As roster cuts loom, San Jose Sharks forwards make bids to stick around
Thomas Bordeleau and Evgeny Svechnikov didn’t win NHL roster spots Wednesday night but they might have earned longer looks in a San Jose Sharks training camp that’s rapidly winding down.
Bordeleau and Svechnikov both scored power-play goals and goalie Aaron Dell made 16 saves in his first exhibition action as the Sharks earned a 3-1 preseason win over the Los Angeles Kings at Toyota Arena in Ontario.
Defenseman Scott Harrington, in Sharks camp on a Professional Tryout, scored an empty net goal with 1:28 left in the third period to seal the victory.
Kevin Labanc and Timo Meier assisted on Bordeleau’s goal at the 5:54 mark of the first period and Radim Simek and Scott Reedy assisted on Svechnikov’s goal, which came on a five-minute second-period power play.
The Sharks are now 3-0-0 in the NHL preseason, which for them wraps up Friday night with split-squad games in Vegas and Anaheim.
The Sharks on Thursday are expected to make sizeable cuts to their training camp roster, which sat at 50 players before Wednesday’s game. The Sharks will have one group practice Thursday and will fly to Germany with as many as 27 players Saturday to begin its European trip.
The Sharks will play Eisbären Berlin at Mercedes-Benz Arena on Tuesday and open the regular season with games against the Nashville Predators on Oct. 7 and 8 at O2 Arena in Prague.
Bordeleau and Svechnikov are among a handful of forwards still vying to be part of the group that makes the trip overseas.
Bordeleau, 20, had five assists in the Sharks’ final eight games of last season and provided a big spark to a third line that at the time featured Noah Gregor and Rudolfs Balcers.
Now, though, that third line appears to be occupied by Gregor, Nick Bonino, and Luke Kunin, and with Tomas Hertl, Logan Couture and Nico Sturm apparently set as the first, second, and fourth line centers, there doesn’t appear to be much room for Bordeleau to crack the 23-man roster.
Svechnikov, 25, is aiming to make the Sharks as a depth winger and could be in line to become the Sharks’ 13th or 14th forward for the start of the regular season.
Other Sharks roster hopefuls that played Tuesday include Reedy, William Eklund and Jeffrey Viel.
Regardless of what happened Wednesday, Sharks coach David Quinn wanted to see everyone playing “with the right intentions.”
“If you’re playing with the right intentions and do the things other than what everybody focuses on, the goals and the assists,” Quinn said. “Now, don’t get me wrong, I want to score more goals than anybody and everybody, but there are a lot of things that lead into that, especially for young players.”
With Sharks defenseman Santeri Hatakka serving a holding penalty, Carl Grundstrom scored a power-play goal at the 2:28 mark of the third period.
Three separate panes of glass were dislodged from the stanchions at Toyota Arena on Wednesday, one in each period.
The first one happened with 5:07 left in the first period after Jacob Doty hit a Sharks player into the end boards, causing a long delay. The two teams then broke for the first intermission and completed the first period after the break before they went straight into the second period.
Doty was given a five-minute major for interference and a game misconduct at the 10:46 mark of the second period for a high hit on Viel, who was OK after the play.