Healthy forward corps not good news for young Sharks Bergmann, Yurtaykin
SAN JOSE » After the return of Evander Kane last week and Marcus Sorensen earlier this week, the Sharks at the moment have a full complement of forwards available and ready to play for the first time this season.
On Wednesday night against the Carolina Hurricanes, that meant that rookies Lean Bergmann and Danil Yurtaykin were healthy scratches. And since the Sharks beat the Hurricanes 5-2, they may not make any lineup changes for Saturday’s home game against the Buffalo Sabres.
So, as long as that continues, the Sharks might have a decision to make as to how they want to proceed with both Yurtaykin and Bergmann, who started the season in the NHL after they won jobs out of training camp.
Is it better for those players to be in the NHL right now, practicing with the Sharks, or be in the AHL, getting more ice time in all situations as they gradually learn the team’s systems?
“We talked in the summer that we’ve got a pretty good group of forward depth here with young guys, and we wanted to rotate and keep the energy up among that group, and if it gets to a certain point, that they get down and play games,” Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said Thursday. “Both of those guys are getting close to falling in that category, where they have to play.”
With Sorensen coming back from a upper-body injury Wednesday, Bergmann, 21, was scratched for the first time this season. In his first six games, he had an assist and averaged 8 minutes and 43 seconds of ice time, playing just 4:11 against the Chicago Blackhawks on Oct. 10 and 6:40 against the Calgary Flames three nights later.
For the game against the Hurricanes, DeBoer opted for a more experienced fourth line, with Dylan Gambrell at center and Lukas Radil and Melker Karlsson on the wings.
Yurtaykin, 22, has been scratched in three of the last four games after Kane returned from a three-game suspension to start the year. He’s averaged 12:00 of ice time in four games so far, playing mainly in a topnine role.
If that trend continues, it’s possible he gets sent to the AHL and the Sharks bring up a player from the Barracuda, although any transaction does not appear to be imminent.
Right now, Noah Gregor, Jayden Halbgewachs and Joel Kellman all lead the Barracuda with three points each, and Alex True has a team-high two goals through three games.
“This is a league where things can change in a shift and you go from healthy to unhealthy pretty quickly,” DeBoer said. “The important thing is you can’t be sitting around for two, three weeks, waiting for an opportunity.
“We’ve got to keep those guys fresh, we’ve got to rotate those guys with the guys that are playing with the Barracuda to make sure we’ve got energized, fresh guys here all the time.” LABANC’S ROLE » DeBoer said he liked Kevin Labanc’s game Wednesday more than he did Sunday’s game against Calgary, even though the forward didn’t score.
Labanc was once again on a line with Tomas Hertl and Kane against the Hurricanes, and finished with 15:18 of ice time as he assisted on Kane’s first power play goal in the first period. His possession numbers against the Hurricanes were much better than they were against the Flames.
“I thought our group was better top to bottom,” DeBoer said. “I didn’t like our first period. I thought we stood around and watched a little too much, but I thought we got going after that.”
Labanc has played with Logan Couture as his center at various times since training and has also been on Joe Thornton’s line. Is it important for Labanc to find a home on the second line?
“I would be, but I don’t know if that’s going to be an option,” DeBoer said. “We’re going to do whatever is best for our team, so of that means playing with (Thornton), or if that means playing with Hertl, we’re going to stick him wherever. He’s a good enough player, I expect him to make a difference wherever he ends up.”