Sam Dickinson is set to get his first look of the season Monday night, with the San Jose Sharks inserting the defenseman into the lineup against the Dallas Stars to begin a two-game road trip.
Dickinson will step in for Nolan Allan and skate alongside Jacob Trouba as San Jose tries to make it three straight wins to open the season. The 20-year-old had been a healthy scratch through the first two games while Allan, coming off a strong training camp, earned the opening-night nod.
Before sitting out the season opener against the Florida Panthers, Dickinson said, “I don’t worry about the lineup or anything like that. I just try to focus on myself and my game,”
“I want to play, and I want to play every game, and I want to play a lot of minutes.”
Allan has had a mixed start to his season. He logged 20:44 in the Sharks’ 4-3 overtime win over Florida, then saw that number drop to 16:00 in Saturday’s 5-4 overtime win over the Los Angeles Kings. A big part of that was situational: San Jose killed only three penalties against the Kings after facing six against the Panthers.
He also scored his second career NHL goal Saturday, finishing a Michael Misa feed with a shot past Kings goalie Anton Forsberg at 12:32 of the second period. But later in the game, an Allan turnover helped set up Artemi Panarin’s tying goal with 5:00 left in the third period.
Even so, Dickinson was always the likeliest change if the Sharks decided to shake up the blue line, and the team probably didn’t want him sitting too long.
Yaroslav Askarov will get the start in net again. Through two games, he has stopped 54 of 61 shots for an .885 save percentage. The bigger issue for San Jose has been what’s happening in front of him: turnovers and shaky defending have left the Sharks giving up 21 high-danger chances in two games, one of the highest per-game marks in the NHL according to Natural Stat Trick.
At 5-on-5, the Trouba-Allan duo has been outchanced 4-1 in high-danger opportunities, while the Dmitry Orlov-Luca Cagnoni pair has fared even worse, with the opposition holding a 9-1 edge.
Adam Gaudette is also traveling with the team and has resumed skating, but he remains on injured reserve. Coach Ryan Warsofsky said the winger still needs more practice time before he can be activated. Gaudette missed most of training camp with an upper body injury and did not appear in a preseason game.
San Jose is scheduled to practice Tuesday and Wednesday before wrapping up the trip against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday.
Elsewhere on the roster, center Patrick Giles cleared waivers Monday and was assigned to the Barracuda after starting the regular season on the Sharks’ injured non-roster list. Giles was hurt in San Jose’s preseason game against the Vegas Golden Knights on Sept. 22 and had been considered day-to-day.
The Barracuda split their first two games against the San Diego Gulls over the weekend and will host the Tucson Roadrunners on Friday and Saturday. Giles put up 24 points in 67 games with the Barracuda last season.
In Other News...
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Ryan Warsofsky has also pointed to the value Toffoli provides beyond the scoresheet, especially for younger players still learning how to handle the grind shift to shift. His composure has given the Sharks a more reliable option in the middle of their forward mix, and the early results suggest this could be more than a hot opening stretch. The bigger question now is whether the combination keeps growing as opponents get a better read on it and the season settles into its longer test. [Read more 🡒]
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Depth is where the test gets trickier. Adam Gaudettes upper-body issue has already pushed him onto injured reserve, and Alex Barr-Boulet is also sidelined, leaving the Sharks thinner while the games come fast. In net, Yaroslav Askarov has gotten the initial starts and the plan is to manage that workload carefully through the busy stretch, which makes every night a little more interesting as San Jose tries to protect its start and keep the early noise from turning into an early grind. [Read more 🡒]
Red Wings Suddenly Face Real Risk With Simon Edvinsson
Alex Ovechkins announcement that 2026-27 will be his final NHL season added another layer to a busy stretch around the league, but the more immediate intrigue for West Coast teams is what comes next in the trade market. The San Jose Sharks have at least been part of the conversation, with Winnipeg and San Jose discussing a possible Connor Hellebuyck deal as clubs keep weighing whether veteran help lines up with their bigger timelines.
For the Sharks, the appeal is obvious: a goalie of Hellebuycks caliber would change the conversation in a hurry. But there are real questions about whether their current competitive window is far enough along to make that kind of move fit, which is why the talks have carried tension even before any serious momentum has built. Around the league, that same push-pull between urgency and timing is shaping everything from Detroits concerns with Simon Edvinsson to Edmontons search for forward depth, and San Jose is right in the middle of the broader debate. [Read more 🡒]