Preview/Lines #15: Sharks Need More from Lindblom

David Quinn is seeing signs of Oskar Lindblom’s re-emergence.

The San Jose Sharks inked the winger to a two-year, $5 million dollar contract this past summer, after the Philadelphia Flyers bought him out. The 26-year-old was expected to fill a top-nine role up front.

It hasn’t worked out so far for Lindblom though. He started the season, with Kevin Labanc, next to second-line center Logan Couture, but quickly found himself on the fourth line, where he’s resided for most of the season. He was also healthy scratched on Oct. 18 against the New York Islanders.

The winger has just three assists in 13 games this year.

“He’s a guy that plays fast, he’s on top of people, causes turnovers, responsible defensively, and you’re starting to see that he’s making some plays,” Quinn said of what Lindblom does when he’s on his game. “He’s had a level of frustration from his end of it. But he’s a good player. We’re going to need him. We feel good about the direction of his game.”

To that end, Lindblom has been promoted to the third line tonight next to Nico Sturm and Luke Kunin. Will he finally get going?

Before he was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma cancer in Dec. 2019, Lindblom was an up-and-coming scorer who had rung up 28 goals in his previous 111 games. That’s a 20-goal pace over a full season.

That’s the kind of performance that GM Mike Grier was hoping for when he took a chance on Lindblom this summer. The Swedish winger hasn’t delivered yet, but the season is still young.

San Jose Sharks (3-8-3)

Here’s my guess, based on practice the last two days, and Quinn’s press conference this morning:

Meier-Hertl-Labanc
Nieto-Couture-Barabanov
Lindblom-Sturm-Kunin
Gadjovich-Bonino-Gregor

Megna-Karlsson
Ferraro-Benning
Vlasic-Simek

Kahkonen

St. Louis Blues (3-8-0)

#stlblues morning skate lineup …

Buchnevich-Thomas-Tarasenko
Saad-O’Reilly-Leivo
Barbashev-Schenn-Kyrou
Alexandrov-Acciari-Pitlick

Leddy-Parayko
Krug-Faulk
Rosen-Mikkola

Binnington

— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) November 10, 2022

Where to Watch

The San Jose Sharks will take on the St. Louis Blues at 5 PM PST at Enterprise Center. Watch it live on NBC Sports California. Listen to it on the Sharks Audio Network.