San Jose Sharks place three veteran forwards on waivers, clearing way for younger players

The San Jose Sharks placed veteran forwards Oskar Lindblom, Jacob Peterson, and Ryan Carpenter on waivers Friday, likely clearing the way for forwards William Eklund and Thomas Bordeleau to be on the team’s 23-man roster for the start of the regular season.

NHL teams have 24 hours to claim either Lindblom, Peterson, or Carpenter. If one or more of the players clear waivers, the expectation is they will be assigned to the San Jose Barracuda, the Sharks’ AHL affiliate.

Lindblom, 27, is in the second year of a two-year, $5 million deal he signed with the Sharks in July of last year as a free agent. Per CapFriendly, if Lindblom clears and is assigned to the AHL, he’ll continue to count $1.35 million against San Jose’s salary cap.

Peterson, 24, was qualified as a restricted free agent by the Sharks this summer and was signed to a one-year, two-way deal worth $775,000 at the NHL level. Carpenter, 32, received the same contract when he signed with the Sharks as an unrestricted free agent in July.

Although the Sharks were perhaps not swayed by statistics alone, Peterson played in three preseason games and was held without a point. Both Lindblom and Carpenter played in two preseason games and were held scoreless.

Eklund and Bordeleau, meanwhile, both dressed for four preseason games. Eklund had a goal and two assists and Bordeleau had two goals.

At the moment, the Sharks’ NHL forward group consists of Eklund, Bordeleau, Tomas Hertl, Mikael Granlund, Kevin Labanc, Mike Hoffman, Anthony Duclair, Luke Kunin, Alexander Barabanov, Nico Sturm, Fabian Zetterlund, Filip Zadina and Givani Smith.

Sharks coach David Quinn, per San Jose Hockey Now, said captain Logan Couture skated Friday for the first time since training camp began. Couture, though, remains out indefinitely with a lower-body injury and appears to be on track to start the season on injured reserve.

The Sharks, as of Thursday, have not officially said what they are doing with winger Quentin Musty, who was drafted 26th overall by the team in June. But the expectation is that he will at some point be returned to his junior team, the OHL’s Sudbury Wolves.

Lindblom was general manager Mike Grier’s first free agent signing in July 2022.

In December 2019, as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers, Lindblom was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, which is a rare type of cancer that occurs in bones or in the soft tissue around the bones.

After months of treatment, Lindblom was able to rejoin the Flyers in the 2020 playoff bubble and played in two games, and the following June, he won the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, an award handed out by the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association, for “perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.”

After the following season, Lindblom had the final year of his three-year, $9 million deal bought out by the Flyers. He signed with the Sharks as a free agent but had just 15 points in 73 games, far from the 33-point season he had with the Flyers in 2018-19.

Peterson was acquired from the Dallas Stars late last season for center Scott Reedy and had eight points in 11 games. But the Sharks added a handful of forwards in the offseason, including Duclair, Hoffman, Granlund, Smith, and Zadina, putting Peterson’s roster NHL spot in jeopardy.

Carpenter has 330 games of NHL experience but was always going to be challenged to make the Sharks out of camp considering the team also had Hertl, Couture, Granlund, Sturm, and Bordeleau on the roster.

Grier said in August after he acquired Hoffman, Granlund, and defenseman Jan Rutta in the Erik Karlsson trade that if players on entry-level contracts, “outplay the veteran guys, then they’ll get the opportunity and we’ll figure the rest out for sure. I don’t want to block anyone’s pathway.”

Eklund forced Sharks management’s hand with impressive performances in three straight preseason games, including Thursday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Kings in Salt Lake City.

Eklund assisted on Bordeleau’s game-tying third-period goal that helped force overtime and was otherwise impactful as he played mainly on a line with Granlund and Kunin, a trio that could be together for the Sharks’ season-opener on Thursday against the Vegas Golden Knights.

“I thought he played another strong game,” Quinn said of Eklund. “I really liked his game tonight. As we’ve talked about, he’s been trending in the right direction.”

The Sharks’ defense corps also appears to be largely settled although some questions might remain.

It appears the Sharks will keep eight defensemen to start the season, with six of those spots going to Rutta, Matt Benning, Kyle Burroughs, Mario Ferraro, Nikolai Knyzhov, and Marc-Edouard Vlasic. If Radim Simek starts the season on IR, Henry Thrun, Ty Emberson, and Jacob MacDonald all remain in the mix for the final two spots.

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