San Jose Sharks
Dickinson on 1st NHL Goal, Talks Smith’s Pass & Warsofsky’s Chirp
Late in the third period against the Detroit Red Wings, Sam Dickinson scored his first career goal, and point, for the San Jose Sharks.
Dickinson, the San Jose Sharks’ 11th overall selection in 2024, was playing in his 10th game of the 2025-26 season when he lit the lamp for the first time. That 10th game also marked a significant milestone, as it meant the Sharks will be burning the first year of his entry-level contract and he will likely spend the entire season in the NHL.
A centering pass by Will Smith found Dickinson in open space in front of the net. Dickinson fired off a quick one-timer from between the face-off circles to tie the game at 2-2.
“It was a hell of a pass, right before it we made eye contact, and at that point, I think I knew it was coming,” Dickinson said postgame about Smith’s assist. “I think he put it through two or three sticks, and had a couple guys wave at it and miss. That’s just the kind of passes he can make. It’s lucky for me that I get to receive them and not defend them.
SAM DICKINSON 🦈
He ties it late in the third with his first NHL goal! pic.twitter.com/tBlDHPrwJy
— NHL (@NHL) November 3, 2025
Dickinson was immediately mobbed by his teammates in celebration. Eventually though, the Sharks would fall in a shootout.
“It was exciting, nice to get it out of the way finally, but tough final, I guess,” Dickinson said postgame. “[It] would have been a little more exciting with the win.”
Dickinson did also receive the first NHL OT shift of his career, which was earned, according to head coach Ryan Warsofsky.
“It’s the best game he’s played,” the San Jose Sharks bench boss said of his young defenseman’s 16:23 effort and defense-leading three shots. “Looked confident. Was up in the rush, was skating.”
“I don’t think I’ll be forgetting this one anytime soon,” Dickinson said. “Definitely one that [I’ll] remember for a while.”
Dickinson says that Warsofsky has chirped him to shoot more 🤣 "Wars has said a couple times that he's heard about a really good shot and he'd like to see it."
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) November 3, 2025
Happy for the kid, and he fucking buried it. Toff was in the neighbourhood too but wasn’t set like Sam was, Smitty made the right call.
Good guy Toff though, I think, peels off from the celebration to fish out the puck? That’s leadership baby.
Semi-related but I’m glad Grier talked with Sam, instead of Sam finding out from the lineup card or something lol. I did think it a bit odd that he didn’t seem to have had as formal of conversations with Sam and Misa about them starting the season with the club? Guess that was a one-off.
Sharks are hanging in games — kinda clear what good goaltending can do. When the weak/fluky stuff was going in, no points. But good play from the goalies and points appear!! Anybody good enough at lip reading to know what Macklin and Seider were saying to each other? Glad for Dickinson to get game 10 in — and his first goal. Glad to see Giles in on the play, too. Gotta say, this game felt different in the way the Sharks were outskated. I think they really missed Eklund. A lot. A whole lot. He brings a quickness dimension that… Read more »
The other way to look at it is the good goaltending is covering up some problems that still need to be addressed. The shots were 31-18 this game. Last game it was 38 to 23, and notably 30 to 11 through the first two periods. Both Nedeljkovic and Askarov are still towards the bottom of the league in both save % and GSAE (especially Askarov) but I do think alongside fair criticism of their bad performances, they also deserve a bit of extra credit for keeping their teams in games that could have ended in ugly losses. Sharks pulled 3… Read more »
Agree.
That said, they were a big problem in losses where the team skated comparatively well
Totally agree on Eklund. Was very clear that he was missed. Despite being a smaller guy, he’s strong on the boards and cycling the puck offensively. Feel like the Sharks missed some of that puck control tonight.
You also give up a lot of your matchup advantage at home when you go with the 11/7. It’s tough to get any chemistry going with your lines, too. Eklund was missed for sure but if the defense had been healthy enough to roll 12/6 I think the Sharks win this game with or without him. Detroit looked like butt.
All I could make out from their penalty box conversation was Mack saying “I’m just trying to win a fuckin battle.” I don’t think he liked that Seider turned it into more after he took the penalty. Kept Mack off the PP.
And for another minute or two after that since they had to wait for a stoppage. Sending Celebrini to the box was just wrong in the grand scheme. If this can put star players in the box, more teams will do it, and players who aren’t as good as Seider will become goons
thats a bit of an overreaction.
Yeah Celebrini absolutely earned those 2 minutes. He didn’t have to retaliate against Seider.
Agreed. It’s up to Mack to stay out of it there. He reminds me so much of Sid it’s crazy. Season one, quiet and goes about his business. Season two, he knows he’s one of the best players in the league and wants respect so he’s just jawing at the officials and it’s counterproductive. That respect will come, but he’s going to have to learn to stay out of shit like that. To be fair, taking off the opposition’s top defenseman isn’t a terrible outcome. Most bottom-of-the-lineup players aren’t going to see enough ice with Celebrini to get under his… Read more »
Celebrini needs to be on the ice. There is no fair trade that results in him getting erased from the lineup like that. There was talk on Detroit chats that Seider shut down Celebrini. He did no such thing. Mack could have had 5 points with a little more help. He made several plays
Dickinson still has a few brain fart moments but hard not to feel super impressed with how he’s looked through 10 games. He looks like he belongs when he’s on the ice. Big and fast. Not physically overwhelmed. Some good moments of puck shielding and jumping up into play. Honestly I’ve been impressed. I think he’s looked much better than I anticipated he would at this point.
that’s fair.
D-men at 19 are mostly going to be a hot mess. He’s a hot mess … with some real positives.
I agree with RW’s assessment and Dickinson’s own: last night (goal aside) was his best game so far. He looked much more confident and was getting involved in the offensive end. I’m sure there will be setbacks along the way but it seems like he is headed toward being a top 4 guy at some point in the not-so-distant future. Not Dickinson related, as Sheng noted a couple of times in his game notes, Klingberg was awful last night. His usual lackluster defense, plus several bonehead decisions with the puck. Hopefully he is still recovering from injury and he gets… Read more »
He might still be hurting, he seems very hesitant to take a hit and this is resulting in the giveaways. Maybe he should spend a week on IR
Next thing for these guys to learn is when to just start taking shots on net and not waiting for that grade A chance.
I feel like many times tonight they looked for that extra pass and didn’t shoot it.
Other than that, love the progress of this team. We do need a counter punch to teams just committing 3+ on Celebrini through the neutral zone onwards. The kid is amazing and can still beat it but I think that’s where a complimentary power forward type can help, where teams can’t just ignore that guy pushing the net.
I agree with this. The shot differentials in games like last night don’t quite encompass the comparative level of play. I think both Colorado and Detroit threw a lot of pucks at the net that weren’t particularly dangerous, but it does allow a goalie to give up a rebound or chaos to ensue which can result in a puck getting on a stick and getting buried. I think the Sharks are ready to do a little more of this, too. Having said that, I feel like Celebrini put some game winners on the sticks of Giles, Liljegren and at least… Read more »
If Mike Grier and Ryan Warsofsky read one SJHN comment in their entire lives, I sincerely hope it’s this one.
I feel like they already know all this.
I think Grier has been trying to draft that power forward for 4 straight years. Probably going to draft that profile every year if possible.