Sharks takeaways: Gush’s final push in wild comeback, Kostin’s camp, and can Hertl be replaced?

Forward Danil Gushchin might have given the San Jose Sharks’ front office and coaching staff something to consider before finalizing the team’s roster for the start of the regular season.

Gushchin finished with a remarkable five assists, leading the Sharks to a stirring 6-5 comeback win over the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday in the final game of the preseason for both teams.

With the Sharks trailing by two, Luke Kunin scored goals at the 17:00 and 18:18 marks of the third period before Ethan Cardwell scored with 12 seconds left to give San Jose the unlikely lead.

Winger Klim Kostin and defensemen Jimmy Schuldt and Mario Ferraro also scored for the Sharks, who finished the preseason with a 2-3-1 record. San Jose opens the regular season on Thursday at home against the St. Louis Blues.

“This feeling that we have in this dressing room is an incredible feeling,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “No matter if you’re playing a men’s league game or preseason game, it’s important to have this feeling from what this group’s gone through the last couple of years.”

The Sharks have the day off Sunday and return to practice Monday, just hours before all NHL teams have to finalize their salary cap-compliant rosters of no more than 23 players.

Has Gushchin, who finished the preseason with a team-high nine points in four games, done enough to push someone else — someone who would likely require waivers — off the roster?

“I thought he’s had a really good camp, but that’s a discussion that we’ll have going forward in the next day or two, and we’ll make a decision,” Warsofsky said of Gushchin. “He’s done a lot of good things, and he’s obviously helped our hockey club in every game, so he’s put himself in a good spot.”

THE GUSH PUSH?: Who finished as the Sharks’ leading scorer in the preseason? Danil Gushchin.

Will it help him earn a spot on the Sharks’ 23-man roster? Perhaps not.

Gushchin, a third-round draft pick by the Sharks in 2020, assisted on Kostin and Ferraro’s goals before he and Kunin teamed up and went to work.

On Kunin’s first goal, Gushchin collected a puck just inside the blue line nesr the boards and fired the puck toward the net. Kunin then redirected it past Golden Knights goalie Adin Hill. Just 78 seconds later, and the puck inside the Vegas end, Gushchin hustled to collect it before it left the zone, skated to the middle of the ice and fired a shot that Kunin was again able to direct past Hill.

“Impressive. Really good at the end of the game, liked this effort,” Warsofsky said. “I know the points will stand out, but just the effort to recover that puck on the one goal, the effort on the wall to make the play to (Nico) Sturm on the Cardwell goal, That was really impressive.”

Still, it appears to be a numbers game right now for Gushchin, as the Sharks already have Macklin Celebrini, Tyler Toffoli, William Eklund, Mikael Granlund, Will Smith, Fabian Zetterlund, Kunin, Alexander Wennberg, Ty Dellandrea and Kostin as top nine possibilities. That doesn’t include Barclay Goodrow, Sturm, Givani Smith and Carl Gundstrom as other depth options.

Perhaps, though, Gushchin has put himself at the front of the line as being the first player recalled from the Barracuda when there’s an injury.

“We have some tough decisions to make and (Grier) and his staff, we’ll sit down and find the best guys that we think can help us,” Warsofsky said. “If there’s someone that goes (to the AHL), it doesn’t mean they’re not going to help us at some point this year. There’s a lot of factors that go into that.

“But I can’t be more proud of the players, not just here tonight, but back home. It’s been a really hard training camp.”

Defenseman Luca Cagnoni also had an eye-opening camp for the Sharks with four points in four games. But with Shakir Mukhamadullin perhaps nearing a return, the best place for the 19-year-old Cagnoni is the American League.

GOOD KLIM, BAD KLIM: The Sharks have experienced the ying and yang of the hulking Kostin throughout the preseason, and that was the case again Saturday.

In one sequence in the first period after the Sharks broke into the Golden Knights’ zone, Kostin took a pass from linemate Danil Gushchin and fired a shot past goalie Adin Hill at the 9:03 mark. The goal was Kostin’s third of the preseason, tops among all Sharks players, and he gave the much smaller Gushchin a big hug after the goal.

But at the 16:57 mark of the first, Kostin took a lazy holding penalty in the Sharks zone as he wrapped his arms around Jack Eichel. Kostin also took a hooking penalty in the third period. Vegas didn’t score on either power play.

It doesn’t appear that Kostin is in danger of losing his spot on the team and being placed on waivers before the Sharks need to finalize their roster. Nevertheless, Kostin needs to become more consistent from one shift to the next, and one game to the next, if he wants to stay in the lineup.

IT’S STILL WEIRD: The Sharks and their fans might still be getting used to seeing Tomas Hertl in a Golden Knights uniform. But the things Hertl excels at – winning faceoffs and wall battles and holding onto pucks – remain all too familiar.

Hertl, who spent the first 10-plus seasons of his NHL career with San Jose before he was traded to the Golden Knights in March, was playing his first game against his former team Saturday. He assisted on a Pavel Dorofeyev first-period goal and had won seven of nine faceoffs through 40 minutes. He also assisted on both of Vegas’ third-period goals.

The Sharks are obviously happy with the centermen they’ve brought in this offseason, including Celebrini, Will Smith, Wennberg and Goodrow.

But it might be a while before they have a center who possesses all of the qualities Hertl has, and will bring to the Golden Knights over the next few years. Maybe Filip Bystedt, similarly built at 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, can develop into something close.