SAN JOSE – San Jose Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said he has no issues with Nikolai Kovalenko after the winger gave an interview to a Russian media outlet earlier this month in which it was initially believed that he was being critical of the first-year NHL bench boss.
Recently appearing as a guest on a Russian podcast, Kovalenko, through translation, said about Warsofsky and general manager Mike Grier, “The coach doesn’t like Russians. The GM likes Russians, the head coach doesn’t.”
Kovalenko, though, said through the Sharks’ media relations department that the “comments that were translated were taken out of context. I do not have any issue with our coach and everyone has treated me very fairly in San Jose. I love playing here.”
Warsofsky said Saturday that he cleared the air with Kovalenko after he was made aware of the interview, adding that “it’s water under the bridge at this point.”
“Obviously the language is different,” he said. “Things get taken out of context. I’ve coached a lot of Russians, a lot of Russians I still talk to today that have already reached out to me when this came out, and there’s no issues whatsoever.”
The rookie NHL head coach wouldn’t say who those players were, other than some have played in the NHL. He added, “I don’t care if you’re from Africa, Canada, U.S., Russia, Belarus, if you work hard and you’re coachable, and you give everything you’ve got when these doors open (and you) get on that ice, that’s all I care about.”
The Sharks right now have two Russian-born players on their roster in forward Klim Kostin and defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin. Kovalenko was born in 1999 in Raleigh, North Carolina, where his father, Andrei, played with the Carolina Hurricanes from 1998-2000 before the family moved back to Russia.
Goalie Alexander Georgiev was born in Belarus before his family moved to Russia early in his childhood years before going to Finland as a teenager. Grier traded for Kostin, Mukhamadullin, Georgiev, and Kovalenko.
After he and Georgiev were acquired by the Sharks from Colorado in the December trade that sent Mackenzie Blackwood and Givani Smith to the Avalanche, Kovalenko had five assists in four games as he mainly played a top-six role. Kovalenko, though, had just three points in 12 games before he sustained an upper-body injury in a game against the Seattle Kraken on Jan. 30.
Warsofsky said Kovalenko is adapting to a different style in San Jose. While he played a puck possession game with the skilled and playoff-bound Avalanche, the rebuilding Sharks often have a more meat-and-potatoes approach that tries to limit neutral zone turnovers.
“You can’t turn over pucks at blue lines and feed teams on a line rush, especially where we’re at as an organization with our team,” Warsofsky said. “So we have to maybe manage pucks with extreme detail. That’s not just (Kovalenko). That’s our whole team.”
Kovalenko skated Saturday morning but did not travel with the Sharks in the afternoon to Calgary, where they’ll begin a seven-game road trip on Sunday. It’s possible Kovalenko joins the Sharks at some point on the trip, which lasts until March 6 when they face the Avalanche.
STURM ACTIVATED: Nico Sturm, who has practiced all week after he missed the last eight games before the break with a lower-body injury, was activated off of injured reserve Saturday.
Sturm was initially injured blocking a shot in a Jan. 2 game against the Tampa Bay Lightning and missed three games before he returned to play on Jan. 11 against the Minnesota Wild. He remained in the lineup for five games before more X-rays on the injured area on Jan. 21 revealed there was still damage.
Sturm, a pending unrestricted free agent with 11 points in 41 games this season, is the Sharks’ leader in faceoff percentage (63.7%). He’s slated to start Sunday’s game as the Sharks’ third-line center, with Luke Kunin and Collin Graf on the wings.
HOMECOMING: It appears forward Walker Duehr will be in the Sharks’ lineup Sunday in Calgary. Duehr was with the Flames organization for four-plus seasons before he was placed on waivers by the team on Jan. 21. The Sharks claimed him the next day and in seven games in San Jose, Duehr has two goals and is averaging 8:54 in ice time. Duehr was on the Sharks’ fourth line in Saturday’s practice with Barclay Goodrow and Ty Dellandrea.