Warsofsky, Carbery Go to Bednar for Advice

Jared Bednar knows a little something about Ryan Warsofsky’s experience this season with the San Jose Sharks.

In Bednar’s first year coaching in the NHL, the 2016-2017 Colorado Avalanche won just 22 games for 48 points, their .293 Points % the third-worst in the salary cap era.

“It’s not easy,” Bednar told San Jose Hockey Now last week, of that first season.

Comparably, rookie head coach Warsofsky and the last-place San Jose Sharks have a .336 Points % with 15 games remaining this season.

Warsofsky said he’s connected with Bednar throughout the year for support.

As has head coach Spencer Carbery, whose Washington Capitals are in a different place in the standings, first in the Eastern Conference with a .712 Points %, heading into Saturday afternoon’s showdown at SAP Center.

Warsofsky, Bednar, and Carbery were all behind the bench for the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays, Bednar from 2007 to 2009, Carbery from 2011 to 2016, and Warsofsky from 2016 to 2018.

“He’s been the one guy that I’ve reached out to a lot about our situation. Obviously he took over here [in Colorado], had a tough first year, in a similar sense,” Warsofsky said of Bednar. “He’s been a big sounding board for me and very supportive, obviously, a really good coach, and has won at all three levels. So you just try to lean on him and ask him a lot of questions.”

Bednar noted how difficult it can be when a struggling team is playing well and working hard but the results aren’t coming.

“Eventually the results will come. It’s hard to keep a team that’s losing all the time positive,” Bednar said. “It’s frustrating, because you want your guys to get rewarded for the right type of play, and it doesn’t always come. I think you got to still take the positives out of that, but still be hard on guys when you need to be if they’re not doing the right things.”

Carbery said he’s also learned about focusing on the positives from Bednar.

“What matters is your team’s getting better and your individual players are getting better,” Carbery said. “If you can focus on that day to day, even though it gets hard because you lose and you go through that, but if you can make each individual player a little bit better day after day after day…If you can continue to keep that in sight, which I know Warso will do, this team will continue to get better.”

Carbery – who took over behind the bench for the Washington Capitals ahead of the 2023-2024 season – added that Bednar’s success in turning things around is something he’s learned a lot from too.

“I took a lot from that, even last year” Carbery said. “Beds, he was really good about helping us with this, you have to look at the big picture, and you have to focus on the development. You have to focus on taking the next steps with your team.”

Bednar was able to turn things around for the Colorado Avalanche, making the playoffs the next season, and winning the Stanley Cup five seasons later.

And Spencer Carbery has the Capitals in first place in the Metropolitan Division – and tied for first in the NHL for the moment – in his second year.

Sharks fans surely hope Warsofsky’s trajectory will be similar. But it starts with one day at a time.

“If Macklin Celebrini gets better for the next 600 days, I promise you, the San Jose Sharks will be a better team,” Carbery said, noting that future superstar Nathan MacKinnon was also on the 2016-17 Avs.