With last night’s game in Winnipeg being the halfway point in the season for the San Jose Sharks, one key player was eligible to return to game action. Raffi Torres has served his 41-game suspension and the Sharks wasted little time in activating the 34-year-old forward.
This afternoon, general manager Doug Wilson announced that San Jose added Torres to their active roster and assigned him to a conditioning assignment with the San Jose Barracuda of the American Hockey League (AHL).
"We know Raffi can be a very effective player for our team and this assignment will allow him to get back into game shape." - DeBoer
— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) January 13, 2016
In order to make room for Torres on the active roster, the Sharks announced that forward Dainius Zubrus was placed on injured reserve with an upper-body injury.
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This is obviously a big step forward for Torres as he looks to resume his playing career in the NHL. Torres will spend time with the Barracuda, similar to how Alex Stalock and Matt Tennyson were assigned to the AHL affiliate on conditioning assignments.
It doesn’t appear as if Torres will play in tonight’s contest for San Jose against the San Diego Gulls, but he could make his season debut against Rockford on Jan. 15 according to Kevin Kurz of CSN Bay Area.
Hopefully for Torres and the Sharks, he can use this time to work himself back into game shape and see if he can still be an effective forward at this level.
It was just last week where Torres indicated that his repeated knee injuries could force him to step away from the game, but this conditioning assignment will be the first real test of that. While he’s been skating with the Sharks, he still hasn’t put together multiple practices it seems and obviously, hasn’t seen any game action.
If he can remain healthy, Torres would be another boost to the San Jose lineup. He could conceivably slot anywhere within the Sharks forward lines, but I would bet he slides right in for Mike Brown on the fourth line. This would still keep an element of physicality within the lineup, but would add the scoring and playmaking ability that Brown lacks.
Again, this is getting a little ahead of ourselves, but this is step one in Torres returning back to the Sharks and that’s an exciting prospect.
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For Zubrus, he has made very little impact during his tenure with San Jose. He was brought in at a time when the Sharks were hurting for forward depth and he was able to provide that. With players now returning from injury, he could be squeezed out of the lineup.
In 17 games with San Jose, Zubrus has one goal and one assist with a plus-three rating. It will be interesting to see whether the Sharks hold on to him once he’s healthy to return or if they keep him and send one of the younger forwards to the Barracuda.