Sharks’ Adam Gaudette to make season debut against Bruins
San Jose Sharks center Adam Gaudette is set to make his season debut on Saturday against the Boston Bruins.
Gaudette had initially missed game action due to an upper-body injury he had at the start of training camp. He did not play any preseason games, and began the regular season on non-roster injured reserve, but was activated after four games. He has since missed the previous seven games as a healthy scratch.
Gaudette finally finds himself in the lineup as a result of an upper-body injury to winger Igor Chernyshov, who will be out on a week-to-week basis. With Chernyshov and Alexander Wennberg (also week-to-week with an upper-body injury) out, Gaudette was the only healthy forward on the Sharks roster, so he was their only option to enter the lineup.
At this point in time, the Sharks haven’t made any corresponding roster moves in response to the injuries, whether that be placing Chernyshov and Wennberg on IR, or recalling a player from their AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda.
Gaudette is coming off of his best season in several years, where he had 17 goals and eight assists for 25 points in 66 games. It was his best scoring pace since his 2019-20 season, where he had 12 goals and 21 assists for 33 points in 59 games. After struggling to find an NHL role for most of his NHL career, Gaudette has established himself as a solid bottom-six scorer, good for 15-20 goals, in the past couple seasons.
Gaudette will enter the lineup on the fourth line alongside Zack Ostapchuk and Barclay Goodrow. Since Gaudette joined the Sharks last season, this trio has played 168:48 of ice time together, holding an even 3-3 score and sporting a 52.94% 5v5 expected goal share in that time, according to Natural Stat Trick.
The Sharks currently sit in fourth in Pacific Division with a 6-4-1 record. They’ll look to build off of back-to-back wins when they visit the Bruins in Boston on Saturday at 4 p.m. PT.
