There might be no better NHL coach to ask about what an outside view of the San Jose Sharks winning culture is than Florida Panthers head coach Paul Maurice.

The Panthers have been to three straight Stanley Cup Finals and won the past two. Before Maurice arrived in 2022. Year four in Sunrise hasn’t been smooth with injuries galore.

Former Sharks forward Jonah Gadjovich will need surgery on Tuesday, which Maurice says will keep him out for three months. Aleksander Barkov tore his ACL during training camp, but wasn’t ruled out for the season.

Despite all that, Maurice has built a culture for his team that is centered on winning. When asked about the Sharks’ progress, which has taken a massive step forward this season, Maurice said they are on the right path.

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“I think that they’re quite a bit ahead of where they might be [because] you have a different style of player in [Macklin] Celebrini. He’s just the things that we talked about, his willingness to be good. There’s a bit of a Barkov in that, too. He doesn’t cheat the game to put up numbers,” Maurice said.

“It’s talent, structure, and then at some point, you bring in the great veteran people just to fill your roster, which is what’s happened to the Florida Panthers over the years.”

Ryan Warsofsky led the Sharks to 20 wins in his first year as the head coach. After a 0-4-2 start, the San Jose Sharks are flying with a 6-2-1 record in the past nine games.

Maurice said defending the Sharks is different this season because the structure Warsofsky has implemented better suits their roster.

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“They’re right well into their structure. I think that you could expect a certain style of game out of San Jose every night, and that’s the structure part of it. Very, very fast, very quick. They forecheck with aggressiveness,” Maurice said. “But even in the neutral zone or the defensive zone, it’s no longer a passive team. There’s not a lot of switch-offs. There’s no confusion about who’s got whom. The structure is right in place.”

Mauice says the Sharks’ front office has brought the right players to build a winning culture

Hiring the right coach for a team is the first step for any NHL organization. Sharks GM Mike Grier put his faith in Warsofsky as the coach due to his winning history.

Warsofsky has won at the ECHL and AHL levels. A natural progression to the NHL was always going to come, and come with growing pains.

Part of Maurice’s message about how the Panthers build a Stanley Cup-winning team is the meshing of players on the roster. From his perspective, the San Jose Sharks have begun that process on a positive note.

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“It’s completely impossible without the right players, and I don’t mean talent level. I mean the kind of people that you have,” Maurice said. “If you have the right leadership, that will play the game on both sides of the puck. Defense is just selfless hockey, doing all the right things for your teammates. But the willingness to do that is also a talent. That’s a piece of character. To amass [forward], you got to get the right talent, but the right character, and then the culture takes care of itself.”

Warsofsky has preached patience while still expecting the San Jose Sharks to bring in some results. He’s always searching for ways his team can improve. That was evident following the Sharks’ 6-1 win over the Seattle Kraken.

“As a coach, you just keep pushing the team. We want to get better in areas,” Warsofsky said. We’re starting to find guys in roles. We just kept going, and we just kept playing. It is what it is. I think the mindset of our team has really grown here lately, and that’s been the biggest positive.”

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