Askarov, Mukhamadullin & Vlasic Not Skating Yet

The clock is ticking for Yaroslav Askarov, Shakir Mukhamadullin, and Marc-Edouard Vlasic to be ready by opening night.

None of them are skating, a week into training camp.

The San Jose Sharks opened camp on Sept. 19 with all three hampered by injuries suffered in preseason training.

Askarov and Mukhamadullin had lower-body injuries, while Vlasic had an upper-body.

They were labeled day-to-day on Sept. 19, but it’s now been a week, and none of them have returned to practice.

San Jose Hockey Now checked with sources outside of the Sharks last week, and those sources corroborated what the Sharks were saying, that top prospects Askarov and Mukhamadullin weren’t suffering long-term injuries.

Yaroslav Askarov himself, in two interviews with San Jose Hockey Now, in English and Russian, echoed that.

However, no one has offered a real timeline for their returns.

Clearly, it’s not a good sign that none of them have hit the ice yet, especially if the San Jose Sharks are hoping that they’re ready for the Oct. 10 season opener.

Head coach Ryan Warsofsky noted, “There’s a plan in place for all those guys to skate on their own and then implement them back into practice.”

Warsofsky confirmed on Thursday that none of them are skating though.

Especially for the goaltender Askarov, it’s hard to see him starting the season with the San Jose Sharks without a tune-up preseason game or two, especially with two NHL-caliber starters in Mackenzie Blackwood and Vitek Vanecek in camp. The Sharks’ last preseason tilt is on Oct. 5.

“Some guys are passing some guys, just from conditioning standpoint, and they’ll have to play a little bit of catch up in that facet,” Warsofsky said. “It’s gonna take them a little bit of time to get up to speed.”

The bench boss also opined that none of the three is necessarily closer than the other to returning. But perhaps Warsofsky was just being coy there.

SJHN did confirm with an outside source once again today that Askarov should be ready to go soon, so again, there isn’t a fear of a long-term injury. But what “soon” means though is up in the air.

No Askarov, Mukhamadullin, or Vlasic for opening night does certainly change the complexion of the San Jose Sharks’ training camp battles. All three were strong contenders to shoo-in’s to break camp on the opening night roster.

“It’s getting, obviously, late into training camp,” Warsofsky admitted. “You never know, they could really surprise us.”