The Sharks pared their active roster down to 22 players Monday, a list that, unlike recent seasons, does not feature a rookie.
The Sharks were allowed to carry 27 players on last week’s European trip, which ended with two losses to the Nashville Predators at the O2 Arena in Prague. But the Sharks had to submit a salary-cap compliant roster of no more than 23 players to the NHL by Monday at 2 pm (PT).
Any suspense as to who was going to be on the roster was eliminated Sunday when the Sharks placed goalie Aaron Dell and winger Jeffrey Viel on waivers and assigned forwards Thomas Bordeleau and William Eklund and defenseman Nick Cicek to their AHL affiliate, the Barracuda. Dell and Viel cleared waivers Monday.
Forward Alexander Barabanov and defenseman Markus Nutivaara are starting the season on injured reserve. Both players are eligible to be activated this week — if they’re healthy — in advance of Friday’s home opener against Brent Burns and the Carolina Hurricanes.
Defenseman Nikolai Knyzhov was also placed on IR and is not expected to be back until February or March as he recovers from a torn Achilles tendon.
Barabanov (upper body) appears to be getting closer to a return as he skated again Monday morning at Sharks Ice. Nutivaara (lower body) was considered day-to-day before the Sharks left for Europe on Oct. 1 but his status is uncertain.
The Sharks had a handful of rookies on their opening night roster last season, including forwards Eklund, Viel, Jasper Weatherby, and Santeri Hatakka.
No rookies are with the club right now, though, as Sharks management made a conscious effort to make sure first-year players earned NHL jobs out of camp and weren’t just handed opportunities to play.
As another example of how much the Sharks have changed, seven of the 22 players who were on last year’s opening night roster are no longer with the organization.
Per CapFriendly, the Sharks right now, with a 22-player roster, have $230,000 in space left under the NHL’s salary cap of $82.5 million.
Here was the Sharks roster as it was announced Monday afternoon.
FORWARDS (13): Nick Bonino, Logan Couture, Jonah Gadjovich, Noah Gregor, Tomas Hertl, Luke Kunin, Kevin Labanc, Oskar Lindblom, Steven Lorentz, Timo Meier, Matt Nieto, Nico Sturm, Evgeny Svechnikov. INJURED (1): Alexander Barabanov.
DEFENSEMEN (7): Matt Benning, Mario Ferraro, Scott Harrington, Erik Karlsson, Jaycob Megna. Radim Simek, Marc-Edouard Vlasic. INJURED (1): Markus Nutivaara.
GOALIES (2): Kaapo Kahkonen, James Reimer.