MONTREAL – A day after sustaining an upper body injury, Alexander Wennberg will miss the San Jose Sharks’ game against the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday at Bell Centre.

Wennberg was injured during the Sharks’ game on Monday against the Toronto Maple Leafs and missed the final four minutes of the third period in what became a 3-1 loss.

Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said Tuesday that Wennberg, 32, is considered day-to-day. The Sharks play the Ottawa Senators on Thursday.

Ty Dellandrea will enter the Sharks’ lineup for Wennberg, a middle-six center who signed as a free agent with San Jose before the 2024-25 season.  Dellandrea will play the right wing on the Sharks’ fourth line with center Zack Ostapchuk and left wing Barclay Goodrow.

Collin Graf will move to center to replace Wennberg, with Tyler Toffoli and Mason Marchment on the wings on the third line. The other two Sharks lines will remain the same as they were for Monday’s game, with Macklin Celebrini playing with Will Smith and Igor Chernyshov, and Michael Misa playing with Ivar Stenberg and Kiefer Sherwood.

Adam Gaudette will be a healthy scratch for the sixth straight game and hasn’t played this season. Gaudette, who has spent some time at center in his NHL career, spent the Sharks’ first four games on injured reserve.

Asked why Gaudette isn’t getting in after a loss, Warsofsky said, “You look at a few things. Obviously, (Dellandrea), we know we can play center, gives us a right-shot center there. There’s some speed impact there. It wasn’t like we just didn’t think about it. It was a conversation that we had as a group, and this is what we went with tonight.”

#SJSharks lines, d-pairs in warmups

Chernyshov-Celebrini-Smith
Stenberg-Misa-Sherwood
Marchment-Graf-Toffoli
Goodrow-Ostapchuk-Dellandrea

Nurse-Kesselring
Dickinson-Trouba
Orlov-Allan

Nedeljkovic

— Curtis Pashelka (@CurtisPashelka) October 20, 2026

It wasn’t known exactly when Wennberg sustained the injury. He had a 2-on-1 with Tyler Toffoli early in the third period, had a shot attempt blocked by Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly, and left the ice shortly afterward. A television camera then showed Wennberg in discomfort on the Sharks bench as a team trainer tended to him, but the Swedish-born forward returned to the ice less than three minutes later.

Wennberg has three assists in nine games and typically matches up against the opposing team’s top line, especially at home. He was also third among all Sharks forwards in average ice time (20:00) and led the team in faceoffs taken with 158, including 113 at even strength.

Wennberg has also been on the Sharks’ top power-play unit this season as the net-front presence. Mason Marchment, who has been on the second unit, will take over Wennberg’s spot.

“It’s a tough loss,” Warsofsky said of Wennberg. “But we’ve got some guys here healthy that haven’t played in a little bit, and we’ve got some depth there in that position. So it’s an opportunity for some guys to step up.”

Defenseman Nolan Allan will draw back into the Sharks lineup, and Luca Cagnoni, who took an ill-advised cross-checking penalty on Monday that led to a Maple Leafs goal, will be scratched.

Goalie Alex Nedeljkovic will start for the Sharks (4-4-1), who are looking for just their second win in their last six games.

The Sharks so far are 1-1-1 on their six-game road trip, with Nedeljkovic backstopping the team’s only win, a 3-2 shootout victory over the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena on Oct. 15.  Over their last five games, the Sharks have just six 5-on-5 goals and have been outscored 18-10 overall.

“(Being) a better defensive team, it’s only way you win in this league,” Warsofsky said. “But getting our team to understand (that playing) a simple brand of hockey will lead to offense. When you defend with urgency, when you defend with pride and commitment, it can lead to more offense, and getting them to believe in that.

“I think our guys do a good job of understanding that. We’re a little inconsistent.”

Against the Leafs, the Sharks also took a too-many-men penalty late in the second period, leading to a game-changing Austo)n Matthews goal that tied the game 1-1.

“It’s the details in our game in certain moments,” Warsofsky said. “Again, I don’t think we’re playing terrible hockey. We’re generating some quality chances, but there are just little moments in our game when things aren’t going your way, the microscope is put on them, and that’s what happened.

“The too many men call, they score with 11 seconds left, that’s a crucial moment in the game that we need to kill off. We obviously can’t make that mistake with too many men. So hopefully we learn from these mistakes and move forward.”

The Canadiens have won three of their last four games, with two of those wins coming in a shootout and the third in overtime, as they beat the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.