San Jose Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky will not turn 38 until October, but he’s already amassed an impressive resume.
Warsofsky has won two Calder Cups, one as an assistant in 2019 and the other as a head coach in 2022, with two different AHL teams. Less than a year ago, he became the NHL’s youngest head coach when general manager Mike Grier tabbed him as the Sharks’ next bench boss.
Now, Warsofsky can add world champion to his curriculum vitae.
Warsofsky and his staff helped guide Team USA to its first gold medal at the IIHF World Championship in 92 years Sunday with a 1-0 overtime win over Switzerland at Avicii Arena in Stockholm.
Buffalo Sabres forward Tage Thompson scored the golden goal just 2:02 into overtime, lifting the Americans, with its deep and talented roster, to its first standalone world championship since 1933.
“What an absolutely amazing feeling,” Warsofsky said Sunday. “Everyone in our group contributed to winning the gold medal. We beat an excellent team in Switzerland tonight, and full credit to them for the tournament they had.
“We’ll remember this for a long, long time.”
Maybe Warsofsky’s success this month on the international stage will allow him to reach another career milestone.
The Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina, Italy, are now just nine months away, and being a world champion should bolster Warsofsky’s case to be on Team USA head coach Mike Sullivan’s staff for the Games.
Warsofsky and Sullivan are from the same hometown, just outside Boston, and their families have long been incredibly close. However, Warsofsky will not be picked for the Olympic staff simply because of his connection to Sullivan. He’ll be there if USA Hockey and American general manager Bill Guerin genuinely feel he can help the team break another drought by winning its first Olympic gold since 1980.
Of course, it probably wouldn’t hurt if the Sharks got off to a better start this season than the 0-7-2 mark they began with last year.
Asked last month near the end of the Sharks’ season — after he was named the U.S. coach for the world championship team – what it would mean to him to be on Sullivan’s Olympic staff, Warsofsky said, “Obviously, it would be an honor, a dream come true. But again, I’m just focusing on my job here and at the World Championships.”
United States head coach Ryan Warsofsky, center rear, works from behind the bench during a Group B game between the United States and Denmark at the hockey world championships, Friday, May 9, 2025, in Herning, Denmark. (Bo Amstrup/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)From 1963 to 2024, the U.S. had medaled at the world championships just six times, collecting bronze each time. But this year’s American team, which included Sharks rookie Will Smith, came together quickly.
The U.S. went 6-1 in the preliminary round, including an impressive 5-2 victory over the Czech Republic on May 20. The Americans then began to play their best hockey, beating Finland 5-2 in the quarterfinals on Thursday and Sweden 6-2 in the semifinals.
The U.S. outshot Switzerland 40-25 in the gold medal game. In the 3-on-3 overtime, Thompson took a pass from Logan Cooley, entered the offensive zone and beat Swiss goalie Leonardo Genoni, who was named the tournament’s MVP.
The last time the U.S. won World Championship gold in a non-Olympic year, the country was in the grips of The Great Depression, and Herbert Hoover’s presidency was just about to end.
“It’s a crazy stat,” Thompson said of the 92-year drought. “It’s something that everyone in that room took to heart. When we got here, we all knew we wanted to be a part of something special, and I think each guy in that room committed, whether you were playing power play, top minutes, or you were in and out of the lineup or not playing at all.
“Everybody was positive, pulling for each other and after one common goal. That’s why we won.”
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“I get goosebumps just thinking about it,” Warsofsky said of ending the 92-year wait for a world championship. “We talked about it when the tournament started. The first meeting we met … 1933, right? That was addressed. It’s not good enough for USA Hockey.
“World Juniors we’ve won, 4 Nations had a good run. The Olympics are coming up. It’s time for us to really put a stamp on it, and this tournament is the start of it. We were embarrassed, truly embarrassed, that we hadn’t won this tournament, and now we don’t have to have that weight on our back.”
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