BREAKING: Sharks Name Warsofsky & Gordon Assistant Coaches, Add Speer & Gialdini to Staff

The San Jose Sharks have announced new head coach David Quinn’s staff.

Scott Gordon and Ryan Warsofsky will be assistant coaches, Thomas Speer will be goaltending coach, and Nick Gialdini will be video coach.

Gordon, 59, was last head coach of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms from 2015 to 2021. During that time, he also served as interim head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers during the 2018-19 campaign.

Gordon brings a wealth of experience to the San Jose Sharks bench: In addition to being the head coach of the Flyers and the Phantoms, Gordon has also been the head coach of the New York Islanders, Providence Bruins, and Roanoke Express (ECHL). He’s been an assistant coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Providence Bruins, Quebec Rafales (IHL), and Atlanta Knights (IHL).

The Brockton, Massachusetts native was a Boston College goalie when Quinn, a defenseman, was starring at Boston University. Gordon also played in the NHL with Quebec Nordiques.

Gordon will run the Sharks’ forwards and power play.

Warsofsky, 34, just guided the Chicago Wolves to a Calder Cup, becoming the youngest head coach since Peter Laviolette in 1999 to bring home the AHL’s ultimate prize.

SJHN broke the news of Warsofsky’s hiring two weeks ago:

SOURCE: Sharks Hiring Warsofsky as Assistant Coach

Previously, the North Marshfield, Massachusetts native was the head coach of the Charlotte Checkers in 2019-20, and a Checkers assistant coach during their 2018-19 Calder Cup campaign. The Carolina Hurricanes switched their AHL affiliation from Charlotte to Chicago for the 2020-21 season.

From 2013 to 2018, Warsofsky served as director of hockey operations, head coach, and assistant coach of the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays.

Warsofsky, a defenseman, played professionally in Belgium, the Central Hockey League, and Federal Hockey League, and comes from a hockey family. His brothers Adam, Jarod, and David all played collegiately or professionally, David skating in 55 NHL contests from 2014 to 2018.

David Quinn coached David Warsofsky at Boston University. Quinn was the associate head coach and Warsofsky was a blueliner on the 2009 national championship-winning Terriers. San Jose Sharks forward Nick Bonino and San Jose Barracuda head coach John McCarthy were also on that team.

SJHN was told that Warsofsky would run the defense and the penalty kill.

Speer, 35, was the Stockton Heat’s goaltending coach for the last three years. Under his watch, Calgary Flames prospect Dustin Wolf won 2021-22 AHL Goaltender of the Year.

Previously, Speer was also with the USNTDP from 2017 to 2019 as a goaltending coach, working his way up from stints in that role in the ECHL, CHL (Central Hockey League), and NAHL.

Speer had a brief professional career between the pipes for the ECHL’s Idaho Steelheads and Las Vegas Wranglers.

Evgeni Nabokov will continue as the Sharks’ director of goaltending. It’s unclear if Speer will be in more of a developmental role within the organization.

Gialdini, 31, is a bona fide local success story. He’s been the San Jose Barracuda’s video coach and hockey operations manager for the past six years, also assisting the Sharks scouting department along the way.

Before that, he was a Jr. Sharks coach, and for four years, he was the high school hockey coordinator at Sharks Ice.

Gialdini also played forward at nearby San Jose State University, graduating in 2016.