John Klingberg returns to the San Jose Sharks lineup after not playing for the past seven games, either due to injury or a healthy scratch.
Adam Gaudette will also return to the Sharks’ lineup against the Edmonton Oilers. The players who are coming out of the lineup as healthy scratches are Ty Dellandrea and Shakir Mukhamadullin.
Mukhamadullin scratch for Klingberg.
Gaudette in for Dellandrea. #SJSharks
— Max Miller (@Real_Max_Miller) April 8, 2026
“There’s a lot of factors into switching the lineup after a win and who and what matchups,” San Jose Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “[I’m] not gonna go through it all, but, as coaches and as an organization, we talked about and discuss it, and that was a decision we made.”
Klingberg will slot in next to Mario Ferraro on defense. Ferraro is a left-handed defenseman that has been playing the right side with Mukhamadullin. Klingberg will bring balance to that pair as a righty, something Warsofsky said played a part in this decision.
The veteran d-man will also go back to the San Jose Sharks power play. Klingberg bumped Sam Dickinson off the second unit, and will be the quarterback of PP2.
“There’s a situation where we go two defensemen as well on that unit,” Warsofsky said. “Nothing Dickie did wrong. It’s just John’s a guy that’s done it for a long time in this league and had a lot of success doing it. We’ll see how the game plays out.”
As far as the message to Mukhamadullin:
“He’s done some good things, and he’s improved in some areas. There’s some areas we could continue to work on,” Warsofsky said. “He’s playing better than he was probably coming off the injury earlier in the year.”
The Oilers are playing a second half of a back-to-back after they lost to the Utah Mammoth 6-5 in OT on Tuesady.