Gregor, Leonard trending up for Sharks at training camp
San Jose Sharks coach Bob Boughner likes where things are headed with his team’s training camp.
With the Jan. 14 season opener with the Arizona Coyotes coming up quickly, he better.
“Today was our best day of camp,” Boughner said Tuesday after the Sharks held an intrasquad scrimmage. “The pace was better. It was more physical. You could see the guys were thinking and executing within the system a heck of a lot better.”
The Sharks, who were off Wednesday, will have more formal scrimmages on Friday and Sunday night. They’ll go through a typical game-day routine: A morning skate, followed by lunch and a pregame nap at the team hotel, with an intrasquad game that evening.
With no preseason games being played, and without seeing it first hand ( Bay Area News Group is covering the camp remotely), it’s tough to tell how exactly everyone is doing at camp.
But based on what Boughner has said the last few days, and how line combinations and defense pairs are playing out, we can perhaps glean at least a little bit of information of how certain players are performing.
Here’s a look at where things stand at the moment.
Forwards (24)
LOCKS » Logan Couture, Ryan Donato, Dylan Gambrell, Tomas Hertl, Evander Kane, Joel Kellman, Kevin Labanc, Patrick Marleau, Timo Meier, Matt Nieto, Stefan Noesen, Marcus Sorensen.
TRENDING UP » Noah Gregor, John Leonard.
STATUS UNCERTAIN » Fredrik Handemark, Antti Suomela
TAXI SQUAD/ BARRACUDA CANDIDATES » Lean Bergmann, Joachim Blichfeld, Sasha Chmelevski, Kurtis Gabriel, Jayden Halbgewachs, Maxim Letunov (unfit to play), Alexander True (injured), Jeffrey Viel.
ANALYSIS » Boughner has had positive things to say about Gregor, Leonard and Handemark. Tuesday, he mentioned that the line of Chmelevski, Halbgewachs and Blichfeld also played well in the scrimmage. Generally speaking, it appears the Sharks are happy with how the younger players have performed in camp. Leonard is up in the Sharks’ top six forward group at the moment, and Gambrell and Gregor are both getting looks at the third line center role. Will they be there long term? Who knows.
Where do Handemark and Suomela fit in right
now? Kellman would require waivers, and we’re guessing the Sharks do not want to risk losing him for nothing. Maybe from that standpoint, Kellman stays and Handemark, who is waivers-exempt, is assigned to the taxi squad. Suomela would require waivers to be sent down. But if he’s being outperformed in by Gregor and Leonard in camp, it would be tough for the Sharks to keep him on the active roster.
One possible option is to keep 15 forwards, six defensemen and two goalies. If and when they need another defensemen, the Sharks can recall someone from the taxi squad fairly easily. But that assumes everyone is healthy right from day one of the season.
Defenseman (12)
LOCKS » Brent Burns, Mario Ferraro, Erik Karlsson, Radim Simek, Marc-Edouard Vlasic.
STATUS UNCERTAIN » Ryan Merkley, Jake Middleton
TAXI SQUAD/ BARRACUDA
Trevor Carrick,
CANDIDATES »
Nick DeSimone, Nikolai Knyzhov, Nicolas Meloche, Brinson Pasichnuk.
ANALYSIS » Until we hear otherwise, it appears Middleton has the inside track to become the Sharks’ sixth defenseman this season. The Sharks have liked what they have seen at times with Merkley and Pasichnuk, but are they ready for the big stage? The Sharks have to look at what is in their best interests longterm. Those decisions on who to keep as their sixth and seventh defensemen will presumably become clearer after the two upcoming scrimmages.
Although Boughner has expressed confidence that Simek will be ready for the Jan. 14 season opener against the Arizona Coyotes, there is reasonable cause for concern, seeing as he’s still having some issues with his right knee. Keeping seven defensemen from the start of the season seems prudent.
Goalies (4)
LOCKS » Devan Dubnyk,
Martin Jones.
TAXI SQUAD/ BARRACUDA CANDIDATES » Josef Korenar, Alexei Melnichuk. ANALYSIS » Clearly, barring injury or being otherwise unavailable, Jones and Dubnyk will be the Sharks’ two goalies at the start of the season. The question is who the Sharks will keep as their as their taxi squad goalie, the one who will travel with the team and be available on short notice should anything happen to one of the top two guys.
Our guess is that it’ll be Melnichuk, who will then still be able to work closely with Evgeni Nabokov on a daily basis.