- San Jose Sharks forward Kevin Labanc could be in the lineup as soon as this weekend, according to Corey Masisak of The Athletic, but the forward will consult with the doctor who performed his recent surgery before being completely cleared for action. Labanc went under the knife in December to repair a dislocated shoulder and has played just 21 games so far this season.
Sharks Rumors
Kevin Labanc Could Return Next Week
- The Sharks could get winger Kevin Labanc back at some point next week, notes Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News. The 26-year-old has been out since undergoing shoulder surgery back in mid-November. It had been a disappointing season for Labanc prior to the injury as he had just three goals and three assists in 21 games and with San Jose ten points out of a playoff spot heading into Monday’s games, his return will be more about trying to rediscover his offensive form over helping a late playoff push.
Lane Pederson Re-Assigned To AHL
- Forward Lane Pederson was re-assigned to the San Jose Barracuda of the AHL a day after the San Jose Sharks recalled him to play in Saturday’s win over the Anaheim Ducks. Pederson has just two assists in 27 games with the Sharks this season, but does have an impressive six goals and four assists in 11 games for the Barracuda.
Sharks Recall Lane Pederson
- The Sharks have promoted center Lane Pederson from AHL San Jose, per the AHL’s transactions log. The 24-year-old cleared waivers last month and has been productive with the Barracuda, collecting 10 points in 11 games, a sharp contrast from the two assists he has in 26 games at the NHL level.
Tampa Bay Lightning Acquire Alexei Melnichuk
The Tampa Bay Lightning have acquired goalie Alexei Melnichuk from the San Jose Sharks in exchange for forward Antoine Morand, per The Mercury News’ Curtis Pashelka.
In Melnichuk, Tampa receives a goalie who had strong NHL upside at one point but seems to have bottomed out in North America. The Sharks signed him as an undrafted free agent after a strong 2019-20 season in Russia, where he had a .930 save percentage in 16 KHL games with SKA St. Petersburg. Since coming to the Sharks organization, though, he’s failed to post a save percentage above .900 at any level. He has an .867 in 31 AHL games with the San Jose Barracuda this year.
Morand has now been traded in consecutive seasons. Originally a Ducks prospect, he was dealt to Tampa Bay last season. In 44 games with the Syracuse Crunch this season, though, he had just ten points.
Sharks, Rangers Swap Nick Merkley, Anthony Bitetto
The San Jose Sharks have acquired defenseman Anthony Bitetto from the New York Rangers, who will be sending Nicholas Merkley in return.
Bitetto, 31, has been nothing more than a minor league depth option for the Rangers this season, seeing all game action in the AHL. His 39 games for the Hartford Wolf Pack are actually the most AHL games he’s played since 2014-15, when he had still yet to even break into the NHL with the Nashville Predators. He perhaps will get a chance to see some time with the Sharks after their trade of Jacob Middleton, though things are still rather crowded there. If he does go to the San Jose Barracuda, it could be in an attempt to steal the last AHL playoff spot in the Pacific Division, which is currently the San Diego Gulls just five points ahead.
Interestingly, Merkley’s addition could be the much more impactful one. The 24-year-old forward has just 41 games of NHL experience under his belt, but has been great for the Barracuda this season with 36 points in 43 games. A first-round pick in 2015, Merkley has yet to really establish himself as anything more than a minor league top-six forward.
In fact, given how few NHL games he has played to this point, Merkley is actually set to become a Group VI unrestricted free agent in the offseason when his one-year, two-way contract expires. Perhaps a good showing with the Hartford Wolf Pack–with how much depth the Rangers added up front today, it seems unlikely he’ll spend much time with them down the stretch–would earn him another deal with the organization.
San Jose Trades Andrew Cogliano To Colorado Avalanche
The Colorado Avalanche are acquiring forward Andrew Cogliano from the San Jose Sharks, per TSN’s Bob McKenzie. TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reports San Jose receives a fifth-round pick in 2024. It’s another depth acquisition, secondary to the team’s bigger splash of acquiring Artturi Lehkonen just a few minutes ago.
Cogliano adds a veteran element to Colorado that Lehkonen doesn’t bring. The unheralded versatile forward can play any forward position and has 1,122 NHL games under his belt. He had 15 points in 56 games with San Jose this season, a sizeable uptick in his offensive production from the past few seasons.
Known for his durability, Cogliano went from the beginning of his career in 2007 to the 2017-18 season without missing a single game. Cogliano carries a $1MM cap hit and is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.
AHL Shuffle: 03/21/22
It’s certainly a busy day in the NHL today with the trade deadline just hours away plus four games on the schedule. There will be considerable roster movement on the trade front while there will be plenty of paper moves made prior to the 2 PM CT deadline made to give players eligibility to play in the minors down the stretch. We’ll keep track of those moves here.
Atlantic Division
Metropolitan Division
- The Penguins announced (Twitter link) that they’ve sent winger Radim Zohorna to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL. The 25-year-old has three points in a dozen games this season with Pittsburgh while adding 15 points in 31 minor league contests.
- The Washington Capitals re-assigned forward Brett Leason to the Hershey Bears of the AHL (link). Leason had just been recalled by the Capitals yesterday, but the re-assignment could be to simply keep Leason’s AHL eligibility for the remainder of the season intact.
Central Division
- The Predators have sent defenseman Jeremy Davies back to Milwaukee, per the AHL’s transactions log. Davies was brought up on Saturday but with Nashville adding Jeremy Lauzon from Seattle late on Sunday, the 25-year-old can head back to the minors.
- The Dallas Stars have sent goaltender Adam Scheel back to the AHL after acquiring Scott Wedgewood yesterday. Scheel, 22, has up as an emergency backup and never actually saw any NHL action. The young netminder is in his first full season of professional hockey.
- The Winnipeg Jets have reassigned Ville Heinola, Jeff Malott, and Kristian Reichel have all been reassigned to the minor leagues, making them eligible. Notably, Cole Perfetti is not with this group, suggesting that his time in the minor leagues is over after impressing so far.
- After making several trades in the past 24 hours, the Arizona Coyotes have recalled two players from the Tuscon Roadrunners of the AHL: forward Michael Carcone and goaltender Josef Korenar. Carcone has played just two games at the NHL level, both coming this season, however he has been a productive AHL player, tallying 24 goals and 17 assists in 48 games with Tuscon this season. Korenar has not played in the NHL yet this season, but did play in 10 games for the San Jose Sharks in 2020-21 and was moved to Arizona this offseason as part of the Adin Hill trade.
- Having traded goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to the Minnesota Wild, the Chicago Blackhawks have recalled goaltender Collin Delia from the Rockford IceHogs of the AHL. Delia has had a solid season playing for Rockford, but has only appeared in two NHL games thus far in 2021-22.
Pacific Division
- The Kraken announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled winger Kole Lind from AHL Charlotte. Lind has played in seven games with Seattle this season after being their pick in expansion from Vancouver but has spent most of the year in the minors. Seattle has also activated winger Joonas Donskoi off injured reserve.
- The Edmonton Oilers have recalled Brad Malone from the AHL after he played a game with the Bakersfield Condors over the weekend. The 32-year-old is actually the captain of the minor league club, but after converting his contract to an NHL deal has played six games for the Oilers.
- Jake Leschyshyn and Brayden Pachal are heading back up to the Vegas Golden Knights. Leschyshyn’s seen a lot of NHL opportunities this year, getting into 27 games this year and notching his first five NHL points. Pachal made his NHL debut recently before immediately getting sent back down, but he may get another chance here in some NHL games.
- The San Jose Sharks announced they have re-assigned goaltender Zach Sawchenko to the San Jose Barracuda of the AHL. In addition to this, the team recalled forward Sasha Chmelevski and defenseman Ryan Merkley from the Barracuda, and activated Radim Simek off of injured-reserve.
- After placing Michael Amadio and Zach Whitecloud in COVID protocol and trading away Evgenii Dadonov, the Vegas Golden Knights announced they have called up four players: forwards Paul Cotter and Jonas Rondbjerg and defensemen Daniil Miromanov and Zack Hayes. Of this group, only Hayes does not have any NHL playing experience, spending this season and last in the AHL with the Henderson Silver Knights, and the Prince Albert Raiders of the WHL before that.
- The Vancouver Canucks also made a flurry of AHL assignments, primarily for the purpose of keeping players’ AHL ability alive. The organization announced it assigned forwards Sheldon Rempal, Vasily Podkolzin, and Nic Petan, as well as defenseman Noah Juulsen to the Abbotsford Canucks. Podkolzin and Petan were immediately recalled back to Vancouver.
- The Anaheim Ducks announced they have recalled forward Danny O’Regan from the San Diego Gulls of the AHL. O’Regan, 28, has played parts of four seasons dating back to 2016-17, including four games this season with Anaheim.
This post will be updated throughout the day.
Latest On James Reimer's Trade Market
- The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun reported that interest in San Jose Sharks goaltender James Reimer had been picking up, however he’s not sure if the Sharks will end up wanting to move the goaltender. Reimer has another season at $2.25MM left on his contract and has performed well for the rebuilding Sharks. After a promising start tot he season, the Sharks have fallen off, however they could be in line to turn the corner on their rebuild faster than expected, and keeping Reimer around could help to facilitate that. On the other hand, several teams are in need of goaltending, and Reimer’s extra year at an incredibly fair $2.25MM cap hit could land San Jose a return that is too good not to take.
San Jose Sharks Listening To Offers On Barabanov, Others
- The San Jose Sharks haven’t had any talks on a new deal for pending unrestricted free agent Alexander Barabanov, per The Mercury News’ Curtis Pashelka. Assistant general manager Joe Will, who’s in effect the team’s interim GM while Doug Wilson is away on a medical leave of absence, knows that “[the team] is trying to replenish” and is listening to offers on many other pending UFAs as well. Barabanov’s continued a strong end to the 2020-21 campaign after being acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs, posting 30 points in 51 games while receiving top-six minutes. It could be a bit of buyer beware in this case, though, as many advanced metrics suggest the 27-year-old’s production can be strongly attributed to playing with Tomas Hertl.