Eklund, Bordeleau Sent Down: Who’s Next Shark to Get Demoted?

The San Jose Sharks’ regular season 23-man roster got a lot clearer today.

In a special NHL exception, the Sharks brought 27 players, four more than the norm, to Berlin and Prague.

But the Euro trip is over, so today, goalie Aaron Dell and winger Jeffrey Viel were waived.

That’s not all: Center Thomas Bordeleau, winger William Eklund, and defenseman Nick Cicek were re-assigned to the San Jose Barracuda.

The San Jose Sharks’ roster right now is down to 22.

FORWARDS (13)

Nick Bonino
Logan Couture
Jonah Gadjovich
Noah Gregor
Tomas Hertl
Luke Kunin
Kevin Labanc
Oskar Lindblom
Steven Lorentz
Timo Meier
Matt Nieto
Nico Sturm
Evgeny Svechnikov

DEFENSEMEN (7)

Matt Benning
Mario Ferraro
Scott Harrington
Erik Karlsson
Jaycob Megna
Radim Simek
Marc-Edouard Vlasic

GOALTENDERS (2)

Kaapo Kahkonen
James Reimer

However, this roster doesn’t include injured winger Alexander Barabanov and defenseman Markus Nutivaara. We’ll see if they re-join the Sharks when the team starts practice up once again on Oct. 11.

But you can assume a healthy Barabanov and/or Nutivaara will force the San Jose Sharks to make some tough decisions on some non-waiver exempt players.

A healthy Barabanov will probably push out Jonah Gadjovich or Evgeny Svechnikov. Meanwhile, a healthy Nutivaara is likely to send Scott Harrington or Jaycob Megna to waivers.

The Sharks could lose them there, though my guess is they make it to the Barracuda.

I’m leaning toward Svechnikov and Megna having slight edges to keep their roster spots on the San Jose Sharks: Svechnikov, unlike Gadjovich, did not have a turnover that led to a Nashville Predators goal in Prague. Meanwhile, Harrington got a quicker-than-expected hook, in favor of Megna, after his underwhelming season-opener.