Sharks set to trim roster for season opener
Young forwards Gregor, Leonard look good; big questions for taxi squad
After only 11 days together and zero exhibition games against other NHL teams, the Sharks’ braintrust will make roster cuts today.
To Sharks coach Bob Boughner, time has flown by fast. Normally, teams have 16 or 17 days of camp and six preseason games to get ready. This season, the Sharks had nine days on the ice — to go with two days off — and a handful of intrasquad scrimmages. All after more than nine months of not being able to skate together as a team.
“The plan has rolled out and we got a lot accomplished,” Boughner said Sunday. “I was a little worried about only having (nine) days on the ice after being off that long, but it’s gone quicker than I thought, and I thought that we got a lot of work done.”
By the end of day today, the Sharks will have cut down the roster to 23 players. A taxi squad of between four and six players will have been formed, and other players will be assigned to the Barracuda’s training camp.
The biggest questions for Boughner, general manager Doug Wilson and the rest of the Sharks’ hockey operations staff will likely be about who they keep on defense who goes on their taxi squad. The taxi squad is a one-time feature this season that allows teams to keep extra players around in case other players become unavailable due to, among other things, positive coronavirus tests.
After cuts are made, the Sharks will remain in Scottsdale, Arizona and practice Tuesday and Wednesday before they move 30 miles to Glendale, where they’ll set up shop near Gila
River Arena and get ready to play the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday and Saturday.
Here’s our prediction for what the Sharks’ roster will look like at the start of the season.
Forwards (24)
ON THE TEAM (14) >> Logan Couture, Ryan Donato, Dylan Gambrell, Tomas Hertl, Evander Kane, Joel Kellman, Kevin Labanc, Patrick Marleau, Timo Meier, Matt Nieto, Stefan Noesen, Marcus Sorensen, Noah Gregor, John Leonard.
TAXI SQUAD (3) >> Joachim Blichfeld, Kurtis Gabriel, Fredrik Handemark.
BARRACUDA-BOUND (7) >> Lean Bergmann, Sasha Chmelevski, Jayden Halbgewachs, Maxim Letunov, Antti Suomela, Alexander True, Jeffrey Viel.
ANALYSIS >> Not a ton of mystery here as far who will be on the NHL roster. Leonard and Gregor are currently in the Sharks’ top-nine forward group after an impressive training camp and are shoo-ins to
Defensemen (12)
ON THE TEAM (7) >> Brent Burns, Mario Ferraro, Erik Karlsson, Jake Middleton, Radim Simek, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Nikolai Knyzhov.
TAXI SQUAD (2) >> Brinson Pasichnuk, Nicholas Meloche.
BA R R ACU DA- BOU N D (4) >> Trevor Carrick, Nick DeSimone, Ryan Merkley, Jaycob Megna (AHL contract).
ANALYSIS >> It sounds as if there’s still a question about Simek’s availability for Thursday. If Simek can’t play, we be in the opening-night lineup. would expect Knyzhov to get That’s a lot to put on a young the nod as the Sharks’ sixth defenseman, player’s plate, but overall, the playing alongside Sharks feel they have a deeper, Middleton on the third pair.
faster and a more ready forward We are curious about what group now than they did the Sharks do with Pasichnuk, coming out of camp in 2019. who’s had an impressive camp.
The taxi squad is a little If he’s not in the top six, is tougher to predict. Do the it better for him to be the seventh Sharks keep three extra forwards defenseman or a taxisquad or four? We chose Blichfeld player, practicing with because of his scoring NHL players? Or would he be touch, Gabriel because of the better served long-term practicing toughness that he brings, and with the Barracuda Handemark because of his for the next three weeks before ability to take draws and play the AHL season is scheduled center in a depth role. Only to begin? If he’s with the Gabriel would require waivers, ‘Cuda, he can play big minutes but he should have no trouble in games and take more time clearing. to adapt to being a pro. But, if he’s one of your best seven or eight defensemen right now, doesn’t he deserve to remain with the big club?
We have a pretty good sense that Merkley will be with the Barracuda when they begin practice next week. That should benefit him in the long run.
Goalies (4)
ON THE TEAM (2) >> Devan Dubnyk, Martin Jones
TAXI SQUAD (1) >> Alexei Melnichuk
BARRACUDA-BOUND >> Josef Korenar
ANALYSIS >> Jones and Dubnyk will be the Sharks’ two goalies at the start of the season and our opinion hasn’t changed on Melnichuk, who we think will be on the taxi squad so he can work with goalie coach Evgeni Nabokov on a daily basis. INSURANCE SIGNING >> Simek, who stayed off the ice for four days early this week with discomfort in his right knee, skated for the second straight day but was not slated to participate in Sunday night’s scrimmage. The Sharks added an insurance policy should Simek not be available. The team signed veteran free agent defenseman Fredrik Claesson to a one-year, two-way contract.
Claesson, 28, has played 155 NHL games over the past five seasons, including 113 games with the Ottawa Senators from 2015 to 2018 when he was teammates with Erik Karlsson.
It was unclear as of late Sunday afternoon when Claesson would be able to join the Sharks, who will be in the Phoenix area for at least the next six days.
• True, who was slowed down by a lower-body injury early in, was scheduled to play in the scrimmage, Boughner said.