The Sharks have placed John Klingberg on injured reserve and recalled forward Patrick Giles from the San Jose Barracuda to fill the open roster spot.
Klingberg suffered a lower-body injury against the Wild that forced him to miss their last game against the Lightning. He will now head to IR for at least a week. Per Sheng Peng, Warsofsky is optimistic that Klingberg will be able to return after the 1-week IR period ends.
Klingberg has been able to turn around what was a disastrous start to his Sharks campaign. He has five goals and 7 points over his last 10 games and now has 16 points in 31 games, good for a 37-point pace over 72 games. In the process, he has made himself one of the Sharks' more valuable defenders, and losing him for any amount of time will be a blow to a Sharks team that has been playing pretty good hockey as of late.
Replacing him on the roster will be Patrick Giles. The 26-year-old center has an assist in 3 games this season, while posting 9 points in 28 AHL games for the Cuda. Giles is good in the faceoff dot, but doesn’t provide much else. The Sharks have been carrying 8-9 defensemen at times this season, which gives them an extra forward for the time being, barring injury. Giles shouldn't be expected to get much of a look in the lineup.
On the backend, Klingberg's injury coincides with Liljegren's return, so the Sharks will likely not change their defensive deployment too much, with Orlov and Liljegren assuming most of the offensive responsibility on the backend. It would be interesting to see them give Sam Dickinson a larger look offensively. Still, given that he is on the left side, it is harder to move him up the lineup past Orlov and Ferraro right now, while Liljegren replaces Klingberg's right shot on the power play.