Sharks rookie fights Wild player on first shift of debut
Sharks winger Jeffrey Viel started with the right hand, coming in over the top three or four times against Minnesota Wild forward Luke Johnson. Viel then grabbed Johnson’s jersey near the front of the collar to free up his left hand, which he used to connect with a few shots before the linesmen stepped in to break up the scrap.
Viel then got up, spun around, and clapped his hands together before he skated toward the penalty box, hearing the appreciative stick-taps from his teammates.
Not bad for your first shift in the NHL.
“Yeah, it was obviously a huge honor,” to play in an NHL game, Viel said Monday night after the Sharks’ 4-3 shootout win over the Wild. “I think I played pretty good. Obviously had the butterflies for a while but I’m pretty proud of my game.”
Viel, 24, also created a scoring opportunity in his first NHL shift and finished with two hits in 7:28 of ice time, making a bid to be back in the Sharks’ lineup again Wednesday when they wrap up their twogame series with the Wild at SAP Center.
“It’s tough to make a statement on a guy after one game, but I liked what I saw,” Sharks coach Bob Boughner said. “He’s a guy that can help us. He’s sort of a jell guy. The players are
excited for him. Just a good guy that deserves his shot, has put his time in and I’m real happy for him.”
Viel’s night started on a funny note.
Like other players making their NHL debuts, Viel got the chance to skate out on the ice alone for a few seconds before the start of warmups. The only problem was once he came out of the Sharks’ locker room and stepped onto the ice, he turned left to the side of the ice where the Wild players were warming up, instead of right toward the Sharks’ end.
“That’s my old Barracuda warm-up,” Viel said with a laugh. “We usually go the other way from where we
come on, so, I thought it was pretty funny and the guys gave me a hard time about it.”
Viel became the third Sharks player to pick up a fighting major in his NHL debut. The others were Jeff Odgers on Oct. 29, 1991, and Brad Staubitz on Oct. 17, 2008.
Like Odgers and Staubitz, who were also undrafted and had to pay their dues in the minors, Viel didn’t have an easy path to his first NHL game.
Viel earned an AHL contract with the Barracuda in 2018 as he captained Acadie-bathurst to the Quebec Major Junior title and later the Memorial Cup. After his first season with
the Barracuda in which he had 22 points and 94 penalty minutes in 68 games, the Sharks gave him a twoyear, two-way contract.
“Great for him. He’s taken the long road here,” Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson said of Viel. “He’s a hard-working guy that hasn’t quit on his dream and today he got to experience it. I think he did a great job, even though he was probably a little bit nervous going out there for the warm-up.”
Viel played 54 games with the Barracuda in the shortened AHL season. His 103 penalty minutes were far and away the most on the team, but his 13 goals ranked fourth on the Barracuda.
Boughner said when the Sharks’ braintrust has met to discuss who to recall from the AHL given their needs, Viel’s name was usually mentioned.
“He might not be the guy down on the Barracuda with the best stat line, putting up big numbers in the American League,” Boughner said Tuesday.
“But he’s been from what I see when I watch the games is, (he’s) the heart soul of that team and a guy that’s a leader, takes care of people, works hard every day.
“I know the (Barracuda) coaching staff really appreciates him, so it was an easy decision to put him in there and give him a reward.”
The Sharks started Monday’s game with almost the exact same lineup they had for their season opener Jan. 14 against the Arizona Coyotes.
The exceptions? Rudolfs Balcers and Dylan Gambrell have replaced Noah Gregor and Joel Kellman in the forward group and the then-injured Radim Simek has taken over for Nicolas Meloche in the defense corps. Viel also stepped in Monday, taking the injured Matt Nieto’s forward spot from opening night.
It’s a testament to how healthy the Sharks have stayed for the most part. But it’s also a sign that perhaps there hasn’t been enough of a push from AHL players to take ownership of roster spots when they’ve been given the chance.
Gregor, Kellman, and Meloche are all back with the Barracuda after having played 15, four, and five NHL games this season, respectively.
Other organizational players have spent a limited amount of time with the big club, with forwards Fredrik Handemark, Sasha Chemelevski, Joachim Blichfeld, Antti Suomela, and Alex True playing a combined 23 NHL games.
As Boughner noted Tuesday, the Sharks are rotating players in and out of the NHL, making sure everyone stays fresh. Still, defenseman Nikolai Knyzhov is the only full-time Barracuda player from last season to have been with the Sharks for all of 2021.
Viel is the latest player from the Sharks’ farm club to get a chance. With Matt Nieto likely out for all of this week at least with a lowerbody injury, Viel has an opportunity to show he can contribute as a depth forward at this level. Viel will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights at season’s end.
For the moment, he’s got everyone’s attention.
“It’s a huge opportunity for me. Obviously, I want to make the most of it, and try to earn my spot every night,” Viel said. “Just got to keep working hard.”
“When he gets up here, he’s got to be responsible, he’s got to be tough and hard to play against,” Boughner said, “and that’s exactly what he did last night.”