Preview/Lines #50: Kovalenko Back In, How Warsofsky Got ‘Coaching Bug’

NASHVILLE — Imagine, you’re 16, and you get to debate the merits of Adam Burish in the line-up with then-San Jose Sharks head coach Todd McLellan. Or Roman Polak with Peter DeBoer.

That’s what a 16-year-old Ryan Warsofsky was able to do with then-Boston Bruins head coach Mike Sullivan. Family friend Sullivan coached the Bruins from 2003 to 2006.

It’s also where Warsofsky says he got the coaching bug. He got into coaching in his mid-20’s, and at 37, is now the youngest head in the NHL.

“We would sit in his office and talk players and systems and argue back and forth about certain players,” Warsofsky said, smiling, on Monday in Boston.

“Maybe I forecasted where the game was going with Hal Gill. We had a big discussion [about] Hal Gill, but he liked him. He took time and space [away]. Obviously used to shut down [Jaromir] Jagr. He was a good player,” Warsofsky said. “Obviously, the game’s changed a lot with the hooking and holding and clutching and all that, you used to get away with it now. It’s completely changed since, obviously, the lockout.”

6-foot-7 Gill, currently a Nashville Predators broadcaster, represented the big and physical and slower defensemen of NHL yesteryear. There’s no doubt that the league has gone smaller and more mobile on the blueline.

So would 16-year-old Warsofsky debate, for example, the less mobile Jan Rutta with his older counterpart? And how would head coach Warsofsky respond?

“[Jan Rutta] moves better than Hal Gill,” Warsofsky scoffed. So maybe not a good comparison!

That said, Rutta does represent, in 2025 terms, the slower stay-at-home defenseman, even if he is far more mobile than Gill. I think it’s clear though, to Rutta’s credit, what Warsofsky does value, when you’re comparing other defensemen who have been in and out of the Sharks’ line-up like Jack Thompson or Marc-Edouard Vlasic or Henry Thrun or Shakir Mukhamadullin.

He may not be the best defenseman in the league, but he’s better than most of what San Jose has, if we’re being frank.

“Jan, he’s long, he’s got a long reach. He takes away time and space. When he’s keeping his game simple, he’s really, really effective for us,” Ryan Warsofsky said in November. He also called Rutta the Sharks’ most consistent defenseman in a recent stretch.

Warsofsky says Rutta has been #SJSharks' most consistent defenseman for the last 15 games

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 16, 2025

Simplicity and reliability can make for a long, Stanley Cup-winning career, which Rutta has had.

San Jose Sharks (14-29-6)

Alexandar Georgiev will start.

Nikolai Kovalenko will draw back in, for Carl Grundstrom.

Henry Thrun is a game-time decision, lower-body injury, if he can’t play, Marc-Edouard Vlasic will slide back in.

Warsofsky says that Kovalenko will take Grundstrom’s place on the third line. Here are how the rest of the lines should look, Warsofsky said no other changes up front:

Zetterlund-Granlund-Smith
Eklund-Celebrini-Wennberg
Kovalenko-Kunin-Graf
Goodrow-Sturm-Dellandrea

Walman-Ceci
Liljegren-Ferraro
Thrun/Vlasic-Rutta

Georgiev

Nashville Predators (16-22-7)

This is how the Preds lined up in their last game, a 6-1 win over the Minnesota Wild:

NSH lines vs MIN

Forsberg – Stamkos – Marchessault
Nyquist – O'Reilly – Hinostroza
Novak – Svechkov – L’Heureux
Jankowski – McCarron – Sissons

Josi – Barron
Skjei – Blankenburg
Wilsby – Schenn

Saros🥅
Annunen

Scratches: Bellows & Stastney
IR: Evangelista, Lauzon, Smith

— Nick Kieser🏒 (@KieserNick) January 19, 2025

Where To Watch

Puck drop between the San Jose Sharks and Nashville Predators is 5 PM PT at Bridgestone Arena. Watch it live on NBC Sports California. Listen to it on the Sharks Audio Network.