Sharks’ Players-Only Meeting Yielding No Results

Since then, San Jose has struggled, going 5-11-1 since. San Jose has lost five games in a row in regulation and the Vancouver Canucks’ collapse in the third period on Oct. 29 is the only reason why the Sharks aren’t riding an eight-game losing streak. 

Three losses ago, the Sharks had a players-only meeting following their beatdown against the Kings. Historically, it doesn’t bode well for teams that have players-only meetings. 

Hypocrisy After Loss to Stars

Following their 4-3 loss to the Dallas Stars on Nov. 7, San Jose Hockey Now’s Sheng Peng asked head coach Ryan Warsofsky how he balances young players’ mistakes versus their contributions, such as goals coming from Ivar Stenberg and Will Smith.

Warsofsky said, “It’s part of developing these young men to play in the league for a long time, and they’re going to make mistakes. This is a game of mistakes. I thought Stenny was really good tonight, Smitty had some opportunities. They’re trying to do the right things, and the intention is right, but the execution wasn’t great, so we have to learn from it just like everyone else on our team. We gotta continue to learn individually and collectively.”

The Sharks’ entire team is making mistakes right now. What is so frustrating is their head coach is criticizing the younger players, who are doing more to rectify mistakes by scoring goals more often than veterans who aren’t pulling their weight when needed. 

Ty Dellandrea continues to play despite contributing nothing offensively with one point in 11 games and a minus-5 rating. Dmitry Orlov has played all 19 games this season despite being a liability defensively and costing the Sharks a lot of goals against. He is minus-12 for the season. 

Orlov continues to get power play-minutes despite the unit’s struggles while Warsofsky ignores Sam Dickinson, who is playing like one of the best defensemen on the roster at the moment. His 91 points in 55 games while he was in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) got him selected 11th overall in the 2024 NHL Draft.

Eric Pohlkamp, who has played in only three games this season, has more power play minutes than Dickinson. 

Warsofsky is making irresponsible decisions regarding Time on Ice (TOI), whether it is allowing the veterans to make unlimited mistakes without taking away playing time or irresponsible double-shifting for the team’s captain Macklin Celebrini.

Warsofsky’s master plan to end the Sharks’ slump was to double-shift Celebrini the whole game against Dallas. While the Sharks did play better with that strategy while they were dealing with injuries to forwards Alex Wennberg and Igor Chernyshov, that is an unsustainable approach that could kill the team’s playoff chances if it continues. What good is having a talent like Celebrini for the playoff push if he is run into the ground by March?

Celebrini led all skaters with 28:05 TOI, which is almost four minutes more than the next highest Shark, Smith, whose TOI was at 23:44. That was the most Smith has played in a regulation game all season. 

Sharks’ Struggles Lead to Players-Only Meeting

On Nov. 4, the Sharks were humiliated by the Kings in a five-goal loss where Adrian Kempe netted a hat trick. Celebrini and Stenberg scored a power play goal each. 

Following the loss, the team held the aforementioned players-only meeting. 

Historically, a players-only meeting is a blatant red flag that there is a disconnect between coaches and players. After the Sharks lost to the Ottawa Senators on Halloween, Warsofsky was asked if the team lacked buy-in from some players. His response, “Absolutely, we got to work on that.”

Then ahead of their next game against the Calgary Flames, Celebrini countered his head coach’s assertion on buy-in.

“I don’t think there’s a lack of buy-in,” Celebrini said. “We just don’t have as much energy and we’re not really as connected as we should be. It all goes hand in hand.”

After the loss to the Kings, the Sharks players were visibly frustrated, including Kiefer Sherwood who spoke following the meeting.

“It’s unacceptable. It’s not good enough,” he said. To a man, to a team. It’s not the coaches right now. We’re not winning battles, we’re not being hard to play against, we’re not making plays. It’s not good enough. We have to turn it here. We have to stick together.”

Should San Jose Make a Change?

The Sharks’ struggles aren’t just on the coaches right now. The players aren’t playing as well as they are capable of, but one of the keys for the Sharks to end their playoff drought was to avoid a bad start and long losing streaks in general. They failed to avoid that already. That fun team from 2025-26 that set the pace offensively with an energetic rush offense has disappeared. 

San Jose has taken a step back, playing against their offensive identity trying to force a grit-and-grind 2000s style that simply doesn’t work in today’s game with such high octane offense driven by puck possession. The Sharks offense looks uninspired, lazy, and unimaginative with an endless dump-and-chase strategy that has yet to pay off in 2026-27. 

It’s safe to say Warsofsky is on the hot seat among this awful stretch that is sinking San Jose further into the bottom of the standings. If the Sharks can’t start winning fast, Warsofsky should be removed before the hole is too deep to dig out of.