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Vincent Desharnais

San Jose Sharks Recall Jimmy Schuldt

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Veteran defenseman Jimmy Schuldt is getting another look with the Sharks.  The team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled Schuldt from AHL San Jose; it’s his fourth recall of the month.

The 29-year-old is in his first season with the Sharks after signing a one-year, two-way deal with them last summer.  He has seen his first NHL action since the 2018-19 campaign with Vegas so from that standpoint, the choice was a good one.

Schuldt has suited up in five games for the Sharks this season, all of which have come this month.  He has been held off the scoresheet in those outings while averaging a little under 15 minutes a game of playing time.  Meanwhile, with the Barracuda, Schuldt has six goals and 14 assists in 59 outings, his second straight year of declining offensive production in the AHL.

Schuldt is expected to add to his NHL games played total tonight against the Rangers as it’s believed he’ll draw in for the injured Vincent Desharnais.  However, his recall will likely be short-lived as Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News relays (Twitter link) that it appears that blueliner Marc-Edouard Vlasic will be available to play Sunday versus Los Angeles.  At that time, the emergency conditions for Schuldt’s recall will terminate, meaning he’ll either have to return to the Barracuda or be converted to one of San Jose’s four post-deadline regular recalls.

Sharks Defense Notes: Thrun, Desharnais, Vlasic

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If being on the cusp of losing 100 games over the last two seasons wasn’t bad enough, the San Jose Sharks are playing with a battered defensive core. Thankfully, they should get one of those defensemen back fairly shortly.

In an update from head coach Ryan Warsofsky, shared by Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now, defenseman Henry Thrun has been upgraded to a day-to-day recovery timeline. Peng adds that Thrun “probably” won’t play this weekend, but his return is nevertheless on the horizon.

Thrun suffered an upper-body injury earlier in March against the New York Islanders, and he’ll have missed eight games by the end of the weekend. He wasn’t having a stellar season by any stretch of the imagination before going down with the injury. Still, he has logged the fifth-highest average ice time for any Sharks’ blue liner who’s amassed more than 20 games played and is still on the roster. Should Thrun return by the beginning of next week, he should break his single season career-high in points (11), which he set last campaign.

Other notes from the Bay Area:

  • In another update on the Sharks’ blue line, Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News reported that Vincent Desharnais is questionable for San Jose’s contests this weekend. According to Pashelka’s report, Desharnais, one of the newest Sharks’ defensive core members, is dealing with a “fairly significant upper-body injury.” Since moving to San Jose after a trade from the Pittsburgh Penguins, Desharnais hasn’t registered a point as a Shark in seven games, despite averaging 17:49 of ice time per game.
  • In a separate report from Peng, the oldest defenseman on the Sharks’ blue line, Marc-Édouard Vlasic, is day-to-day with an undisclosed injury but could play this weekend. Vlasic is no stranger to missing time with injury, as he’s only featured in 17 of San Jose’s 71 games this season. Still, despite averaging his lowest ATOI since the 2021-22 campaign, the 19-year veteran has already blocked 29 shots in those 17 contests.

Sharks Acquire Vincent Desharnais

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The Sharks have added some depth on the back end, acquiring defenseman Vincent Desharnais from Pittsburgh in exchange for a 2028 fifth-round pick.  Both teams have announced the trade.

The 28-year-old’s stay with the Penguins was short-lived as he only spent 10 games with them after being acquired from Vancouver last month as part of the Marcus Pettersson trade.  It has been a tough season for Desharnais who has struggled in his first season away from Edmonton.  He has played in 44 games between the two teams but has just three assists along with 68 blocks and 73 hits while averaging 15:37 per game.

Desharnais is in the first year of a two-year, $4MM contract signed back in July following a stint in Edmonton where he worked his way up from a minor league deal to eventually landing a regular spot on their third pairing.  Now, he’ll try to reclaim a full-time spot in San Jose’s lineup.

While it might seem odd for San Jose to be adding to their roster, Desharnais is a low-cost pickup from an acquisition standpoint while the extra year on his contract isn’t an issue for a team projected to have plenty of cap space for next season.  If he can get back to being a full-timer, it’s possible they’ll be better poised to flip him for a stronger return at this time next year.  Meanwhile, Pittsburgh sheds a contract they had to take on to facilitate last month’s swap with the Canucks, opening up some extra cap space which it appears they’ll put to use quite quickly.

Vancouver Canucks Acquire Marcus Pettersson, Drew O’Connor

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The Vancouver Canucks’ trading appetite hadn’t been satiated after sending J.T. Miller to the New York Rangers. In the early hours of the morning, the Pittsburgh Penguins announced they’ve traded defenseman Marcus Pettersson and forward Drew O’Connor to the Canucks for forwards Danton Heinen and Melvin Fernström, defenseman Vincent Desharnais, and the conditional 2025 first-round pick previously acquired from the Rangers in the Miller swap.

Pettersson’s seven-year tenure with the Penguins ended with him scoring 16 goals and 141 points in 442 regular-season games and four assists in 21 playoff contests. He blossomed into a top-four defenseman in Pittsburgh, regularly logging more than 19 minutes of ice time per game.

The Skelleftea, Sweden should fit in quite well on the Canucks’ blue line. He’s totaled more than 130 blocked shots and 120 hits in each season since 2022-23 and averaged a 91.7% on-ice save percentage at even strength throughout his career. Furthermore, his possession metrics are well above average for a defenseman with a career 51.3% CorsiFor% at even strength.

Vancouver is in the middle of the pack regarding CorsiFor% and goals-against-per-game average. Pettersson should help fill both of these needs with the Canucks and the glaring hole in the top four of the team’s defensive core behind Quinn Hughes.

The Canucks will also acquire a flexible middle-six option in O’Connor. The pending unrestricted free agent had spent his entire career with the Penguins up to this point scoring 30 goals and 66 points in 210 games.

O’Connor may have found his offensive ceiling last year with 16 goals and 33 points in 79 games but he still gives the Canucks a winger that can play in all situations. It’s unlikely he’ll find himself on either powerplay unit in Vancouver but O’Connor could find some staying power on the team’s penalty kill.

Outside of the conditional first-round pick, the Canucks primarily sent a collection of spare parts to the Penguins. Heinen and Desharnais are signed through next season but aren’t considered long-term pieces for the Penguins. Heinen had scored six goals and 18 points in 51 games for the Canucks while Desharnais had tallied three assists in 34 contests.

Fernström is in his first full season in the Swedish Hockey League with Örebro HK after being selected 93rd overall by the Canucks in last year’s draft. He possesses a strong hockey IQ and has already shown the ability to score against at a relatively young age with three goals and eight points in 35 contests.

The trade as a whole should answer several questions for both teams. The Penguins traded their highest-value rental well before the trade deadline, so we’ll see how active they are in the next few weeks before and after the 4 Nations Face-Off. In Vancouver, the team has acquired several pieces in the last 24 hours so we’ll see how the locker room responds to all the changes.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports images.

Canucks Looking To Move Vincent Desharnais

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After establishing himself as a regular on Edmonton’s back end last season, Vincent Desharnais had enough of a market in free agency to secure a two-year, $4MM contract with Vancouver.  However, things haven’t gone as well as planned and Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that the Canucks are looking to find a better fit for the blueliner.

In 2023-24, Desharnais played in 78 regular season games with Edmonton.  He averaged a little less than 16 minutes a night but logged big minutes on the penalty kill, making him a serviceable bottom-pairing defender.  The 28-year-old also chipped in with 11 points, 122 blocked shots, and 135 hits.  Desharnais also suited up in 16 of Edmonton’s 25 playoff contests, picking up 41 blocks and 40 hits while logging 17:15 per night.

Unfortunately for Desharnais and the Canucks, he hasn’t been able to play at the same level this season.  He has been a healthy scratch multiple times already and his playing time has dipped a bit as well to just 15:08 per night while recording two assists, 23 hits, and 23 blocks.  With Derek Forbort now healthy and Erik Brannstrom and Noah Juulsen playing well, Desharnais might be the seventh defenseman for the time being or at least be in a timeshare for playing time.  It’s safe to say they were expecting him to be a regular when they signed him.

It’s worth noting that more than half of Desharnais’ total contract is paid in the form of signing bonuses; his base salary each season is the $775K league minimum.  That means nearly half of the total compensation of the contract has already been paid out which might make him a bit more appealing to more budget-conscious teams.  But with his early struggles and a $2MM cap charge for next season, the Canucks likely won’t be able to command much for Desharnais’ services.

However, if they can clear his contract, that would give them more ammunition from a cap space perspective to try to make a splash on the trade front closer to the trade deadline.  While Filip Hronek is on LTIR, Vancouver has largely been able to stay out of using it, meaning they continue to bank extra room on a daily basis.  Accordingly, it’s possible that GM Patrik Allvin looks to make that the priority over maximizing the trade return.  Either way, it’s a situation that the Canucks likely weren’t anticipating when they signed Desharnais just over five months ago.

West Notes: Desharnais, Rossi, Rehkopf

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The Canucks may slot in UFA signing Vincent Desharnais on their top defense pairing alongside Quinn Hughes in spot duty next season, opines Thomas Drance of The Athletic.

Doing so would allow Filip Hronek, who spent all of last season stapled to Hughes and is fresh off signing an eight-year, $58MM deal, to drive his own pairing against easier competition. That’s something head coach Rick Tocchet said he’d consider doing, telling Drance that Hronek can “tend to defer too much” at times when playing with Hughes and that he’d “like to see him be more forceful with his decisions.”

It would be a big jump for Desharnais, though. The 28-year-old only established himself as a full-time NHLer last year with the Oilers. He was a bottom-pairing presence for Edmonton, averaging 15:44 per game through 78 contests. He did post 11 points and a +3 rating with average possession metrics, but playing alongside Hughes with any consistency would be a tough task for a player who’s seen most of his professional career unfold in the AHL to date. Desharnais inked a two-year, $4MM contract with Vancouver when free agency opened on July 1.

There’s more out of the Western Conference:

  • Austria will be without perhaps its best player in this summer’s qualifying tournament for the 2026 Winter Olympics. Wild forward Marco Rossi is skipping the event to begin training in Minnesota later this month, notes Michael Russo of The Athletic. Rossi, 22, is coming off a career-high 21 goals and 40 points last season while playing in all 82 games and could open the season as the Wild’s first-line center alongside Kirill Kaprizov. The 2020 ninth-overall pick had one assist in three games during the 2022 qualifiers with Austria failing to earn one of the three available spots. This year, they’ll be competing for one of the open spots in a round-robin tournament with Hungary, Kazakhstan and Slovakia.
  • Kraken prospect Carson Rehkopf has been traded in the Ontario Hockey League, heading from the Kitchener Rangers to the Brampton Steelheads, sources tell Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News. Rehkopf, 19, has spent the last three seasons in Kitchener, where the 6’2″ forward led the team in scoring last season with 95 points (52 goals, 43 assists) in 60 games. The 2023 second-round pick will be returned to Brampton out of training camp this fall, but a strong post-draft season puts him in line to compete for a roster spot in Seattle in next year’s training camp.

Canucks Sign Vincent Desharnais, Jiří Patera

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Adding to their defensive core for the 2024-25 NHL season, the Vancouver Canucks have signed defenseman Vincent Desharnais away from the Edmonton Oilers on a two-year, $4MM agreement. Additionally, the Canucks have agreed to terms with depth netminder Jiří Patera on a two-year, two-way contract, per a team announcement.

Desharnais has been a late bloomer as the 28-year-old didn’t make his NHL debut until 2022-23 and only became a full-time regular last season.  He played in 78 games in 2023-24, picking up a goal and 10 assists to go along with 122 blocks and 135 hits while averaging a little under 16 minutes per game.  He took a regular turn for the Oilers on the penalty kill, making him more than just a big (he’s 6’7) third-pairing player.  He also got into 16 playoff contests where he averaged more than two hits and blocks per game in just over 17 minutes a night.

Desharnais will be counted on to help anchor Vancouver’s third pairing behind recently-re-signed blueliners Filip Hronek and Tyler Myers.  With Nikita Zadorov (Boston) and Ian Cole (Utah) both departing via free agency, he will be asked to help replace some of the physicality that those two brought to the table.  After being a full-time minor leaguer just two years ago, this contract represents a nice reward for Desharnais’ decision to stick it out in the minors.

As for Patera, he was one of the more intriguing Group Six free agents from this year’s class.  He has eight games of NHL experience under his belt with Vegas but spent most of the year with AHL Henderson where he posted a 2.99 GAA with a .903 SV% in 25 games.  It was believed that Vancouver was open to signing a veteran netminder to play behind Thatcher Demko but instead, it looks as if Patera will try to unseat Arturs Silovs for that role with the one not getting the job heading to play at AHL Abbotsford.

Pacific Notes: McDavid, Desharnais, Pietrangelo, Gibson, Stalock

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Oilers superstar Connor McDavid will miss his second straight contest with a lower-body injury tonight when they take on the Coyotes, per Jason Gregor of Sports 1440 Edmonton. “I won’t go tonight. We will see about tomorrow. We are going day-by-day,” McDavid said.

Per Gregor, the lower-body ailment had been nagging McDavid for some time but was aggravated in last Saturday’s contest against the Flames, in which he played over 20 minutes and registered two assists. The Edmonton captain isn’t worried about it lingering for much longer, however, and his availability for the playoffs currently isn’t in question. His absence didn’t stop the Oilers from rattling off their seventh straight win on Wednesday in a 5-1 dismantling of the Golden Knights. He needs one more assist this season to reach 100 and would be the first player to do so since Wayne Gretzky in 1991.

Sticking with the Oilers, their front office has tabled contract talks with pending UFA defenseman Vincent Desharnais through the postseason, TSN’s Ryan Rishaug reports. They’d been in discussions for the past while, per Rishaug, as Edmonton looks to keep around their breakout depth shutdown force. He’s late to the party for full-time NHL roles at age 27 but has become a regular this season with a goal, 10 assists, and a +5 rating in 73 contests while averaging 15:31 per game. He hasn’t been tasked with too much responsibility but has controlled possession well, logging a 54.7 xGF% at even strength. He’s nearing completion of a two-year, two-way contract and is almost certainly looking at a one-way deal next season, regardless of whether he stays in Edmonton.

Elsewhere in the Pacific:

  • Golden Knights star defenseman Alex Pietrangelo hasn’t resumed skating as he deals with a lengthy illness and will likely be out for at least two more games, head coach Bruce Cassidy said (via The Athletic’s Jesse Granger). He’s yet to be cleared to practice by the team’s medical staff. Pietrangelo missed six games with an illness in late March and returned to the lineup against the Wild on the 30th but exited again after two appearances. He hasn’t been with the team in over a week, last skating in an April 2 contest against the Canucks. Vegas will continue to roll with Nicolas Hague playing his offside on their top pairing, with the newly-extended Noah Hanifin in his absence.
  • The Ducks have reassigned netminder Alex Stalock to AHL San Diego. Starter John Gibson is set to return from an upper-body injury tonight against the Flames. The latter is expected to make his first start since March 30 against the Oilers, head coach Greg Cronin said. Gibson backed up Lukáš Dostál in two contests before sustaining the injury outside of game action, forcing Stalock’s recall last week. The 36-year-old farmhand didn’t play, with Dostál making five straight starts. Stalock’s been recalled on multiple instances this season but hasn’t seen any NHL ice, with either Dostál or Gibson leading the way in the other’s absence. He’s struggled heavily in the minors this season, posting a .889 SV% in 13 games. A pending UFA, Stalock could be heading toward retirement this summer.

Nominees Announced For 2024 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy

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The Bill Masterton Trophy is awarded annually to the player who best exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey. Nominees are selected by members of the Professional Hockey Writer’s Association, with finalists being named near the end of the regular season. Previous winners include Kris Letang (2023), Carey Price (2022), and Oskar Lindblom (2021).  Today, a new list of 32 nominees has been named.

Below are the nominees from each team:

Anaheim Ducks – Urho Vaakanainen

Arizona Coyotes – Connor Ingram

Boston Bruins – Danton Heinen

Buffalo Sabres – Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

Calgary Flames – Oliver Kylington

Carolina Hurricanes – Frederik Andersen

Chicago Blackhawks – Colin Blackwell

Colorado Avalanche – Jonathan Drouin

Columbus Blue Jackets – Zach Werenski

Dallas Stars – Matt Duchene

Detroit Red Wings – Alex Lyon

Edmonton Oilers – Vincent Desharnais

Florida Panthers – Oliver Ekman-Larsson

Los Angeles Kings – Viktor Arvidsson

Minnesota Wild – Marco Rossi

Montreal Canadiens – Joel Armia

Nashville Predators – Michael McCarron

New Jersey Devils – Curtis Lazar

New York Islanders – Cal Clutterbuck

New York Rangers – Jonathan Quick

Ottawa Senators – Claude Giroux

Philadelphia Flyers – Sean Couturier

Pittsburgh Penguins – Sidney Crosby

San Jose Sharks – Justin Bailey

Seattle Kraken – Joey Daccord

St. Louis Blues – Nathan Walker

Tampa Bay Lightning – Michael Eyssimont

Toronto Maple Leafs – Ilya Samsonov

Vancouver Canucks – Noah Juulsen

Vegas Golden Knights – Alex Pietrangelo

Washington Capitals – T.J. Oshie

Winnipeg Jets – Laurent Brossoit

Injury Updates: Zegras, Lindgren, Trouba, Hoffman, Desharnais

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Ducks center Trevor Zegras is listed as a game-time decision for their game tomorrow against Tampa Bay, reports Derek Lee of The Sporting Tribune (Twitter link).  The 23-year-old has missed more than two months with an ankle injury, his second extended absence after missing 20 games earlier in the year with a lower-body issue.  In between, Zegras has struggled offensively, notching just four goals and seven assists in the 20 games he has been able to suit up for which fueled trade speculation leading into the trade deadline.  With Mason McTavish and Leo Carlsson locked in down the middle, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Anaheim deploy Zegras on the wing when he’s cleared to return.

Other injury news from around the NHL:

  • Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren has begun skating as he works his way back from a lower-body injury, relays Vince Z. Mercogliano of USA Today (Twitter link). He has been out for a week but is still a few weeks away from returning.  Meanwhile, Mercogliano adds that blueliner Jacob Trouba (lower body) is likely closer to getting back into the lineup.  That said, head coach Peter Laviolette suggested that the captain is likely another week or more away from being able to suit up.  New York is in a tight battle with Carolina for the top spot in the Metropolitan but they’ll be waiting a little while longer to get one of their blueliners back.
  • Sharks winger Mike Hoffman is nearing a return from his upper-body injury but won’t play tonight against Chicago, head coach David Quinn told reporters including Max Miller of The Hockey News. The 34-year-old has missed the last two weeks with the injury which he revealed is a concussion.  It has been a tough year for Hoffman who has been limited to just 10 goals and 12 assists through 61 games so far, hardly the type of platform year he was hoping to have as he gets set to hit the open market in July.
  • Oilers defenseman Vincent Desharnais will return to the lineup tonight against Toronto, notes Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (Twitter link). The 27-year-old suffered a hand injury last weekend against Colorado.  Desharnais is in his first season of full-time NHL duty and has nine points along with 96 blocks and 104 hits in 63 games so far this season.

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