SJHN Daily: Sturm Takes Leave of Absence

Best wishes to Nico Sturm!

The San Jose Sharks announced today that Sturm would be “taking a leave of absence from the team to attend to a personal family matter”. Sturm will miss the next two games, Nov. 20 at the Vancouver Canucks and Nov. 22 at the Seattle Kraken.

The Sharks will miss Sturm sorely. He’s second in the NHL with a 64.3 Faceoff Winning % and is second among San Jose forwards in penalty kill usage. The third-line center is also starting to produce offensively with a pair of primary assists in his last five games.

The Sharks didn’t call anybody up in response…yet. The NHL did grant San Jose a non-roster exemption for Sturm, meaning they don’t have to put him on IR to call a player up in his place. The Sharks currently have 11 forwards, eight defensemen, and two goalies on their roster. They also have just three healthy natural centers in Tomas Hertl, Mikael Granlund, and Ryan Carpenter.

So we’ll see how the Sharks navigate this on their upcoming mini- road trip.

AT SAN JOSE HOCKEY NOW…

Anthony Duclair returned to the lineup on Thursday after a lengthy battle with strep throat. He lost 10 pounds in the process.

The San Jose Sharks had their first multi-goal win Thursday over the St. Louis Blues. Everyone was especially happy to see Givani Smith score.

Coach David Quinn sent a clear message to young first-liner William Eklund.

The San Jose Sharks went up 40 percent in franchise value… even after the early woes of the 2023-24 season.

OTHER SHARKS NEWS…

The San Jose Sharks have sent down Danil Gushchin, presumably to play for the Barracuda on their back-to-back today and tomorrow, but he didn’t play tonight. Best guess, the Sharks recall him for the road trip.

Gushchin watching his team on the power play pic.twitter.com/tOkAwopeBw

— Nikita Sokolov (@cwnikitasokolov) November 18, 2023

We have signed forward Brett Kemp to a PTO from the @SwampRabbits.

In addition, we have recalled forward Connor MacEachern from the @Wichita_Thunder.https://t.co/HyJmFy2jLV

— SJ Barracuda (@sjbarracuda) November 16, 2023

The #SJSharks’ Day One, Dan Rusanowsky, talks Hall of Fame journey and the unexpected aftereffects of his near-fatal car accident https://t.co/dQd0NP3fkr

— Curtis Pashelka (@CurtisPashelka) November 12, 2023

The Carolina Hurricanes used AI to mess with their player portraits. Brent Burns’s picture is a bit… off… (the AI messed with his iconic beard.)

Substitute teacher that moonlights as a singer in a band Burnzie pic.twitter.com/zPVvJXeNyM

— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) November 17, 2023

AROUND THE NHL…

The Florida Panthers activated Brandon Montour and Aaron Ekblad off of injured reserve.

An embarrassing loss to the injury-plagued New Jersey Devils exposed a big weakness in the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Speaking of the Devil(s), Jack Hughes re-joined the team for practice on Friday.

Boston Bruins rookie Matt Poitras is headed in the right direction.

Toronto Maple Leafs forward Ryan Reaves talked to ESPN about a TV show inspired by his grandfather.

Penalties have killed the New York Islanders in their recent losing streak.