FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Vincent Desharnais is back in the San Jose Sharks’ line-up.

It’s been a long road, though, and not without bumps.

Desharnais’s last appearance was Nov. 26 at the Colorado Avalanche.

The 6-foot-7 defenseman, who will be paired with Sam Dickinson on Monday at the Florida Panthers, revealed to San Jose Hockey Now that he didn’t suffer an injury that game. Instead, it was an elbow injury that he’s been dealing with since last year.

Desharnais had surgery on an undisclosed elbow: “It’s just kind of a nagging injury that just kept bothering me, and I thought I was going to be able to come back a little bit earlier, just kind of couple setbacks that that happened.”

But he’s healthy now. The San Jose Sharks have missed his physicality and defending, especially on the penalty kill.

From Nov. 1 to 26, when Desharnais was a mainstay on the San Jose PK, they had the second-best kill in the NHL, a 93.2 percent rate.

They’ve also missed him in the room, where he was an especially valuable mentor to young San Jose Sharks defensemen like Dickinson and Vincent Iorio.

“It’s just awesome to see their progression. Some plays that they were not making like two, three months ago, now they’re making it,” Desharnais said, about watching 19-year-old Dickinson and 22-year-old Iorio. “Those guys, they have such good skill-sets that once they build confidence, when they actually feel it on a daily basis, it’s gonna be pretty cool to see, but we see already a pretty big difference.”

The Sharks are hoping that Desharnais can pick up where he left off, and be a big difference on the ice for them, too.

San Jose Sharks (24-20-3)

Alex Nedeljkovic will start.

Lines, per Jamal Mayers, looked like they did yesterday at practice:

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

Orlov-Klingberg
Ferraro-Liljegren
Dickinson-Desharnais

Nedeljkovic

Power play groups, per Dan Rusanowsky, looked the same as their last game at the Detroit Red Wings:

Orlov-Celebrini-Smith-Chernyshov-Regenda
Klingberg-Misa-Toffoli-Eklund-Wennberg

Philipp Kurashev was part of Sharks practice for the first time since suffering an upper-body injury on Dec. 13 at the Pittsburgh Penguins. Warsofsky told SJHN that he’s still week-to-week.

Florida Panthers (25-19-3)

Check out Florida Hockey Now for all your Florida Panthers updates!

Here’s how they’ll line up, per George Richards:

Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe — Sam Bennett — A.J. Greer
Mackie Samoskevich — Evan Rodrigues — Matthew Tkachuk
Sandis Vilmanis — Cole Schwindt — Jesper Boqvist

Gustav Forsling — Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola — Uvis Balinskis
Tobias Bjornfot — Jeff Petry

Sergei Bobrovsky

Where To Watch

Puck drop between the San Jose Sharks and Florida Panthers is at 3 PM PT at Amerant Arena. Watch it live on NBC Sports California. Listen to it on the Sharks Audio Network.