Warsofsky Proud To Call Tortorella Mentor, Friend: ‘He said I reminded him of him’

PHILADELPHIA — John Tortorella might be polarizing to some, but not to Ryan Warsofsky.

The youngest head coach in the NHL, 37, is proud to call 66-year-old Tortorella, the oldest, a close friend and mentor.

Tortorella has helmed over 1,500 games over a three-decade NHL head coaching career, guiding the 2004 Tampa Bay Lightning to a Stanley Cup.

“These last few years, I’ve got to know Torts pretty well, and I’ve talked to him a few times each summer and throughout the year. He’s an awesome guy for me to reach out to and lean on. When I made my move to the National Hockey League a few years ago, he was the one guy I really leaned on for making this decision,” Warsofsky said, on the morning before the San Jose Sharks’ match-up against Tortorella’s Philadelphia Flyers. “He’s a tremendous coach. Obviously, he’s got that old-school mentality.”

About that old-school mentality…Tortorella is famous for being publicly (and privately) confrontational, at times, with both his players and media.

“We see him in the media, but when you get to know this man, he’s got the biggest heart. He’s just a great person. He cares about you. He cares about the players,” Warsofsky said. “If you talk to players that really have played for him for a while, a lot of them like him, they feel the sense of care that he has for them as people and as human beings first, and he just wants to get the most out of them.”

The San Jose Sharks head coach is cut from the same cloth as Tortorella, according to the man himself.

“It’s funny, when Torts and I met a few summers ago, he said I reminded him of him, and I didn’t think I was as hard as him, but there were some similarities, just when him and I had some discussions,” Warsofsky said. “I have a little bit of old school mentality in me. This comes from having that competitive drive that you want your group to have.”

That drive is what the San Jose Sharks are trying to reestablish as an organization. To Warsofsky’s credit, early returns are promising.

Through 16 games this year, the 5-9-2 Sharks have a -18 Goal Differential. Last year? The 2-13-1 Sharks had a -49 Goal Differential.

“At the end of the day, the game can be black and white. It comes down to some effort,” Warsofsky said. “I think all of us coaches, systematically, do a lot of the same things at the end of the day, it usually comes down who wants it more? Who can get your group to be more connected?”

No doubt, Tortorella would be proud of Warsofsky’s work so far.

And Warsofsky would be proud to have a career like his mentor’s.