{"id":506403,"date":"2026-10-24T09:36:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T09:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/506403\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T09:36:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T09:36:19","slug":"sharks-insight-chernyshov-made-big-difference-on-celebrini-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/506403\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharks Insight: Chernyshov Made Big Difference on Celebrini Line"},"content":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2014 The scoresheet doesn\u2019t reflect it, but Igor Chernyshov<\/a> was surging.<\/p>\n

The San Jose Sharks will miss Chernyshov, if he\u2019s out for an extended period of time. The 20-year-old winger suffered an upper-body injury after blocking a Nikolas Matinpalo shot on Thursday, a 6-2 Sharks\u2019 win.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s going to be out a little bit,\u201d head coach Ryan Warsofsky admitted.<\/p>\n

Sharks tools<\/p>\n

Chernyshov, to the eye, has had a transformative effect on the Macklin Celebrini-Will Smith line. The 6-foot-2 Russian provides a blend of size and speed and skill that makes space for Celebrini and Smith, to do what they do best.<\/p>\n

Chernyshov was re-introduced into the waters \u2014 the trio excelled together last year \u2014 on Oct. 13 against the Boston Bruins. Look at the lead-up to Thursday\u2019s Nolan Allan<\/a> goal:<\/p>\n

Stathletes\u2019 micro-stats, small sample size alert, suggest Chernyshov\u2019s impact.<\/p>\n

First, let\u2019s take a long view of this, using Evolving Hockey\u2019s line analytics. Expected Goals has its limitations, of course, but I think it paints an accurate picture here.<\/p>\n

Celebrini has played primarily on two 5-on-5 lines<\/a> this season: Mason Marchment-Celebrini-Smith had a 49.5 xGF %, while Chernyshov-Celebrini-Smith had a 61.0 xGF %.<\/p>\n

Stathletes takes us another step in our evaluation: From Oct. 1 to 11, when Marchment-Celebrini-Smith were together, Marchment was second, after Zack Ostapchuk<\/a>, among San Jose Sharks forwards, in 5-on-5 Total Slot Involvement. That\u2019s 11.34 Slot Passes, Shots , and Carries Per 60. Smith was fifth at 9.9. Celebrini was seventh at 8.55.<\/p>\n

Chernyshov, playing mostly with Michael Misa<\/a> and Tyler Toffoli<\/a>, was sixth at 9.41.<\/p>\n

Since Oct. 13, when Chernyshov-Celebrini-Smith were reunited, Smith\u2019s 26.06 Total Slot Involvement paces the Sharks, Chernyshov second with a 24.63, and Celebrini third with 21.32. That\u2019s just at 5-on-5 Per 60.<\/p>\n

And just to show it\u2019s not specifically a Marchment thing, the veteran winger was fourth at 19.06, having formed instant chemistry with fellow veterans Alex Wennberg and Tyler Toffoli on a line. For whatever reason, Marchment just didn\u2019t gel immediately with Celebrini-Smith.<\/p>\n

But fact is, Celebrini-Smith\u2019s Total Slot Involvement more than doubled with Chernyshov.<\/p>\n

Just to put Smith\u2019s 26.06 in perspective, that\u2019s ninth among league forwards since Oct. 13, behind stars like Jack Hughes and Brady Tkachuk. Basically, the kinds of forwards that you want to share micro-stats with.<\/p>\n

Ignore the fact that Chernyshov has had just one assist in his last six games since Oct. 13. He even had a point taken away: He was originally the primary assist on the aforementioned Allan goal.<\/p>\n

The 5-on-5 goals were coming for Chernyshov and company. But now, they\u2019ll have to wait.<\/p>\n

Collin Graf did step in capably after Chernyshov\u2019s departure, leading the San Jose Sharks with five 5-on-5 Total Scoring Chances on Thursday. That\u2019s Scoring Chances and Assisted Chances combined. Graf also worked well with Celebrini and Smith last year.<\/p>\n

So the Celebrini line should be just fine. <\/p>\n

But losing Chernyshov and Wennberg last Monday chips away at the rest of the San Jose Sharks\u2019 depth up front. Graf, normally a winger, was already covering for Wennberg up the middle on Thursday, before Chernyshov\u2019s injury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OTTAWA \u2014 The scoresheet doesn\u2019t reflect it, but Igor Chernyshov was surging. The San Jose Sharks will miss…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[102274,2094,83959,3524,3517,22435,1035,3259,65313,26224,1036,88,90,89,98,189729,44566,3809,3578,26194],"class_list":["post-506403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-2026-27","tag-alexander-wennberg","tag-brady-tkachuk","tag-collin-graf","tag-igor-chernyshov","tag-jack-hughes","tag-macklin-celebrini","tag-michael-misa","tag-nolan-allan","tag-ottawa-senators","tag-ryan-warsofsky","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-sharks-insight","tag-stathletes","tag-tyler-toffoli","tag-will-smith","tag-zack-ostapchuk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506403","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=506403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}