The San Jose Sharks are sure making the most of having the San Jose Barracuda situated right across the hallway. Ahead of tonight’s matchup against the New York Islanders, the Sharks recalled two former first-round picks as defenseman Mirco Mueller (2013) and forward Nikolay Goldobin (2014) are set to join NHL club.
For the 20-year-old Goldobin, this is already his third call-up of the season as the organization continues to get him into as much game action as possible between the Sharks and Barracuda. He’s shown flashes of the offensive potential he possesses as he scored his first career goal against the Islanders earlier this year, and made a perfect cross-ice feed to Marc-Edouard Vlasic for a beautiful one-time goal in a 5-2 win over the Florida Panthers.
In five games at the NHL level, Goldobin has two points, a plus-one rating and six shots on goal. With the return of Melker Karlsson from injury, it should be interesting if Goldobin finds himself in the lineup tonight. Karlsson will likely feature on the third-line so where does that leave Goldobin? I would like to see Goldobin continue to find himself in the Sharks lineup because he gives San Jose some depth on the offensive end of the ice.
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For Mueller, he throws himself on to the merry-go-round or revolving door of seventh defensemen who have been called up for different games by the Sharks. The Paul Martin injury has been the only time when San Jose has used a different set of defensemen than their usual six.
Mueller has played just one game with the Sharks this season, after featuring in 39 games during his rookie campaign. He’s added one goal and one assist with a plus-one rating in six games with the Barracuda this year.
Peter DeBoer hasn’t settled on his final lineup or line combinations so we won’t know until later whether either Goldobin or Mueller will play tonight (via Curtis Pashelka of the San Jose Mercury News).
Jones tonight for #SJSharks. DeBoer hasn't decided line combos, so no word if Goldobin will play (or Mueller on D)
— Curtis Pashelka (@CurtisPashelka) November 10, 2015
My guess would be that Goldobin will find himself in the lineup, while Mueller will likely find himself in the press box. It will be more interesting to see which defenseman will accompany the Sharks on their six-game road trip, that might be more telling.
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Regardless, San Jose needs to find a way to secure two points tonight. They can ill-afford to head back East following a 1-3 home stand and below .500 for the first time all season.