Sharks Prospects Update: Are Kniazev, Spiridonov Healthy?

Most Mondays this off-season, we’ll do a Sharks Prospects Update.

The NHL and AHL are dark for the foreseeable future, but they’re playing hockey in plenty of other places.

Let’s keep up with the San Jose Sharks’ prospects every Monday or so here until the start of the NHL season — not only will you get statistical updates, you’ll also get exclusive insight.

Marcus Sorensen and Joel Kellman are hardly prospects, but we’ll also track how the older forwards are doing since they’re both skating abroad.

But right now, we try to figure out what’s going on with Artemi Kniazev and Yegor Spiridonov.

Before we get to the topic at hand — wow, Sorensen!

Who cares about his league-leading 21 points, Allsvenskan is second-division Swedish hockey. Instead, look at that ice time, 23:02 per game! Vita Hasten is certainly getting its money’s worth.

Meanwhile, Yegor Spiridonov hasn’t played a game since November 8th, the final game of the Karjala Cup.

The centerman left that game after this hit:

Yegor Spiridonov goes off slowly after this hit by David Jiricek.
2 min for interference. #KarjalaCup pic.twitter.com/9CEPlTOqKS

— Here's Your Replay ⬇️ (@HeresYourReplay) November 8, 2020

A source told me last week, of Spiridonov’s undisclosed injury: “I do hope that in a week or two we will see Yegor playing again.”

It’s been a week and still no Spiridonov.

The significant concern here is will the 2019 San Jose Sharks fourth-round pick’s Karjala Cup injury threaten his chances of being selected for Russia’s World Junior Championships roster?

All WJC teams are scheduled to arrive in Edmonton by December 13th.

Hopefully, we’ll see the 19-year-old before then.

The same could be said of fellow Russian WJC hopeful Artemi Kniazev.

Kniazev’s last game was October 31st. Because of an undisclosed injury, the 2019 San Jose Sharks second-round pick has missed the Karjala Cup and multiple MHL games.

Watching the last five minutes of Kniazev’s most recent Irbis Kazan game, there was no clear injury: The defenseman completed the contest and was even on the ice during the dying moments of a 2-1 Irbis victory.

It’ll be especially tough if Kniazev is forced to miss World Juniors — that’s the main reason why the QMJHL defenseman is in Russia, as we outlined recently:

On San Jose Sharks’ Loans: “Timo will not play in Europe.”

We’ll keep up to date on San Jose’s Russian WJC hopefuls. Hopefully, we have some good news soon.