San Jose Sharks
How Can Misa Earn More Minutes? Scout Discusses His Potential
Michael Misa has shown lots of promise in his rookie season.
“Kid’s going to turn up some juicy numbers,” an NHL scout, not with the San Jose Sharks, told San Jose Hockey Now. “He’s going to control the pace of a shift.”
Macklin Celebrini and Misa “will be possibly the best one-two center alignment in the NHL” one day, this scout predicts.
“These two centers will change the West.”
But today?
Misa, the No. 2 pick of the 2025 NHL Draft, is just trying to earn a little more ice-time in his rookie campaign.
How can he get more playing time?
The 19-year-old San Jose Sharks’ center played a career-high 17:53 against the Philadelphia Flyers on March 21.
For the most part, however, Misa (13:12) has played less minutes than Macklin Celebrini (21:59), Alex Wennberg (20:20), and sometimes, fourth-line center Zack Ostapchuk (10:19), since his return from World Juniors on January 11. On the surface, playing that much less than Celebrini and Wennberg might not make sense.
But there is a logical reason for this: Celebrini and Wennberg are special teams’ staples, and even Ostapchuk plays more on the second-unit penalty kill than Misa on the second-unit power play. Misa isn’t necessarily ready for either top power play time or short-handed minutes.
At even strength, Misa (12:07) is much closer in deployment to Wennberg (14:41). Celebrini (18:41), of course, is the alpha dog, while Ostapchuk (8:38) brings up the rear.
“For the most part, we’re a good team when we roll our lines,” San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “When he’s going, he’s playing. But there are games, as a young guy, you just fight a little bit, you play him a little bit less. And that’s something that he’s learning.”
Functionally, Misa is the Sharks’ third-line center right now, a heavy burden in a playoff race. He’s done a credible job there, too, especially offensively, with six goals and 13 points in 27 games since Jan. 11.
But what’s he got to do, in all honesty, to overtake Wennberg as the Sharks’ second-line center? If not this year, then next? It’s not that complicated, according to Warsofsky…but it’s not easy, either.
Read the Full Article at NBC Sports Bay Area
Is there a stat anywhere that tells you a teams avg shift length? I’ve looked everywhere. It’s obvious that Macs line is out there for 2-3 times up and down the ice per shift, which is ridiculous, and a major reason for our chronic line change problem, I’m just curious if there is numbers for the team as a whole?
Huh, I like what you’re thinking. If you find it, let us know!
Is this what your looking for? Average TOI per shift, which shows on the furthest stat to the right. (Celebrini is 9th in the league at 1:00 flat)
https://www.foxsports.com/nhl/stats?category=icetime&sort=toitps&season=2025&seasonType=reg&sortOrder=desc
They’ve been up on NHL.com’s stats page for as long as I’ve been using it.
https://www.nhl.com/stats/skaters?report=timeonice&reportType=season&seasonFrom=20252026&seasonTo=20252026&gameType=2&playerPlayedFor=franchise.29&sort=timeOnIce&page=0&pageSize=50
Misa’s been about anyone with rational expectations would have come up with. He understands defense, but the game is still a bit fast for him. There are times he understands the task, but the game is a bit too strong for him. So he gets moved out of the way. The mind is most of the way there, its needs to operate a bit quicker. But its pretty close. The body is further behind and I’m not sure he’ll be there even for next season. Time will take care of that, but it might take more than another year for… Read more »