Michael Misa has shown lots of promise in his rookie season.<\/p>\n
\u201cKid\u2019s going to turn up some juicy numbers,\u201d an NHL scout, not with the San Jose Sharks, told San Jose Hockey Now. \u201cHe\u2019s going to control the pace of a shift.\u201d<\/p>\n
Macklin Celebrini and Misa \u201cwill be possibly the best one-two center alignment in the NHL\u201d one day, this scout predicts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese two centers will change the West.\u201d<\/p>\n
But today?<\/p>\n
Misa, the No. 2 pick of the 2025 NHL Draft, is just trying to earn a little more ice-time in his rookie campaign.<\/p>\n
How can he get more playing time?<\/p>\n
The 19-year-old San Jose Sharks\u2019 center played a career-high 17:53 against the Philadelphia Flyers on March 21.<\/p>\n
For the most part, however, Misa (13:12) has played less minutes than Macklin Celebrini (21:59), Alex Wennberg (20:20), and sometimes, fourth-line center Zack Ostapchuk (10:19), since his return from World Juniors on January 11. On the surface, playing that much less than Celebrini and Wennberg might not make sense.<\/p>\n
But there is a logical reason for this: Celebrini and Wennberg are special teams\u2019 staples, and even Ostapchuk plays more on the second-unit penalty kill than Misa on the second-unit power play. Misa isn\u2019t necessarily ready for either top power play time or short-handed minutes.<\/p>\n
At even strength, Misa (12:07) is much closer in deployment to Wennberg (14:41). Celebrini (18:41), of course, is the alpha dog, while Ostapchuk (8:38) brings up the rear.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the most part, we\u2019re a good team when we roll our lines,\u201d San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky said. \u201cWhen he\u2019s going, he\u2019s playing. But there are games, as a young guy, you just fight a little bit, you play him a little bit less. And that\u2019s something that he\u2019s learning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Functionally, Misa is the Sharks\u2019 third-line center right now, a heavy burden in a playoff race. He\u2019s done a credible job there, too, especially offensively, with six goals and 13 points in 27 games since Jan. 11.<\/p>\n
But what\u2019s he got to do, in all honesty, to overtake Wennberg as the Sharks\u2019 second-line center? If not this year, then next? It\u2019s not that complicated, according to Warsofsky\u2026but it\u2019s not easy, either.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Misa has shown lots of promise in his rookie season. \u201cKid\u2019s going to turn up some juicy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5631,58,5,39977,501,4,748,61200,3893,7796],"class_list":{"0":"post-531824","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-alex-wennberg","9":"tag-featured","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-jack-han","12":"tag-macklin-celebrini","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-ryan-warsofsky","15":"tag-san-jose-sharks-michael-misa","16":"tag-scouts","17":"tag-stathletes"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116320520453031886","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}