Switzerland Hoping To Climb International Ladder At Olympics
Next week, NHL players will take the ice at the Winter Olympics for the first time since 2014. As much has changed in the 12 years since, the medal odds have remained the same. This year’s tournament is expected to be – above all else – a showdown between Team Canada and Team USA rosters stocked to the brim with NHL stars of past and present. Sweden and Finland fall in naturally behind the North American countries, rounding out the usual four-headed fight to leave with a medal. But thanks to some injuries to the top dogs, one underdog seems to stand out from the rest of the pack.
No – it’s not Czechia, which won the 2024 World Championship on the backs of the same players who will anchor their Olympic roster. Lukas Dostal, David Pastrnak, Martin Necas, and Tomas Hertl will pose major threats on Olympic ice – but injuries to Pavel Zacha and Filip Chytil may have irreparably damaged their depth chart. Instead, this year’s underdogs could be the Swiss, who have honed a roster of veterans into the perfect mix of reliability and explosivity.
Switzerland is led by one-time Norris Trophy winner Roman Josi, who continues to bring a dominant impact to both ends of the ice, even after losing 29 games of last season to injury. Josi poise, control, and perspective needed to lead a surging lineup. In speaking about Switzerland’s approach with NHL.com’s Dan Rosen, Josi said:
We know the teams that are coming here, the players that are here, but I think we can have a lot of confidence in our game. Obviously, this is a different beast than World Championships, but we’ve played some really good World Championship tournaments and got some momentum.
Josi added that this is the first time that Switzerland’s stars have had a chance to play at full strength. This is only the second time in the last five years that Switzerland has had each of Roman Josi, Nico Hischier, Kevin Fiala, and budding top-defender J.J. Moser on an international lineup. The other instance was at the 2024 World Championship, where the Swiss went on a mad dash to the Gold medal game, only to lose to the aforementioned Czechia. While Josi didn’t return for the 2025 tournament, Switzerland still managed to repeat as Silver medalists, this time losing to Team USA in their first World Championship win of the 2000s.
Back-to-back silver medal wins brought Switzerland up to four second-place finishes across the last 13 years. Before then, the Swiss hadn’t medaled in 14 years, not since their trifecta of medals won between 1994 and 1997.
Now, Switzerland faces the ultimate test. They have never medaled at an Olympic game with NHL talent – but this year offer an interesting mix of talent. Josi and Hischier offer stalwart reliability at both positions, capable as both playmakers and defenders. They’re complimented by Kevin Fiala, an electric scorer who seems to bring a bit extra to international competition. Fiala has led Switzerland’s last three World Championship rosters in points-per-game scoring and should continue to pop next to stars.
More than their top-end, Switzerland is bringing the fifth-most NHL talent in the tournament – the most outside the typical big-four. That standing has been propped up by injuries to other clubs but Switzerland’s flanks bring a lot of heft. Moser looks capable of standing up to the ever-important #2 role, while Jonas Siegenthaler‘s upside as a shutdown defender should hedge the team’s second pair. They’ll get similar support from Timo Meier and Nino Niederreiter on offense. Meier has 28 points in 52 NHL games and Niederreiter has 19 points in 55 games, down years for both players though they’ve also shown some extra spark in past international games.
The Nati will be rounded out with some shreds of upside. Philipp Kurashev was having a career-year before running into injury at the end of 2025. He has totaled 17 points and a plus-three in 34 games – notably his first NHL season with a positive plus-minus. Former Colorado Avalanche winger Sven Andrighetto has stepped up as a star scorer in Switzerland’s top pro league in his post-NHL days. He is one of five players scoring at a point-per-game pace in that league, with 35 points in as many games. Also on that list is former Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs forward Denis Malgin, who has 41 points in 41 games. That duo will stand as potential X-factors who can score important goals ,even if their point totals don’t pop.
These strengths are built on what is, still, a lineup far away from the strength of the top-four. Switzerland is rolling out Akira Schmid as their starting goaltender. He has played a career-high 29 NHL games this season and has 16 wins and a .895 save percentage to show for it – stout marks behind a strong Vegas Golden Knights club. But goaltending will still be Switzerland’s biggest weaknesses, not supported by a similarly shaky defense behind their three NHL talents.
Sweden is missing Lucas Carlsson and Jonas Brodin, two hard-hitters who would have filled important roles this tournament. Finland is missing star center Aleksander Barkov. Could those absences leave enough room for Switzerland to push into medal contention? If they bring the might they’ve shown at the World Championships, it could be. Even if the Swiss don’t medal, a standout tournament could put them at the level of, or even above, fellow up-and-comers like Czechia and Slovakia.
Golden Knights’ Jonas Rondbjerg Ruled Out Of Olympics
2/8: Denmark has announced their replacement following Rondbjerg’s injury. They’ve added left-defenseman Malte Setkov, bringing the roster to a conventional 14 forwards and seven defenders after Denmark originally rostered 15 forwards. Setkov has spent the last four seasons in Denmark’s top league. He has 13 goals and 30 points in 39 games this season, a career-high scoring pace.
2/6: Team Denmark will enter the 2026 Winter Olympics without one of their five NHL forwards. Vegas Golden Knights winger Jonas Rondbjerg has been ruled out due to a lower-body injury sustained during Vegas’ Sunday loss to the Anaheim Ducks, Denmark general manager Morten Green told local news channel TV 2 Sport.
Rondbjerg was placed on Vegas’ injured reserve on Monday. He missed the Golden Knights’ last two games before the Winter Olympics break, replaced by rookie forward Kai Uchacz.
Now, Rondbjerg will lose his first chance to represent Denmark at the Olympic Games. He joined the country at the Olympic Game Qualifiers in 2025 and scored one goal in three games. That chip, and his physical presence, helped lift Denmark to the top of Group F.
Rondbjerg was one of only seven NHL players on Denmarks 2026 Olympics roster. His peers include the Hurricanes’ Nikolaj Ehlers, Lightning’s Oliver Bjorkstrand, Senators’ Lars Eller, and Kraken’s Oscar Fisker Molgaard on offense.
That bunch will make up the bulk of Denmark’s top lines, while Rondbjerg was set for a pillaring role in the team’s bottom-six. The 6-foot-2 forward has split the season between the NHL and AHL, netting one point in four games with Vegas and 23 points in 36 games with the Henderson Silver Knights. He offers a reserved, physical presence that could have boosted Denmark’s odds against physical teams like Finland and USA.
Who Denmark will choose to replace Rondbjerg will be an interesting question to answer. Winger Felix Maegaard Scheel, 33, joined Denmark’s national team for three games earlier this season. He has served an extra forward role at the last four World Championships and currently has 11 points in 29 games in Germany’s DEL. Denmark could also opt for Viktors Čubars, who leads the country’s top league in scoring with 57 points in 40 games. Other local options could include Patrick Bjorkstrand or Oliver True, Ehlers’ cousin.
Or, if Denmark wants to maintain their NHL connection, they could opt for former Chicago Blackhawks draft pick (2016 fifth-round) Mathias From, who has 53 points in 42 games in Austria’s IceHL.
Morning Notes: Crosby, Cossa, Carfagna
In a move that should not come as a surprise to anyone, Hockey Canada has named legendary forward Sidney Crosby its captain for the upcoming men’s hockey tournament at the Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina. Team Canada’s leadership group is rounded out by Connor McDavid and Cale Makar, who will each wear an “A” on their jersey for the tournament.
This is not Crosby’s first time captaining the Canadian national team. He captained the team at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, leading Canada to a gold medal. He also wore the “C” at the 2015 IIHF Men’s World Championship, the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, last year’s 4-Nations Face-Off and last year’s World Championship. He’s widely considered to be among the greatest players in Canadian history, and owns one of the country’s most iconic hockey moments – his “Golden Goal” at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Now 38 years old, it’s entirely possible this is Crosby’s final Olympic tournament, and while McDavid is his obvious successor as captain, Crosby will at least get one more run to try to lead Canada to another gold medal.
Other notes from around the hockey world:
- 23-year-old Sebastian Cossa, who was the No. 15 pick of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft by the Detroit Red Wings, is making a real push for consideration for an NHL roster spot, writes Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen. Cossa has gone 20-4-2 with a .928 save percentage on a juggernaut Grand Rapids team, the best season of his young pro career. While offseason acquisition John Gibson has been solid as Detroit’s starter (22-12-2, .904 save percentage), the grip of veteran backup Cam Talbot on an NHL roster spot is likely less firm. In 24 games this season, Talbot, who is 38 years old, has an .892 save percentage, which ranks inside the bottom-15 in the league among netminders with at least 20 games played.
- Another young player making a push for consideration to land on his team’s NHL roster is Edmonton Oilers prospect defenseman Damien Carfagna. The 23-year-old undrafted blueliner is playing his first campaign as a professional, and has scored 13 points in 40 AHL games for the Bakersfield Condors. The Athletic’s Allan Mitchell wrote that Carfagna “appears close to NHL ready” and could see a call-up to Edmonton thanks in large part to his skating, which Mitchell called “exceptional at the AHL level.”
Pavel Zacha To Miss Olympics
The Bruins will have one less participant at the upcoming Olympics while Czechia will be down a key center. The IIHF announced (Twitter link) that Pavel Zacha will not be participating in the event due to injury. He has been replaced by middleman Filip Chlapik.
Zacha has been dealing with a lower-body injury for a little more than a week after sustaining it late last month against Philadelphia, ultimately causing him to miss the Winter Classic as well. Originally, head coach Marco Sturm had noted that the injury wasn’t expected to force him to miss the Olympics which suggests that Zacha’s recovery hasn’t gone quite as well as they hoped so far. Now, he’ll get three extra weeks to recover before games resume toward the end of the month.
The 28-year-old is in the midst of a solid season, notching 15 goals and 22 assists in 54 games while averaging a little over 17 minutes per night of ice time. That production has been good enough to place him fourth in team scoring at the break.
It’s likely that Zacha would have had a similar role at the Olympics that he has in Boston, serving as a second-line center while seeing time on both special teams units. Coincidentally, he sits fourth in scoring among NHLers on the Czech roster, behind teammate David Pastrnak, Colorado’s Martin Necas, and Vegas’ Tomas Hertl.
As for Chlapik, he was a second-round pick by Ottawa in 2015 and got into 57 games with them over parts of four seasons before being granted his release back in 2021. Since then, he has spent the majority of his time playing at home with HC Sparta Praha and sits third in Extraliga scoring this season with 19 goals and 26 assists in 45 games.
Team Canada To Replace Injured Brayden Point With Seth Jarvis
After five days of practices, Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brayden Point has determined he will not be healthy enough to join Team Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics. He has been removed from the roster and will be replaced by Carolina Hurricanes’ winger Seth Jarvis, per Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic and Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
Point sustained a knee injury in Tampa Bay’s January 12th win over the Philadelphia Flyers. The injury knocked him off the ice until last Saturday, when he returned to practice with the hopes of working back to health in time for a trip to Milan, per Eduardo A. Encina of Tampa Bay Times. Despite that return, Point has determined he won’t be at 100 percent before games kick off. Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois commended Point – and Tampa Bay teammate Anthony Cirelli – for their selflessness in giving up their spot rather than trying to play through injury in a text to LeBrun.
This switch will bring on some stylistic changes for Team Canada. Point is often used as a center, though seemed headed for a wing-role in Milan in part thanks to his 45.9 faceoff percentage this season. He is a reserved scorer who has managed 11 goals and 30 points in 37 games, typically finding his scoring chances from the slot. Jarvis has proven much more aggressive in recent years, typically operating as the first-man-in on Carolina’s forecheck and cutting his teeth in board battles. He has 69 hits on the season to Point’s four. Jarvis has also scored 25 goals and 43 points in 48 games, continuing his knack for strong scoring after cresting the 30-goal and 65-point mark in each of the last two seasons.
Both players found an impact for Team Canada at the 2025 4-Nations Face-Off. Point served up the lineup and managed two points in four games, while Jarvis defaulted to the bottom-six and scored one assist in three games. They were both on the ice for the tournament finale against Team USA, where Point’s 21 minutes of ice time ranked second on the offense behind only Connor McDavid. Jarvis played roughly 13 minutes in that game – second-lowest on the team ahead of Brad Marchand.
That deployment goes far in painting Canada’s view of the two stars. While Jarvis has acheived more success this season, he is still the junior to two-time Stanley Cup winner Point. Jarvis is six years younger and still carving out his presence in the NHL. This year’s Winter Olympics could go far in helping cement his status, especially after Jarvis only attended two tournaments with Canada – the 2019 World U-17 Hockey Championshp and Hlinka Gretzky Cup – prior to his selection to the 4-Nations roster. This will be his biggest stage yet and it comes at a perfect time. Jarvis is red-hot, with 10 points and a plus-eight in his last nine games, of which Carolina has won seven.
Notably, this decisions will leave Winnipeg Jets star Mark Scheifele and Chicago Blackhawks cornerstone Connor Bedard both at home. Scheifele hasn’t represented Canada internationally since the 2017 World Championship when he scored eight points in 10 games. Nearly a decade later, the Jets alternate captain is on pace for 40 goals and 100 points this season – so far at 27 goals and 68 points in 56 games. Bedard has offered plenty of offensive punch of his own, with 23 goals and 53 points in 43 games on a struggling Blackhawks offense. The duo are two of the league’s most skilled scorers but will be superceded by a winger who offers a bit more intangibles.
Photo courtesy of Sergei Belski-Imagn Images.
Anthony Cirelli To Miss Olympics
In an unfortunate update, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman shared that Tampa Bay Lightning forward Anthony Cirelli will be unable to play for Team Canada in the upcoming Olympics due to injury. Friedman added that Sam Bennett would replace Cirelli on Team Canada’s roster.
Cirelli, 28, sustained the injury in Tampa Bay’s Stadium Series win over the Boston Bruins. He was on the receiving end of a hard hit from Bruins forward Mark Kastelic in the first period and didn’t return to the game. He finished the game with a +1 rating in 6:25 of action.
Since then, there haven’t been any firm updates. After the game, head coach Jon Cooper was quoted as saying, “It was kind of a stinger. Cirell’s a tough kid. For him not to come back, clearly, there’s something wrong with him. So hopefully he’ll be okay. There’s some big games coming up ahead of him.”
Unfortunately, those big games will have to wait for the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs. It’s a tough break for a player who has dramatically turned his career around in recent years and helped Team Canada win the 4 Nations Face-Off last season.
Back in the 2022-23 season, after scoring 11 goals and 29 points in 58 games, Cirelli became a legitimate trade candidate for the Lightning. Tampa Bay had just signed him to an eight-year, $50MM extension, a high price to play for a center that wasn’t always available.
Still, over the last two years, he’s made that contract look well worth it, scoring 42 goals and 94 points in 129 games with a 49.4% success rate in the faceoff dot. Furthermore, he’s responsible on his own end, managing a 91.2% on-ice SV% at even strength through 49 games this season.
While it’s a depressing development for Cirelli, Team Canada has added more snarl to their forward core at the very least. Bennett scored one goal in three games during last year’s 4 Nations tournament. He famously got into a fight with Brady Tkachuk during the opening minutes of the much-awaited tilt with the United States. Outside of the obvious, Olympic opponents will be extra intimidated by Team Canada, which will also have Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson.
It’ll be interesting to see how Bennett responds offensively. Due to the number of injuries suffered by the Panthers this year, Bennett has earned more responsibility. At this time last year, he had scored 17 goals and 33 points in 53 games. This season, he has 19 goals and 42 points in 55 contests.
While that isn’t the typical production of a forward on Team Canada, Bennett tends to raise his game when the lights are brightest. Over the past three postseasons, Bennett has helped Florida reach three consecutive Stanley Cup Finals, scoring 27 goals and 51 points in 62 games, culminating in the Conn Smythe Trophy last season.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen To Miss Olympics
According to a team announcement, Buffalo Sabres netminder Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen will miss the Olympic Games due to his lower-body injury. In the same announcement, the Sabres shared that Joonas Korpisalo of the Boston Bruins will play for Team Finland and Luukkonen’s stead.
Obviously, even though it’s never a good time to sustain an injury, it really couldn’t come at a worse time for Luukkonen. He’s been fairly healthy since missing the first month of the 2025-26 season. Still, an injury report from a few days ago indicated that Luukkonen would miss the next week of action. It’s unclear if he’ll actually be injured through the Olympic break, or if he and the Sabres agreed it would be best for him to sit it out as a precaution.
Furthermore, it was likely the expectation that Luukkonen would be Finland’s starter for the upcoming international contest. He’s managed an 11-7-2 record across 20 starts with Buffalo this season, earning a .902 SV%, 2.73 GAA, and 3.3 Goals Saved Above Average. His fellow countrymen, Juuse Saros of the Nashville Predators and Kevin Lankinen of the Vancouver Canucks, haven’t come close to matching that production.
It would have also been his first international appearance as a professional netminder. Luukkonen was technically included on Team Finland’s roster for last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off, though he didn’t participate in any action. His last time representing Team Finland in a game came back during the 2018-19 IIHF World Junior Championship. He managed a 3-2-0 record in six games with a .932 SV%.
Meanwhile, Korpisalo was the best available of the remaining options. Despite being a backup netminder with the Bruins, he was the obvious choice over Ville Husso, Justus Annunen, or Leevi Merilainen. He’s managed a 10-8-1 record in 21 games with Boston this season with a .895 SV% and 3.12 GAA.
Like Luukkonen, Korpisalo hasn’t played for Team Finland in some time. His last showing was in the 2017 IIHF World Championships, where he collected two wins in six appearances with an .858 SV%. Finland lost the Bronze medal game to Russia.
Devils’ Jack Hughes Out, Olympic Status Believed To Be Unaffected
Saturday: The Devils announced that Hughes won’t play against Ottawa and that he’s officially listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury.
Friday: The New Jersey Devils will once again move forward without a star forward. Jack Hughes is back on the shelf after leaving Thursday’s win over the Nashville Predators early. Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe said that the team has no update on Hughes’ injury, other than to mention that he will undergo further testing, per team reporter Amanda Stein. Hughes is not expected to travel with the team to Saturday’s game in Ottawa. The Devils return for a two-game homestand at the start of next week, before the NHL enters its three-week break for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Despite the poor timing, Hughes’ availability for the Olympics is not believed to be in doubt, per Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic. Hughes will undoubtedly be a focal piece of the Team USA roster, if healthy. The 24-year-old captained the U.S. National Team Development Program prior to his first-overall selection in 2019, but hasn’t had many chances to appear with USA since then, due to injury and playoff appearances. Hughes recorded one assist in four games at the 2025 4-Nations Face-Off – his first appearance with the country’s men’s team since making the NHL.
Hughes has remained an electric piece of New Jersey’s offense when he’s on the ice. He has scored 36 points in 36 games this season, making him the only Devil still scoring at a point-per-game pace. Hughes has met that scoring mark in each of the last five seasons. He scored 56 points in 49 games of the 2021-22 season, then set a franchise record with 99 points in 78 games of the 2022-23 campaign. Those performances served as his breakout years – but routine injury has kept the star forward from becoming the first Devil to break the century scoring mark.
Hughes has averaged 39 goals and 96 points per 82 games played over the last five seasons. He has also averaged 25 missed games per season in that span. Injury has been a recurring challenge for the dynamo scorer, whether short-term or long-term, or brought on by freak accident. Hughes falling out of the lineup once again will force another shakeup of New Jersey’s offense.
The Devils elevated Timo Meier to play next to Dawson Mercer and Jesper Bratt following Hughes’ exit on Thursday; while demoting Evgenii Dadonov to a line with Connor Brown and Paul Cotter. Those lines should stick through Saturday’s game against Ottawa, while Nico Hischier and Arseny Gritsyuk are flanked by Lenni Hameenaho or Maxim Tsyplakov. The Devils will certainly hope these adjustments are only temporary, and that Hughes’ further testing confirms what is believed to be a short-term injury.
Snapshots: Sabres Injuries, Ravensbergen, Olympic Freeze
The Buffalo Sabres are arguably the NHL’s hottest team at this moment, having won 18 of their last 22 games. They’ve kept up their winning ways more recently despite the loss of center Josh Norris, who suffered a rib injury on Jan. 14. While the latest injury to the Sabres’ oft-injured pivot was a cause of concern, it appears he is progressing in the right direction and is nearing a return to game fitness. Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff told the media, including Buffalo Hockey Beat’s Bill Hoppe, that Norris’ status has been upgraded to day-to-day. Blueliner Jacob Bryson, who was placed on IR on Jan. 23, is also day-to-day.
While star Tage Thompson is undoubtedly Buffalo’s best and most effective forward, Norris has pushed him for that mantle at times this season. The 26-year-old has scored 17 points in 19 games this season, including a stretch in early December where he managed seven points in just four games before suffering another injury. Norris was acquired by the Sabres last season at the deadline in a trade that sent pivot Dylan Cozens (and a second-round pick) to the Ottawa Senators. It was a calculated risk for Buffalo, who elected to take on Norris’ $7.95MM AAV contract that runs through the end of the decade. Former GM Kevyn Adams’ calculated risk has paid off when Norris has been healthy, but he’s only played in 22 total games as a Sabre. Now that he’s inching closer to full health, whether he can stay on the ice will be the clear top storyline to watch regarding Norris as his Sabres tenure progresses.
Other notes from across the hockey world:
- San Jose Sharks 2025 first-round pick Joshua Ravensbergen will leave the CHL to play NCAA hockey for Michigan State University next season, ESPN’s Kevin Weekes reported today. Ravensbergen, 19, is one of the top goalie prospects in the sport, and will leave the WHL’s Prince George Cougars to play college hockey, rather than turn pro. Ravensbergen, who turns 20 in November, would have been eligible to play in the AHL (or ECHL) next season after at some point signing his ELC. Now, he’ll forgo that path in order to follow Detroit Red Wings prospect Trey Augustine as a top young goalie developing with the Spartans. The move also signals that Augustine is likely to turn pro after three seasons at Michigan State. Augustine was his conference’s top goalie last year and has a .938 save percentage in 17 contests in 2025-26.
- Puckpedia outlined some of the NHL’s roster restrictions for the upcoming Olympic break in a post today, highlighting a few ways in which NHL teams will be restricted from moving players while NHL games pause for the tournament in Italy. During the roster freeze, which begins the afternoon of Feb. 4 and ends on Feb. 23, no trades are permitted. In addition, players who are waivers-exempt can only be sent down if they have not played in 16 of the team’s 20 NHL games prior to the freeze, or have been on the NHL roster for 80 league days prior to Jan 21. Puckpedia also clarified that players can be placed on waivers during the freeze, but if a team is waived after a team’s final game before the freeze begins, that player will not need to report until Feb. 17. These rules are likely to impact some of the transactions that get made in the coming days ahead of the freeze, as teams position themselves, and their prospects, for the break in the schedule.
West Notes: Landeskog, Mukhamadullin, Kurashev, Skinner
Already missing Leo Carlsson and Jonas Brodin, Sweden’s Olympic team could be missing another key piece with Gabriel Landeskog’s availability also in question. Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar told reporters including Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic (Twitter link) that the veteran is getting better as he works his way back from an upper-body injury that has held him out for the last three weeks. He added that Landeskog is targeting a return in time for the Olympics but that it’s going to be tight in terms of reaching that timeline. In his first regular season action since the 2021-22 campaign, Landeskog has done alright, picking up seven goals and 15 assists in 41 games while averaging 15:51 per night of playing time.
Elsewhere out West:
- Sharks defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin has been listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury for the past three weeks. But the countdown could be coming to an end as Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News relays (Twitter link) that the blueliner could be available to return on Tuesday against Vancouver. The 24-year-old has had a fairly quiet season, only playing in 23 games between injuries and healthy scratches. In those outings, Mukhamadullin has six points and 27 blocked shots while averaging 16:26 per game, the lowest ATOI of his young career. He joins Kiefer Sherwood as players hoping to be available for Tuesday’s contest.
- Meanwhile, Sharks winger Philipp Kurashev is expected to return by the end of the Sharks’ road trip which coincides with the beginning of the Olympic break, mentions Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now (Twitter link). He has missed the last six weeks with an upper-body injury of his own. Before that, Kurashev was in the middle of a bounce-back season as a capable secondary scorer for San Jose, notching six goals and nine assists in 31 games before the injury.
- With Mukhamadullin, Sherwood, and Kurashev due back soon and only one open roster spot, a crunch is coming for the Sharks. Veteran Jeff Skinner has played sparingly as of late and could be in jeopardy of losing his roster spot when those players return. To that end, Pashelka notes (Twitter link) that while Skinner is aware of the roster situation, he hasn’t requested a trade at this point. The 33-year-old is on a one-year, $3MM contract but has just 13 points in 32 games this season and is averaging a career-low 12:21 per game.