{"id":135643,"date":"2026-01-16T04:04:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T04:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/135643\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T04:04:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T04:04:21","slug":"san-jose-sharks-will-smith-could-return-friday-face-detroit-red-wings-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/135643\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks’ Will Smith could return Friday, face Detroit Red Wings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Forward Will Smith could return to the active roster<\/a> as soon as Friday when the San Jose Sharks face the Detroit Red Wings on the second leg of a four-game road trip, coach Ryan Warsofsky told reporters Thursday morning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Smith was a full participant in Wednesday\u2019s practice<\/a> in Washington, D.C., and took part in the team\u2019s morning skate on Thursday prior to its game against the Capitals to begin the road trip.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother good day. Won\u2019t play today,\u201d Warsofsky said. \u201cHe\u2019ll get some work in this morning with our guys, and then we\u2019ll make a decision in the morning (about playing Friday).\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith sustained an upper-body injury in the Sharks\u2019 Dec. 13 game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. He has 29 points in 33 games this season and, before Thursday, was the Sharks\u2019 fourth-leading scorer despite missing the last 12 games. The Sharks are 7-5-0 in his absence.<\/p>\n

The Sharks on Thursday afternoon cleared a spot on their 23-man roster for Smith\u2019s possible return, placing center Ty Dellandrea on IR. Dellandrea sustained a lower-body injury<\/a> on Jan. 6 in a game against the Columbus Blue Jackets and is considered week-to-week. He will be reevaluated before the Olympic break in early February.<\/p>\n

Smith and forward Philipp Kurashev have been on injured reserve since Dec. 15.<\/p>\n

The Sharks finish the challenging trip with games against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers on Monday and the Atlantic Division-leading Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

NEDELJKOVIC STARTS<\/p>\n

Goalie Alex Nedeljkovic will start for the Sharks against the Capitals, perhaps setting up Yaroslav Askarov to start against the Red Wings on Friday.<\/p>\n

Nedeljkovic is 2-2-0 with an .867 save percentage in six career games against the Capitals, but is coming off a win over Dallas on Saturday when he made 16 saves in a 5-4 overtime victory over the Stars.<\/p>\n

This will be the 200th game, and 177th start, in Nedeljkovic\u2019s nine-year NHL career, in which he has an 81-68-29 record, a .902 save percentage, and a 3.01 goals against average. Nedeljkovic was a second-round draft pick of the Carolina Hurricanes in 2014 and was the third of 21 goalies selected that year.<\/p>\n

OVECHKIN\u2019S FINAL GAME VS. SHARKS?<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s game marks the final regular-season meeting between the Sharks and Capitals, and potentially Alex Ovechkin\u2019s last game against San Jose unless the two teams meet in the Stanley Cup Final in June.<\/p>\n

Ovechkin, the NHL\u2019s all-time leading goal scorer with 917 goals,<\/a> is in the final year of a five-year, $47.5 million contract and has not said whether he\u2019ll return in 2026-27 for a 22nd season. Although Ovechkin turned 40 in September, age hasn\u2019t slowed down his production, as he entered Thursday as the Capitals\u2019 second-leading scorer with 20 goals and 20 assists in 47 games. It\u2019s the 20th time in 21 seasons<\/a> that he\u2019s scored at least 20 goals.<\/p>\n

Ovechkin, before Thursday, had 32 points in 30 career games against the Sharks, the team he grew up cheering for<\/a> as a child in Moscow.<\/p>\n

In the Capitals\u2019 7-1 win over the Sharks in San Jose on Dec. 3, Ovechkin scored twice and had four shots on goal in 16:33 of ice time.<\/p>\n

BYSTEDT NAMED AHL ALL-STAR<\/p>\n

Center Filip Bystedt, the Sharks\u2019 first-round draft choice in 2022, was named the Barracuda\u2019s representative for the 2026 AHLAll-Star Classic in Rockford, Ill., next month. Bystedt, one of 12 players on the Pacific Division team, has 10 goals and leads the Barracuda with 28 points in 32 games so far this season.<\/p>\n

The Barracuda (20-11-1-2) are in fourth place in the division and play their next three games on the road, starting with games on Friday and Saturday against the Tucson Roadrunners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Forward Will Smith could return to the active roster as soon as Friday when the San Jose Sharks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[404,88,90,89,98,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-135643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-san-jose","10":"tag-san-jose-headlines","11":"tag-san-jose-news","12":"tag-san-jose-sharks","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}