The San Jose Sharks have relied on young players to great effect throughout their surprisingly good 2025-26 season, with youth making an impact up and down the lineup. The newest such contributor is rookie forward Michael Misa, who has returned from the Olympic break with a newfound assertiveness and aggression. He is playing up to the ability that made him the second overall pick at the 2025 Draft and proving he belongs on NHL ice. As a result, he may take on a larger role this season, but he’s given the team even more reason for optimism in the coming seasons, regardless.
Misa’s Confidence Reflected in His Scoring
Misa has played the best hockey of his short career since the Olympic break ended, scoring at least one point in each of the four games the Sharks have played. However, his acceleration really started with his trip to the World Junior Championship earlier this season. Coming off an injury, the tournament gave him a chance to get up to game speed without having to jump right back into the NHL.
He registered seven points to help Canada win the bronze medal, and upon returning to the Sharks, he’s practically been a new player. He’s skated with purpose, constantly hunting down the puck and getting far more involved in plays. In his first few games, he was at times practically invisible on the ice — not uncommon for a rookie trying to adjust to the pace of NHL play. Now he’s primarily centering a line with William Eklund and Tyler Toffoli and making sure the three make an impact on the vast majority of their shifts.
The numbers back up his transformation as well. He’s made 15 appearances since returning from World Juniors and has 10 points in his last 12 games, among the best on the Sharks in that time. Nowhere was his new style of play more evident than in his overtime goal against the Winnipeg Jets, where he took the puck right at two defenders, split them, and caught Connor Hellebuyck off-guard for the game-winner. It was a move he wouldn’t necessarily have had the confidence to make earlier in the season, and he and the team had to put a lot of work into his development to get him to that point.
As the Sharks continue to push for the playoffs, they’ll need help from anyone who can provide it. Misa’s growth is coming at the perfect time.
Sharks Can Give Misa More Responsibility
For as well as Misa has played recently, his ice time hasn’t quite reflected that yet. Centering a second line with two good forwards is a solid start, but since the World Juniors ended, he’s only played over 15 minutes once, and that was the overtime game against Winnipeg.
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Understandably, the San Jose coaching staff was sheltering him somewhat as he adjusted to the NHL. But now, he’s proven that he can take on a larger role. The Sharks have to be concerned about overrelying on Macklin Celebrini and the rest of the first line, and Misa’s second line can alleviate some of that burden.
Giving a young player a larger workload is certainly risky, but the Sharks have succeeded this season largely because of how much they’ve trusted those players. Misa has proved himself worthy of the coaching staff’s respect and attention, and he should be rewarded for it.
Misa Adding to Reasons for Sharks’ Bright Future
By now, it’s no secret that the Sharks are one of the league’s most promising teams. They’re not among the league leaders right now, but their young talent and prospect pool offer a lot of hope that they’ll get to that point soon. Plenty of players have been cited as specific examples of this potential, but until recently, Misa’s contributions were more hypothetical. His talent was obvious, but it couldn’t be fully applied until he demonstrated his value on NHL ice.
Over the last handful of games, he’s shown exactly what that value is. He’s both a playmaker and scorer who can create opportunities for himself and others with assertiveness and intelligence. The Sharks already found one center who can do that in the form of Celebrini, but it never hurts to have multiple such centers, and while it’s still early in his career, Misa has begun to look like San Jose’s ideal second-liner.
The Sharks are in the midst of unexpected playoff contention, and Misa is going to play an important part for the rest of the season. But the real excitement he brings is the thought of how good he might be within the next few years, and what that might mean for the team as they battle for championships.
