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The San Jose Sharks announced their 23-man roster today, featuring 13 forwards, eight defensemen and two goalies.
The Sharks’ situation in goal was clear, with Mackenzie Blackwood and Kaapo Kahkonen forming the team’s new tandem.
On the blue line though, San Jose did have a lot of defensemen competing for limited spots, and the story is one which is worth continuing to follow. Mario Ferraro, Matt Benning, Jan Rutta and Marc-Edouard Vlasic will take four of the team’s spots on defense, and all were pretty much locks from the get-go. Then signed to multi-year deals, it’s not surprising to see Nikolai Knyzhov and Kyle Burroughs securing roster spots as well.
However, the group is rounded out by Henry Thrun and Ty Emberson. Thrun has emerged as maybe the Sharks’ most exciting defensive prospect, while Emberson was claimed off waivers from the New York Rangers in a bit of a surprising move.
That said, what makes the situation interesting is that both Radim Simek and Jacob MacDonald are beginning the season on injured reserve. At the point in which each defender becomes healthy, they’ll either have to displace someone for a roster spot, or be waived and sent down. That’s also not including Nikita Okhotiuk, who’s listed on the non-roster injured reserve.
So while the roster may be set for now, the battle for jobs on the blue line is likely to continue. Of the bunch, Thrun is also the only defenseman who is exempt from waivers.
Then up front, the Sharks’ 13 forwards are: Tomas Hertl, Mike Hoffman, Filip Zadina, Mikael Granlund, Luke Kunin, Alexander Barabanov, Anthony Duclair, Nico Sturm, Kevin Labanc, Fabian Zetterlund, Givani Smith, Thomas Bordeleau and William Eklund.
On route to finalizing the forward group, the Sharks also made a couple surprising cuts a few days ago, waiving both Oskar Lindblom and Jacob Peterson. While Lindblom had a tough first year in San Jose and Peterson only played in a limited sample size with the Sharks, it seemed likely that each player would start the year in the NHL.
These cuts made room for Bordeleau and Eklund to earn NHL jobs, following strong seasons with the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda. Bordeleau and Eklund have been viewed as close to making the jump to the NHL for a while now, and it’s great to see them crack the roster.
As is the case on the blue line though, the forward group will be altered once Logan Couture is healthy. Couture is starting the year on the non-roster injured reserve, and when he’s available to play, it means someone else will need to be sent down, to create room for him on the roster. Bordeleau and Eklund are both exempt from waivers, and while Eklund's spot does seem solidified, Bordeleau could be a candidate to head back to the AHL once Couture is healthy.
While we can probably expect more changes to come as players get healthy, overall, I think there’s some reason for excitement with the Sharks’ roster. We’re finally going to see a bit of a youth movement with the team, and the forward group alone is going to be a lot more exciting.
The team is probably facing another year where they won’t come close to the postseason, but the Sharks are slowly but surely building in the right direction.
San Jose Sharks Blogger • 
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