The Sharks will have forward Ty Dellandrea back in the lineup tonight against the Canucks, head coach Ryan Warsofsky tells Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News. They’ll need to open a roster spot to activate him from injured reserve, which they’ll likely do by transferring Nikolai Kovalenko to IR.
Dellandrea last played on Jan. 23, missing four games with an upper-body injury. He also missed four games with a UBI earlier in the year and has been healthy scratched on a few occasions, limiting him to 41 of San Jose’s 55 games. Aside from ranking third on the team with 99 hits, he hasn’t been much of a factor. He has just one goal and four assists with a -15 rating, averaging 11:45 per game and posting some of the worst possession metrics on the team with a 41.9 CF% at even strength.
He has been an infrequent penalty killer, averaging around a minute per game shorthanded. It’s still not quite what the Sharks expected out of Dellandrea when they parted ways with a fourth-round pick to acquire his signing rights from the Stars last summer, one year removed from a 28-point campaign in Dallas. The 2018 first-round pick regressed to nine points in 42 games last year, though, so there were warning signs that his offensive development had stagnated.
The 24-year-old signed a two-year, $2.6MM contract with San Jose, so he’ll have another year to prove he’s an NHLer, barring a trade in the next few months. If he can’t add more value via his point totals or in his possession game, he’s a non-tender candidate in the summer of 2026.
Dellandrea will center the fourth line between Carl Grundström and recent waiver pickup Walker Duehr in his return, sending Colin White to the press box (via Max Miller of The Hockey News).
Kovalenko, meanwhile, missed their Tuesday game against Montreal with an undisclosed injury and isn’t expected back before the 4 Nations Face-Off. He’s one of a long list of IR-bound Sharks that includes Klim Kostin, Jan Rutta, Nico Sturm, and captain Logan Couture, who’s yet to play this season due to osteitis pubis.