Preview/Lines #69: Chernyshov Is Back, Change on Defense

NASHVILLE — Igor Chernyshov is back.

San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky confirmed that Chernyshov would return to action against the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night, 10 days after suffering a scary head injury in Montreal.

Macklin Celebrini will center Chernyshov and Will Smith.

“Each one brings something, a different element,” Warsofsky said, “hopefully try to get some chemistry once they get together.”

San Jose Hockey Now spoke with Chernyshov about his injury for a story coming later today.

San Jose Sharks (32-30-6)

Alex Nedeljkovic will start; Yaroslav Askarov will back up.

In a change from Monday’s practice, Sam Dickinson will play ahead of Nick Leddy.

The Sharks didn’t do lines at morning skate.

Good morning from Music City!

Chernyshov and Desharnais on the ice for morning skate pic.twitter.com/f2Qz0DMZ10

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) March 24, 2026

Warsofsky did not confirm lines, except for the top line, but these are the players who should be in the line-up. This is my lines projection:

Chernyshov-Celebrini-Smith
Eklund-Wennberg-Graf
Sherwood-Misa-Regenda
Goodrow-Ostapchuk-Gaudette

Orlov-Klingberg
Mukhamadullin-Ferraro
Dickinson-Desharnais

Nedeljkovic

San Jose did practice the power play today, and this is what it looked like.

PP1: Orlov-Celebrini-Smith-Eklund-Wennberg
PP2: Klingberg-Chernyshov-Misa-Sherwood-Regenda

The Sharks snapped a 0-for-9 power play skid on Saturday with a second period Dmitry Orlov strike.

Another PP in a third period yielded five shots.

That’s the kind of power play that the Sharks will try to emulate tonight.

“[We] shot the puck. Taking what was given to us and not forcing anything. We’re just putting pucks to the net,” William Eklund said, of what was working on those power plays.

Nashville Predators (33-28-9)

Juuse Saros will start.

Per NHL.com, here’s how the Preds should line up:

Steven Stamkos — Ryan O’Reilly — Luke Evangelista
Filip Forsberg — Matthew Wood — Jonathan Marchessault
Zachary L’Heureux — Erik Haula — Tyson Jost
Reid Schaefer — Fedor Svechkov — Joakim Kemell

Brady Skjei — Roman Josi
Nicolas Hague — Nick Perbix
Adam Wilsby — Ryan Ufko

Where To Watch

Puck drop between the San Jose Sharks and Nashville Predators is at 5 PM PT at Bridgestone Arena. Watch it live on NBC Sports California. Listen to it on the Sharks Audio Network.