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SAN JOSE – Expectations for the Sharks this season are the highest in nearly a decade, as they feature a revamped defense corps and their deepest forward group in years, led by the NHL’s best young center.
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But as far as Sharks general manager Mike Grier is concerned, there better be a sense of urgency, too.
“There’s no time to ease into things,” Grier said Thursday on the first day of training camp and two weeks before the Sharks’ regular-season opener against the Florida Panthers.
“We’re going to make decisions, and if you want a spot, or you want ice time, or you want a role, it’s go time right away. We can’t afford to wait for guys who aren’t quite ready to get their game going right off the hop.”
In addition to debuting a handful of new players, the Sharks on Thursday also announced a new multi-year contract extension for Ryan Warsofsky, who is entering his third season as the team’s head coach.
Warsofsky, the NHL’s youngest coach at 38, was about to begin the final year of his three-year deal after being hired in June 2024, following two seasons as a Sharks assistant.
Now Warsofsky has been tasked with leading the Sharks, who missed the playoffs by just four points last season, into a more competitive era after years of rebuilding.
“The goal when we took over was to make this team relevant again and start being more competitive,” he said. “We’ve taken some steps. I give a lot of credit to (Grier) for bringing in the right people. You don’t change a culture with one person. You change it with a lot of different people and a lot of the right people, and we’ve done that.”
While Grier and Warsofsky didn’t want to say that making the playoffs was a must, players weren’t shying away from those expectations, as the Sharks look to end a seven-year postseason drought.
“That’s what we’re focused on,” said center Macklin Celebrini, whose team-record 115-point season in 2025-26 was the main reason why the Sharks came so close to a playoff appearance. “That’s our goal; it’s a long road, 84 games, and there’s a lot of work to be done and a lot of growing to do, but I think ultimately that’s what we’re striving for.”
“I know that we expect to make the playoffs with the group that we have,” Sharks winger Mason Marchment said. “There’s no reason that we shouldn’t make the playoffs.”
The offseason additions figure to help.
Two defensemen acquired via trade, Michael Kesselring and Darnell Nurse, were paired together Thursday, and another new blueliner, Jacob Trouba, skated with second-year player Sam Dickinson.
Nurse, Kesselring and Trouba, whose contracts carry a combined $24 million cap hit, are expected to help in several areas, adding much-needed size and puck-moving ability to the back end while making the Sharks, they hope, harder to play against.
The Sharks allowed an average of 3.54 goals per game last season, third-most in the NHL, and cutting that number down is priority No. 1. They also need to be better at playoff-style hockey after fading down the stretch last season, when they went 7-9-4 from March 6 to April 13 to fall out of contention.
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“There’s definitely a consistent theme with the guys that were brought in here,” said Trouba, who inked a four-year, $33 million deal with the Sharks as a free agent on July 1. “We want to play a hard game, be hard to play against. I remember back when I started my career, it was not very fun to play against the Sharks.
“I think that’s the identity in the team that we want to get back to.”
The Sharks hope Marchment, who was signed to a five-year, $33.75 million deal on July 1, also becomes a big part of that identity. Over his last five seasons, the 31-year-old Marchment had 93 goals and 223 points. On Thursday, he played left wing on a line with Celebrini and Will Smith.
Marchment also logged 296 penalty minutes, showing he isn’t afraid to mix it up.
“You either get pushed around, or you push around,” Marchment said.
Marchment adds to a deep group of wingers that also features Tyler Toffoli, Kiefer Sherwood, Collin Graf, Igor Chernyshov, Ivar Stenberg, Ty Dellandrea, Barclay Goodrow, and Adam Gaudette, among others. Not everyone will play every game.
“That’s when you start going places, when your group gets competition within itself,” Warsofsky said, “and I think that’s what we’ve done.”
In the middle of it all will be Celebrini, whose play last season usually dictated if the Sharks won or lost. In a year when they went 39-35-8, the Sharks were a dismal 2-17-3 when Celebrini didn’t have a point.
“I think we’ve got a pretty deep forward roster, and a lot of guys who can score,” Smith said. “It can’t just be the top guys scoring. Everyone’s got to help out.”
Grier wouldn’t say whether he was ready to name a captain, namely Celebrini, during training camp.
“The captaincy in this league, it’s a sacred thing to me,” Grier said. “It’s very important. It’s not something I’m in a rush to hand out to anyone. So when we do decide to name a captain, it’s hopefully someone who’s going to be captain for a long time.”
INJURY UPDATES
Quentin Musty and Cam Lund, two forwards who hoped to push for a Sharks’ roster spot during camp, will both miss an extended period after sustaining upper-body injuries during last weekend’s Rookie Faceoff event at Tech CU Arena.
Grier said Thursday that Musty and goalie Kyle Keyser, who also has an upper-body injury, will be out “for a couple months at least.” He added that Lund’s injury will keep him out for at least a month.
It was not immediately clear when Keyser was hurt, but because of his injury, the Sharks signed former NHL goalie Ilya Samsonov to a one-year, two-way contract earlier this month. The Russian-born Samsonov is not yet in camp as he deals with immigration issues.
Grier also said center Filip Bystedt and defenseman Mattias Havelid, two players likely to start the season with the Barracuda, are day-to-day with their injuries and could join camp later this week.
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This story was originally published September 17, 2026 at 6:16 PM.