BOSTON – Igor Chernyshov’s injury is another blow to the San Jose Sharks’ forward group, but it could be an opportunity for Adam Gaudette to finally join the lineup this season.

Chernyshov was injured in the first period of the Sharks’ game against the Ottawa Senators on Thursday when he blocked a shot from defenseman Nikolas Matinpalo and exited the game.

Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky didn’t give specifics about the seriousness of Chernyshov’s injury but said after his team’s 6-2 win at Canadian Tire Centre that he thought the winger was “going to be out here a little bit.”

If Chernyshov misses the Sharks’ game on Saturday against the Boston Bruins, that would seemingly open the door for Gaudette, who began the season on injured reserve but has been a healthy scratch the last seven games.

With center Alexander Wennberg also injured, the Sharks have only 12 healthy forwards. Unless they go with 11 forwards and seven defensemen Saturday, or place Wennberg or Chernyshov on IR and recall a forward from the Barracuda, then Gaudette would be in line to make his season debut.

“Just staying ready, keeping a good attitude, working hard out there,” Gaudette told Bay Area News Group before Thursday’s game. “There’s not much I can do. It’s out of my control, so I’m just focused on what I can control. At some point, I’ll get in there and take full advantage of that opportunity.”

Gaudette was also healthy scratched on occasion last season, posting 17 goals and 25 points in 66 games with the Sharks. His September injury kept him out of most of training camp before the team placed him on IR for the first week of the season to help him ramp up his conditioning.

But the Sharks have a deeper forward group this season, adding veteran winger Mason Marchment in free agency and selecting Ivar Stenberg No. 2 overall in June’s NHL draft. Both have dressed for every game as the Sharks have gotten off to a solid 6-4-1 start.

That meant that Gaudette, when he was healthy,  and Ty Dellandrea would have to bide their time and wait for an opportunity.

Dellandrea was scratched for the Sharks’ first two regular-season games but played two games earlier this month when Macklin Celebrini was injured. With Wennberg now considered week to week with an upper-body injury, Dellandrea has played the last two games and, on Thursday, assisted on Collin Graf’s short-handed goal for his first point of the season.

Meanwhile, Gaudette, as he’s done at other times in his professional career, has had to wait. Still, as he enters the second and final year of his contract, he said he’s not looking to trade to another team.

“It’s nothing new to me,” Gaudette said. “I’m just trying to break through this pattern and become an everyday NHLer. I know I’m capable of it. I think I’ve proven I can do it in limited minutes. But I just want to be able to break through, and I want it to be here.

“I don’t want to deal with trades and ask out. To me, that feels like quitting on the boys and looking for the easy way out. So I don’t want any of that (crap) to happen. I want it to be here. I really like it here. It’s definitely frustrating, but there’s not much more I can do. So I’ve got to apply my frustrations to getting better on the ice and helping my game. That’s the only thing I can do right now.”

Gaudette was the first Sharks player on the ice for the team’s morning skate in Ottawa on Thursday. He went to the Senators’ bench and sat next to Shelley Kettles, the team’s skating coach who still works with Gaudette after he played the 2024-25 season in Ottawa.

“Just trying to keep my confidence up,” Gaudette said.

That year, Gaudette reunited with Senators coach Travis Green, who also coached him at the start of his NHL career with the Vancouver Canucks.

Gaudette joined the Senators on a one-year, two-way deal in July 2024 after spending most of the previous two seasons in the AHL.

“It was great with Greener. He was always communicating with me,” Gaudette said. “I was mainly a fourth-line guy, but I remember him telling me,’You’re not a fourth-line player. You’re more than that, so you’ve just got to work at it now, and you’ll get yours when the time comes.’ That’s always stuck with me.”

“If anything, my message was, just (find) a way to be a player in the league,” Green said of Gaudette, “and then gradually you’ll work into that role. A lot of it’s more of a mindset than the physical part of your game.”

Gaudette may get his opportunity on Saturday.

“I was feeling the best I ever felt at the end of the summer, and obviously getting hurt sets things back,” Gaudette said. “But I feel great again. I feel like I’ve improved, so I’m just trying to keep that while I’m not playing, so when I’m finally in the lineup, I’m ready to go.”