San Jose Sharks GM Mike Grier said that Igor Chernyshov had some things that “the coaching staff would like him to work on” in the AHL.

What are those things?

For what it’s worth, it doesn’t mean that Chernyshov was sent down because of those things or the coaching staff. Reading between the lines, Chernyshov getting sent down is just because of the Sharks’ roster crunch.

Chernyshov has three goals and 11 points in his first 15 NHL games. His last appearance at the Florida Panthers, he had a pair of assists in a 4-1 win.

Recently, veterans Jeff Skinner, Adam Gaudette, and Ryan Reaves have been, however, among those sitting out because of San Jose’s glut up front. Philipp Kurashev looks poised to come off IR soon.

So Chernyshov, 20, and still waiver-exempt, is a convenient roster move. He still has stuff to work on in the AHL — like his penalty killing — and this buys time for Grier to make a beneficial move or two to clear up the logjam. Chernyshov will also be able to play up to eight games for the Cuda while the Sharks are on Olympic break.

“We’re getting healthy, so there will be, probably some more roster decisions to come in the next week to ten days,” Grier said.

So what’s San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky hoping to see from Chernyshov with the Barracuda?

“Just details away from the puck. Go down there and be on a mission. I think when you get sent down, from coaching that league, you can come off the gas with your mentality a little bit and just kind of float through it,” Warsofsky said. “I don’t think he’ll do that, just because of type of hockey player and person he is. But continue to push the envelope with his details.”

Chernyshov, when he wasn’t at the top of his game in the best league in the world, did struggle at times with pace. Part of it, he’s still growing into his body.

“The pace of the game, the National Hockey League is extremely high. To do that and play at that, extremely high pace, shift in and shift out, your conditioning has to be extremely high-end,” Warsofsky said. “So he probably won’t pick [that] up and in the time he’s down there…A lot of that will come throughout the summer, but he’s gonna be a special player. We know that.”

San Jose Sharks (25-21-3)

Alex Nedeljkovic will start.

The Sharks have six games until the Olympic break, no back-to-backs. Warsofsky declined, when asked, if Nedeljkovic and Yaroslav Askarov would be alternating starts from this point on, as they had in the four-straight back-to-back’s. So maybe Nedeljkovic will get a chance to run with the ball a bit?

This is how San Jose lined up at morning skate:

Graf-Celebrini-Smith
Regenda-Wennberg-Toffoli
Eklund-Misa-Gaudette
Goodrow-Ostapchuk-Reaves

Orlov-Klingberg
Ferraro-Liljegren
Dickinson-Desharnais

Nedeljkovic

This is what the Sharks’ power play groups looked like:

PP1: Klingberg-Celebrini-Smith-Toffoli-Wennberg
PP2: Orlov-Eklund-Misa-Graf-Regenda

New York Rangers (21-24-6)

Spencer Martin should start.

Looks like lines are

Miller-Zibanejad-Perreault
Panarin-Trocheck-Lafrenière
Cuylle-Laba-Othmann
Blidh-Carrick-Raddysh

Gavrikov-Schneider
Soucy-Borgen
Robertson-Morrow

— Peter Baugh (@Peter_Baugh) January 23, 2026

Smith and Gabe Perreault, Boston College linemates, face each other for the first time in the NHL.

“It’s going to be pretty weird,” Smith told Sharks Hockey Digest about facing Perreault. Perreault also told SHD that he met Smith’s landlord, Patrick Marleau, before the college mates went out to dinner on Thursday night.

Where To Watch

Puck drop between the San Jose Sharks and New York Rangers is at 7 PM PT at SAP Center. Watch it live on NBC Sports California. Listen to it on the Sharks Audio Network.