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays for five seasons, including two seasons as head coach/director of hockey operations (2016-2018) after starting as an assistant coach. In his two seasons at the helm, South Carolina posted an 88-44-10-2 record and the team advanced to the Kelly Cup Final in 2017. Warsofsky has also worked as an assistant coach in the NCAA with Curry College for one season (2012-13).
