Seattle’s NHL expansion bid gets key approval
SAN JOSE >> Sharks center Joe Thornton is starting the season with a younger, more aerodynamic look.
Thornton shaved off his prodigious beard Monday night, and showed up to Sharks practice Tuesday morning with just some stubble left on his face.
Thornton said the Sharks were bonding at Brent Burns’ house when the decision was made to shave the beard, although he said it wasn’t necessarily because he wanted a fresh start after he endured knee surgeries in consecutive seasons. Judging by photos on social media, it looks like Burns helped do the honors.
“My wife’s been wanting this done for a long time, and the guys kind of got on it and all of a sudden the shaver came out, and there it was on the plate,” Thornton said. “My 5-yearold wasn’t happy this morning. When he woke up, he didn’t want to see dad. I’ve got to make it up to him somehow.”
Thornton, 39, has typically worn a shorter beard throughout his time with the Sharks. During his the 2015-16 season, though,
Thornton and Burns began to grow out their facial hair as they became what Thornton called after the end of the 2016 season, “lifestyle beards.”
“I regretted it as soon as it started hitting the floor,”
Thornton said. “Hopefully, it’ll grow back quickly.”
The Sharks’ opener today at home against Anaheim will be Thornton’s first regular-season game since Jan. 23 when he suffered torn anterior cruciate
and medial collateral ligaments in his right knee. He had the exact same injury in April 2017, only to his left knee.
“He looked good today,” Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said. “It’s a little shocking. I haven’t seen him without it. He looks great. He looks younger. He looks good on the ice.”
• The Sharks made their final training camp cuts Tuesday morning, assigning forwards Dylan Gambrell and Lukas Radil and goalie Antoine Bibeau to the Barracuda. The Sharks are keeping eight defensemen and 13 forwards, including rookies Antti Suomela and Rourke Chartier, to start the regular season. Suomela, 24, who signed with San Jose out of Finland in June, won the third line center job with four goals and one assist in five preseason games. Chartier was in a competition during camp to be the Sharks’ fourth line center, and he had two goals and three assists in five games.
“(Chartier) just had a better camp,” than some other centers, DeBoer said. “Right from day one, scrimmage one. We’ve always talked about merit here and I think last year Barclay Goodrow came in and had that type of camp and made the team, and I think Rourke did the same.”
Suomela will center the third line today when he makes his NHL debut. Joonas Donskoi and Evander Kane are his wingers. But it is unclear if Chartier, 22, will also make his debut Wednesday. For now, he, Goodrow, Marcus Sorensen and Melker Karlsson as the team’s fourth line forwards.
Gambrell, who played three games for the Sharks at the end of the 2017-18 regular season after he signed an entry-level deal with San Jose, had one assist in four games.
Gambrell, 22, had a bit of a slow start to camp but said last week that he felt better as the preseason progressed. His final preseason game, last Tuesday against Calgary, was arguably his best.
“He knows what he’s got to work at to be a regular here and I think he’s excited about becoming a real good player down there and next time he’s up here, making sure that he sticks,” DeBoer said.
It’s not a surprise to see the Sharks keep eight defensemen to start the regular season. The Sharks’ seventh and eighth defensemen, Tim Heed and Radim Simek, would have both had to have gone through waivers if San Jose wanted to assign them to the AHL. Bibeau had to be placed on waivers Monday for the Sharks to send him to the AHL.