SAN JOSE – Sharks general manager Mike Grier announced a handful of organizational hires Saturday, including the addition of an NHL salary cap expert who helped create one of pro hockey’s most indispensable websites.
The Sharks hired Dominik Zrim, the co-founder of CapFriendly, as their director of salary cap management/collective bargaining agreement compliance. The Sharks did not have someone with that specific title when Grier was hired in July.
Zrim was with the Chicago Blackhawks for part of last season, serving as their manager of hockey strategy and assisting the team with its cap and contracts.
Zrim left the Blackhawks in February shortly after Chairman Rocky Wirtz’s outburst at a town hall. Wirtz angrily responded to a reporter who asked what the organization was doing to address the power imbalance between players and coaches in light of Kyle Beach’s accusations of sexual assault by a former assistant coach. Wirtz later apologized.
Zrim, though, told Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman in June that he left the Blackhawks “amicably and enjoyed being there.” Zrim had been consulting for a few teams since that time, with the Vancouver Canucks being one of those teams, per The Athletic.
CapFriendly, which began in 2015, has numerous features, including listing contract details of every NHL player and each team’s structure under the league’s salary cap.
The Sharks also hired A.J. Bernstein as a co-ordinator of hockey analytics. Bernstein, per the team, will be “primarily tasked with acquiring, analyzing, and refining the team’s analytics data.” He was previously at Middlebury College as an assistant coach and director of hockey operations until his graduation in 2021.
Bernstein has also consulted with the USHL’s Chicago Steel and NWHL’s Metropolitan Riveters, leading the analytic efforts of both teams. He also worked as a strategy consultant for Accenture Federal Services.
The Sharks also promoted Stephen DiLustro to director of strength and conditioning, replacing Mike Potenza, who joined the Golden State Warriors in the offseason.
DiLustro worked under Potenza as the assistant strength and conditioning coach for the previous four seasons. Brian Ganz, who served as the Barracuda’s strength and conditioning coordinator in 2015-16, fills DiLustro’s spot as the Sharks’ assistant strength and conditioning coach.
The Sharks also bolstered their scouting department with the hire of Martin Uhnak as a European scout. He will oversee Czechia, Slovakia, Germany, and Switzerland.
Cody Ward was also hired as an assistant video coach. Ward worked with Sharks assistant coach Ryan Warsofsky last season as video coach of the AHL’s Chicago Wolves. Warsofsky was the team’s head coach.
Grier has transformed the Sharks’ hockey operations department over the last three months, hiring well over a dozen new people in management, player development, scouting, and coaching. Before the most recent hires, the Sharks hockey operations department had grown from 29 to 35 individuals.