SAN JOSE – It’s still questionable whether new Sharks acquisition Jannik Hansen will be permitted to make his debut on the team’s upcoming road trip to Minnesota and Winnipeg, as he sorts out the red tape that comes with immigration.
The Sharks visit the Wild on Sunday and Jets on Monday.
“I don’t have an update on [Hansen],” coach Pete DeBoer said on Saturday morning. “It’s really day-to-day. I could get a call in an hour and say he’s got clearance, or it could be two days, I don’t know.”
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The Sharks will, however, have two more bodies available to them as they prepare to take on the Western Conference’s top team in Minnesota, as Joonas Donskoi and Dylan DeMelo are both ready to return.
Donskoi has been out with an upper body injury that looked to be his right shoulder since getting hit in a game in Colorado by Andreas Martinsen on Jan. 23, while DeMelo suffered a broken wrist during a game in Edmonton on Jan. 10 when he went awkwardly into the boards after a collision with Zack Kassian.
David Schlemko is questionable with a lower body injury after he wasn’t able to play the final two periods of the Sharks’ 3-1 win against Vancouver on Thursday, indicating his injury is not serious. He’ll go on the road trip, but if he can’t play, DeMelo will skate with Brenden Dillon on the third pair.
The 23-year-old DeMelo has four points (1g, 3a) in 14 games this season, serving primarily as the seventh defenseman. Because it was a wrist injury, he was able to remain in shape and returned to the ice shortly after undergoing surgery.
San Jose Sharks
“We stayed off for a little bit because you don't want to fall and hurt it, but once it got stable [I’ve] been skating pretty good,” he said. “I didn’t take much time off, either in the gym or on the ice.”
If he’s in against Minnesota, it will be similar to when he made his season debut on Nov. 23 against an equally talented Blackhawks team after he had been a healthy scratch for the first 19 games.
“Same kind of approach I guess I’m going to take if I’m in,” DeMelo said. “Just try to get into the game as quick as possible, and just keep it simple.”
The forward lines for the Sharks remained the same for Saturday's practice as they were in Thursday’s win. Donskoi rotated in on the fourth line.