Radim Simek will be a healthy scratch for tonight’s game against the Minnesota Wild. Somewhere down the line, it could be Marc-Edouard Vlasic who takes a seat, or it could be Jake Middleton.
That’s how Sharks coach Bob Boughner sees the situation with his defense corps right now — a nightly competition between a handful of the blueliners to stay in the lineup on a regular basis.
The Sharks have a 1-3-1 record since they started the season 5-3-1, and enter Tuesday in sixth place in the Pacific Division.
“We’re at the point in time here,” Boughner said Tuesday morning, “where we’ve got to make sure that we’re playing our best six every night.”
Vlasic will play alongside Santeri Hatakka, who played five out of six games while four Sharks defensemen were in the NHL’s COVID protocol. Simek, who has averaged 12:39 of ice time in eight games so far, will be a healthy scratch for the first time this season.
Vlasic, Simek, Middleton, and Erik Karlsson all played their first game in over two weeks Saturday in a 6-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche.
But Boughner feels he needs a third defense pair that he can regularly depend on to reduce the workload for Brent Burns and Mario Ferraro, who usually match up against the opposing team’s top line. Defensive depth is more critical on the road as home teams have the luxury of last change.
Boughner said Monday that he feels the Vlasic-Simek pair has been “average at best,” adding Tuesday that the decision to scratch either one for the game with the Wild, “could have went either way.”
“It’s tough to really make that judgment because I know that (Simek and Vlasic) were out for 11, 12 days,” Boughner said. “But we’ve got to start spreading out the minutes back there, and we (need) a little more urgency, especially to the bottom pair.”
Vlasic, who has been on the Sharks’ roster since he was a 19-year-old in 2006, is in the fourth year of an eight-year, $56 million deal that was awarded and signed on July 1, 2017, a year before he would have become an unrestricted free agent.
Vlasic, 34, is the franchise leader in games played for a defenseman with 1,094. Tuesday is the 18-year anniversary of the trade between the Sharks and Flames that saw San Jose acquire Calgary’s second-round draft pick in 2005 — that it used to select Vlasic — for goalie Miikka Kiprusoff, who went on to have a stellar career in Southern Alberta.
Vlasic for years was considered among the top shutdown defensemen in the NHL as he averaged over 20 minutes of ice time per game for 14 straight seasons from 2006 to 2020. He was also part of Canada’s gold medal-winning team at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
This season, though, he has averaged 13:54 in ice time in eight games, a career low, and his spot in the lineup right now appears tenuous at best. Boughner said that ideally, his third defense pair would play 15 or 16 minutes per game.
“I just think right now it’s a situation where this is going to be a bit of a competition,” Boughner said. “I don’t think there’s going to be any favorites played.”
Boughner said he thought Middleton also struggled against Colorado but added that the 6-foot-3, 220-pound defenseman has built up some equity with how well he played before he tested positive for COVID. Middleton has also shown a willingness to fight if need be and his game is of a more physical nature.
“We need his element in the lineup and we need it on a consistent basis,” Boughner said. “I’m not saying (the competition) is only between two guys. It’s going to be a nightly thing going forward. I’d say the same thing about the forwards, and it should be that way.”
Simek, 29, is in the second year of a four-year, $9 million contract he signed in March 2020.
“He’s got to be more urgent, jumping to check and closing plays quicker,” Boughner said. “I’ve seen him at his best where he has a great stick and he provides some sandpaper back there. A tough guy to play against in the d-zone, he’s always finishing ya, and he’s annoying to play against when he’s playing his best, and he’s in your face.
“I think he got away from that a little bit. Just more urgency, more urgency all over the ice, and it’s not just him, but that’s our expectation.”
NOTES: Jonah Gadjovich will play Tuesday after he was scratched Saturday and will play on the fourth line with Jasper Weatherby and Kevin Labanc. James Reimer will start against the Wild. In 10 career games vs. Minnesota, Reimer is 5-4-0 with a 2.28 goals-against average and a .931 save percentage with two shutouts.
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