After a long travel delay, the San Jose Sharks have finally made it to Salt Lake City, where they’ll meet the Utah Mammoth at the Delta Center tonight in the first game of their weekend back-to-back.
The Sharks will be short-handed again. On Saturday morning, the team announced Alexander Wennberg will not be available for the matchup.
Utah is dealing with a much bigger pile of absences. Dylan Guenther, Logan Cooley, Nick Schmaltz, Nate Schmidt, John Marino, and Maveric Lamoureux are all out for the Mammoth, and Guenther, Cooley, and Schmaltz sit among Utah’s top five point producers early in the season.
Even with the injury list on both sides, this game still has plenty of edge. San Jose brings one of the league’s most physical players in Kiefer Sherwood, while Utah has been one of the NHL’s nastiest teams to play against, ranking third in hits with 532 to start the season.
Macklin Celebrini has already carved up the Mammoth in a small sample, posting nine points in five games with four goals and five assists. That scoring pace against Utah ranks third in the NHL, behind only Connor McDavid and Alex Ovechkin. Mason Marchment, Will Smith, and Tyler Toffoli have also produced at better than a point per game against the Mammoth in their careers.
On the other side, Clayton Keller has been a problem for the Sharks, with 32 points in 34 games against San Jose. Lawson Crouse has also found success, putting up 22 points in 30 games versus the Sharks.
Per NHL.com, Utah’s projected lineup features Anders Lee with Vincent Trocheck and Clayton Keller on the top line, followed by Daniil But, Barrett Hayton, and Kailer Yamamoto; Michael Carcone, Jack McBain, and Lawson Crouse; and Liam O’Brien, Kevin Stenlund, and Ben McCartney.
The Mammoth’s blue line is projected to include Mikhail Sergachev and Mackenzie Weegar, Dmitri Simashev and Andrew Peeke, and Artem Duda and Zac Jones, with Karel Vejmelka expected in goal and Sebastian Cossa backing him up.
San Jose’s projected forwards are Ivar Stenberg, Macklin Celebrini, and Will Smith; Mason Marchment, Michael Misa, and Collin Graf; Tyler Toffoli, Ty Dellandrea, and Kiefer Sherwood; and Barclay Goodrow, Zack Ostapchuk, and Adam Gaudette.
The Sharks’ defense pairs are listed as Darnell Nurse with Michael Kesselring, Sam Dickinson with Jacob Trouba, and Dmitry Orlov with Eric Pohlkamp. Yaroslav Askarov is projected to start, with Alex Nedeljkovic behind him.
In Other News...
Sharks Hit With Travel Chaos At The Worst Possible Time
A routine travel day turned into a headache for the Sharks when their flight was caught up in a nationwide grounding tied to a communications issue affecting air traffic control. The team was delayed at the airport and eventually had to deplane, an unwelcome interruption for a club trying to keep its schedule intact as it moved on to Utah.
Flights began to resume later in the night, giving San Jose a path to continue its trip after the unexpected stop-and-start. For a team already dealing with the usual grind of the road, the timing of the disruption made it especially inconvenient, even if it now appears the Sharks will still get where they need to go. [Read more 🡒]
Sharks Slow Start Has Fans Arguing One Uncomfortable Question
The Sharks rough opening month has pushed the conversation well beyond the standings and into the structure of how this team is being built. On a recent podcast, NHL video coach Steve Peters broke down the defensive-zone problems and forechecking issues that have shown up in specific goals against, while also digging into penalty-kill lapses that have made the early stretch even harder to navigate. It was the kind of film-room discussion that gives context to why the results have looked the way they have.
The broader evaluation at the quarter-season mark also turned to GM Mike Grier and head coach Ryan Warsofsky, with Dan Boyle offering thoughts on player development and the day-to-day dynamics inside the room. There is plenty of roster turnover to account for, and the coaching systems are still being sorted through, but the bigger question hanging over all of it is whether the current approach is accelerating growth fast enough for a team still searching for its footing. [Read more 🡒]
Sharks Suddenly Have A Live Simon Edvinsson Roster Watch
Simon Edvinssons situation has suddenly turned into one of the more intriguing roster watches around the league, and the Sharks are right in the middle of it. The young defenseman has until Dec. 1 to sign a contract that would let him play in the NHL this season, or he risks sitting out the entire year, which has put Detroit in a difficult spot as it weighs its options.
For San Jose, the wrinkle is obvious: the Sharks have already shown interest, and reports say they made a serious offer that the Red Wings turned down. Boston and Nashville are also in the mix, leaving Detroit to sort through a trade, a short-term contract, or the possibility of Edvinsson staying put and missing the season altogether. [Read more 🡒]