Preview/Lines #45: Walman & Sturm Are Game-Time Decisions, But Rest of Sharks’ Line-Up Hard To Predict

Jake Walman is feeling good.

He’s been out since Dec. 21 at the Edmonton Oilers with a lower-body injury.

“Just chasing around Connor all night,” Walman joked. “I haven’t done that since I was a kid.”

Walman, ’14 Draft, saw a lot of McDavid, ’15 Draft, when they both played in the Greater Toronto Hockey League growing up.

Walman is officially a game-time decision, but his media availability suggests that he should be activated off the IR in time for the game.

The San Jose Sharks have missed their No. 1 defenseman a lot. He paces the blueline with 25 points in 31 games and is essential to the Sharks’ ability to break out pucks from the defensive zone cleanly.

San Jose Sharks (13-25-6)

Yaroslav Askarov will start.

“There’s a lot of line-up question marks right now,” head coach Ryan Warsofsky said.

Also, considering how poorly they played against Utah Hockey Club and the Vegas Golden Knights the last two games, it’s hard to say which, if any lines that he’s sticking with.

Warsofsky did say that he doesn’t think that the Sharks will recall anybody from the San Jose Barracuda, currently in Bakersfield.

Walman and Nico Sturm are game-time decisions.

We didn’t ask about Carl Grundstrom (upper-body), who needs to be activated off IR, but he figures to be available, he’s been a regular participant in practice for about a week.

The #SJSharks have activated F Carl Grundstrom and D Jake Walman from injured reserve.

F Klim Kostin and F Nikolai Kovalenko have been placed on IR.

— San Jose Sharks PR (@SanJoseSharksPR) January 12, 2025

Fabian Zetterlund and Will Smith will play. There was some question about Zetterlund because he wasn’t made available to media post-game last night and Smith has missed back-to-back games this season as part of his development plan.

Alex Wennberg (illness) and Klim Kostin (lower-body) and Nikolai Kovalenko (upper-body) are confirmed to be out. Kostin is still being evaluated.

There could be other game-time decisions too, so the Sharks figure to run something of a patchwork line-up tonight. 11-7 certainly seems to be an option.

I look for Warsofsky to set a tone tonight from the opening shift, after back-to-back disappointing games. He always talks about getting players to just focus on having a next best shift, instead of thinking about having a good game.

So I wonder who he starts tonight. I rarely…

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 11, 2025

Minnesota Wild (26-12-4)

Marc-Andre Fleury will start tonight, in what’s likely his last appearance at SAP Center.

Fleury faced the Sharks last time Minnesota was in town, saved 26 of 28 shots for a .923 save % https://t.co/notp9ux3Be

— William Espy (@William_Espy) January 11, 2025

#mnwild d-pairs
Middleton-Bogosian
Chisholm -Dermott
Merrill-Jiricek

Lines the same.

Zuccarello-Rossi-Boldy
Johansson-Eriksson Ek-Hartman
Foligno -Gaudreau -Trenin
Shore-Khusnutdinov-Jones

— Joe Smith (@JoeSmithNHL) January 11, 2025

Walman, by the way, told a funny story about his first NHL goal, which was against Fleury in the 2020-21 season.

“I just shot it. He was way out of position, I think somebody might have interfered with him,” he recalled. “I’m not sure how the goal really counted, I was just celebrating.”

Where To Watch

Puck drop between the San Jose Sharks and Minnesota Wild is 7 PM PT at SAP Center. Watch it live on NBC Sports California. Listen to it on the Sharks Audio Network.