San Jose Sharks Finalize Opening Night Roster
It appears the San Jose Sharks lineup for opening night has been set. On Monday morning, the Sharks announced that they reassigned the nine players they called up for Saturday’s preseason finale against the Anaheim Ducks, and three others to the San Jose Barracuda of the American Hockey League (AHL).
The big news were the three players San Jose decided to send to the Barracuda as they were the last three cuts from training camp. Those three individuals were Mirco Mueller, Nikolay Goldobin and Melker Karlsson.
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As it stands now, the San Jose Sharks now have 23 players on their roster and here’s the breakdown:
Goaltenders (2): Martin Jones and Alex Stalock
Defensemen (7): Justin Braun, Brent Burns, Dylan DeMelo, Brenden Dillon, Paul Martin, Matt Tennyson and Marc-Edouard Vlasic
Forwards (14): Mike Brown, Logan Couture, Joonas Donskoi, Barclay Goodrow, Tomas Hertl, Patrick Marleau, Matt Nieto, Joe Pavelski, Ben Smith, Joe Thornton, Chris Tierney, Raffi Torres, Joel Ward and Tommy Wingels
Karlsson isn’t a surprise to open with the Barracuda since he’s missed all of training camp while recovering from an undisclosed injury. As we stated over the weekend, Karlsson wasn’t going to feature in San Jose’s season opener, so makes sense to get him ready for the 2015-16 season by spending some time with the Barracuda.
Don’t expect his stint in the AHL to last very long.
For Mueller and Goldobin, it appears the organization wants them to spend more time developing in the AHL. Mueller appeared in 39 games with San Jose last season, but struggled to adapt to the NHL game. This should provide him an opportunity to refine his game while playing big minutes for the Barracuda.
The same holds true for Goldobin who should see plenty of ice time in a top-six role in the AHL. Goldobin is a highly skilled forward who didn’t quite have a spot on the Sharks at this point in time. Also, Goldobin is just 19-years-old and could use some time to work on his complete game before making the jump to the NHL.
Mueller and Goldobin could spend more time with the Barracuda, but will likely be one of the first ones called up should injury or suspensions occur. That may happen sooner rather than later as Torres is facing a potential suspension to begin the season.
The final roster spots appear to have gone to DeMelo and Tennyson on the back end, while Donskoi and Goodrow were likely the last of the forwards to make the opening night roster.
The nine players who were reassigned back to the Barracuda included goaltender Troy Grosenick, defensemen Karl Stollery and Gus Young, and forwards Bryan Lerg, Michael Haley, John McCarthy, Ryan Carpenter, Frazer McLaren and Jeremy Langlois.
The Sharks begin their 2015-16 campaign in just two days by visiting the Los Angeles Kings, while the Barracuda will host the Rockford IceHogs to kick off their inaugural season on Oct. 9 at SAP Center.
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