According to Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News, the San Jose Sharks have placed forward Ty Dellandrea on injured reserve with a lower-body injury. The designation has likely been made retroactive to January 6th, meaning Dellandrea is eligible for activation whenever he’s healthy.
Dellandrea, 25, was given a day-to-day recovery timeline, so he should return to the Sharks’ lineup relatively soon. Pashelka suggested that his injury designation might indicate that young player Will Smith could be returning to the lineup tomorrow against the Detroit Red Wings. Smith has been recovering from an upper-body ailment and has not played in a contest with San Jose for over a month.
When healthy, Dellandrea was providing decent tertiary scoring to surprisingly competitve Sharks team. He had scored two goals and 11 points in 42 games, on best for the second-best point production in his career. A few years ago, then with the Dallas Stars, Dellandrea had scored nine goals and 28 points in 82 games.
The biggest part of Dellandrea’s game that San Jose will miss for the time being is his work in the faceoff dot. The former 13th overall pick has managed a 52.3% success rate in the dot across 511 faceoffs this season, which is even more impressive considering he’s begun over 70% of his shifts in the defensive zone at even strength.