SAN JOSE – At least two individuals, Ryan Warsofsky and Jeff Blashill, have had or will have second interviews for the San Jose Sharks’ head coaching job, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
Another candidate, Marco Sturm, also recently interviewed for the position, Friedman said on his “32 Thoughts” podcast published Monday morning. The Sharks recently received permission from the Los Angeles Kings to speak with the former NHL winger about the opening. Sturm has coached the Kings’ AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign, for the past two seasons.
Friedman said Blashill was “due” for a second interview and was told Warsofsky has had two interviews.
Warsofsky, 36, was on former coach David Quinn’s staff for the past two years and coordinated the team’s penalty kill and defense. Quinn was fired by Sharks’ general manager on April 24 after two seasons and a 41-98-25 record. Grier said on May 7, after the Sharks won the NHL draft lottery, that he had already spoken with prospective candidates.
Before coming to San Jose, Warsofsky had been an AHL head coach for four years, including from 2020 to 2022 with the Chicago Wolves. In 2021-2022, Warsofsky became the youngest coach to win the Calder Cup since Peter Laviolette in 1999, as the Wolves finished the regular season with a 50-16-10 record and went 14-4 in the playoffs.
Warsofsky began coaching in 2012 as an assistant at Curry College in his native Massachusetts. He then became an assistant coach for the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays. After three years, he was promoted to head coach and led the team to the Kelly Cup Finals in his first year.
Warsofsky then spent two years, from 2018 to 2020, with Charlotte of the AHL, the first as an assistant when the Checkers won the Calder Cup and the second as the team’s head coach.
Blashill, 50, has been an NHL head or assistant coach for 10 years. He was a Detroit Red Wings assistant during the 2011-2012 season, then was the team’s head coach for seven seasons from 2015 to 2022. The rebuilding Red Wings missed the playoffs in each of Blashill’s final six seasons and had a 204-261-72 record during his tenure.
Blashill has been an assistant on Jon Cooper’s staff with the Tampa Bay Lightning for the past two seasons.
Sturm’s Reign teams were a combined 76-55-13 over the past two years, and Ontario just finished a season in which it went 42-23-7 and reached the Pacific Division final.
Sturm was a first-round draft pick by the Sharks in 1996 and played seven-plus seasons with the team from 1997 to 2005 before he was traded to the Boston Bruins as part of the deal that brought Joe Thornton to San Jose.