The San Jose Sharks have reassigned forward Oskar Lindblom to their AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda. In order to complete this reassignment, Lindblom was activated off of injured reserve, where he had been placed during his recovery from a lower-body injury.
Lindblom has been out of commission since a November 10th contest against the Vegas Golden Knights. The 27-year-old former 17-goal scorer has struggled since signing a $2.5MM AAV contract with the Sharks.
He spent all of last season in San Jose, skating in 73 NHL games for the club. Lindblom only managed to put together six goals and 15 points in that span, though, and entering 2023-24 his grip on a regular job in the Sharks’ forward corps was shaky.
He ultimately could not secure a regular role in head coach David Quinn’s lineup for 2023-24, and began the season in the minors. He’s now set to return to the Barracuda, who he scored two points in eight games with earlier this season. Lindblom does have some demonstrated production in the AHL level, as he scored 16 goals and 34 points in his last extended stint in the AHL.
If the 2020-21 Bill Masterton Trophy winner can manage to have that sort of season in 2023-24, that would certainly help the Barracuda. San Jose’s AHL affiliate are currently 27th in the AHL with an 8-11-4 record, and have not reached the postseason since 2020-21.