San Jose Sharks winger nears return as three-game road trip is set to begin

SAN JOSE Forward William Eklund appears set to return from a lower-body injury this week as the resurgent San Jose Sharks begin a three-game road trip on Tuesday against the Minnesota Wild in St Paul Eklund was the Sharks second-leading scorer through the first games of the season but had been bothered by an injury for about a week before he ultimately had to sit out the unit s competition against the Detroit Red Wings on Nov Eklund had to miss the last four games in total and was placed on injured reserve on Friday but he is eligible to return to face the Wild as San Jose looks to extend their winning streak to four games Coach Ryan Warsofsky revealed the Sharks will finalize a decision on whether to activate Eklund from injured reserve after the -year-old forward takes part in the crew s morning skate on Tuesday Before he had to miss time Eklund was arguably playing particular of the best hockey of his NHL career with four goals and five assists in six games as he Alexander Wennberg and Philipp Kurashev formed an effective second line Eklund on Monday was reunited with Wennberg and Kurashev as the Sharks held a brief practice before their flight to the Twin Cities Eklund is now the Sharks third-leading scorer with points trailing only Macklin Celebrini points and Will Smith points The Sharks went - - without Eklund as they moved to within one point of a playoff spot before Monday s games Celebrini and Smith did their part to make up for Eklund s absence combining for five goals and seven assists during that time LEDDY ACTIVATED The Sharks activated defenseman Nick Leddy off IR on Monday but it remained unclear as to whether he ll play against the Wild Leddy hasn t played since he sustained an upper-body injury in the Sharks Oct championship against the New York Rangers but has been a regular participant in up-to-date practices Monday Leddy was paired with Timothy Liljegren and Dmitry Orlov skated with Shakir Mukhamadullin as the Sharks adjusted their defense pairs Orlov and Liljegren had formed the Sharks top pair for greater part of the last two weeks Requested if Liljegren could be a healthy scratch Tuesday Warsofsky reported We ll see We just desired to give it a look at present with our pairs We ll get to Tuesday and we ll figure it out With Leddy off IR the Sharks as of early Monday afternoon had players on their operational roster If they want to activate Eklund they ll have to clear a roster spot for him Related Articles Dare to dream Sharks utter P word after another stirring accomplishment Joe Thornton s ex-teammates explain why he was a first-ballot Hall of Famer Askarov s brilliance leads Sharks to win over two-time Cup champion Panthers Joe Thornton begins Hockey Hall of Fame induction celebrations in Toronto San Jose Sharks excited to see what s next after another impressive win TOFFOLI S STATUS Tyler Toffoli is dealing with an upper-body injury and did not practice on Monday Still Warsofsky revealed that the organization is pretty confident the veteran winger will play against the Wild Warsofsky explained Toffoli has been dealing with the injury for a little under a week Still after a lukewarm offensive start to the season Toffoli has seven points in his last eight games as he s returned to the top line alongside Smith and Celebrini Six of those points have come at even strength as the Sharks power play enters Tuesday on an ice-cold -for- stretch Toffoli entered this week with five goals and five assists in games