After tough road back to NHL, new Sharks defenseman enjoys unforgettable night
SAN JOSE – There was perhaps a time last year when new San Jose Sharks defenseman Lucas Carlsson doubted whether he could get back to the NHL.
Carlsson sustained a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in February of last year while playing for the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers. With it being a contract year, Carlsson faced an uncertain future.
“That was pretty much the first thing I thought of,” Carlsson said Friday. “Like, what am I going to do now? Because, obviously, it’s a serious injury. So I was just happy a couple of teams called.”
One of those teams was the Sharks, who gave Carlsson a two-year, two-way contract on the first day of free agency in July. After a grueling rehab that forced him to miss training camp and the season’s first several weeks, Carlsson, 27, started the year with the Barracuda and played his first game with the team in November.
On Friday, Carlsson was recalled to the Sharks. In his first NHL game since Nov. 1, 2022, when he was with the Florida Panthers, he scored the game-winning goal and made a game-saving block to help San Jose earn a 3-1 victory over the Boston Bruins before a raucous sold-out SAP Center crowd on Saturday night.
Did Carlsson ever doubt whether he might have a moment like this again in the NHL?
“I would lie if I said no,” Carlsson said after the win. “It’s been tough the last 10 months, but now I feel so much better. So I’m in a good place right now.”
Carlsson’s goal came with 3:23 left in regulation time. Stationed near the Bruins’ net, he pounced on a loose puck after Will Smith’s shot was blocked and chipped it past goalie Joonas Korpisalo for his first goal in his first game in a Sharks uniform.
“Like I said, I doubted myself the last year,” Carlsson said. “So it was just so much fun to be playing at this level again and try to make a difference.”
“I rehabbed him with him at the start of the year a little bit, and I kind of know what he was going through and kind of coming back from that knee,” Sharks center Macklin Celebrini said. “But you watch him tonight and he got two huge contributions on the last two goals, and so happy for him.”
With the Bruins pressing for the equalizer in a 6-on-5 situation, Carlsson also had a crucial block on a David Pastrnak shot, giving him a worthy assist on Barclay Goodrow’s empty-net goal with 50 seconds left in the third period.
“Really good game. A huge blocked shot too, on the 6-on-5,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said of Carlsson. “Blocks Pastrnak’s shot in the back. So, the goal is great. But that is winning hockey, and that’s what it’s all about, is putting your body on the line to get it done. I thought he was outstanding tonight.”
Carlsson goal and the Sharks’ victory, their second in the last seven games, provided a rare feel-good night for a team that underwent an extreme makeover in the days and weeks before the NHL trade deadline.
San Jose is now 4-9-3 since early February when they traded Mikael Granlund and Cody Ceci to the Dallas Stars, starting a selloff that also saw Vitek Vanecek, Nico Sturm, Luke Kunin, Jake Walman and Fabian Zetterlund sent to contending teams.
It’s one game, but Carlsson showed he might be a player who not only sticks around the rest of this season but perhaps challenge for a roster spot at the start of next season. Paired with Timothy Liljegren, Carlsson finished with 18:18 in ice time was on the ice for nine third period shifts, most of any Sharks defenseman.
“He’s a guy that we saw early on in that first period that he looked pretty comfortable,” Warsofsky said of Carlsson. “He was making plays, he was reading plays, he just looked really comfortable. He played the position extremely well, and so he felt really confident on the ice.”
FINDING CHEMISTRY: Warsofsky really liked what he saw on Saturday from the Sharks’ line of Alexander Wennberg, Tyler Toffoli, and Collin Graf. The trio didn’t hit the scoresheet but out-chanced their opponents 9-3 during 5-on-5 play, according to Natural Stat Trick, and combined for five shots on net.
Graf has really started to solidify his spot in the Sharks lineup. He played in all situations again Saturday and finished with 20:38 in ice time, a career-high in 33 NHL games.
Newly signed forward prospect Cameron Lund is expected to join the Sharks for Monday’s practice and could make his NHL debut on Thursday in San Jose against the Toronto Maple Leafs. If Lund does go into the lineup, it won’t be Graf who comes out.
“He was really good,” Warsofsky said of Graf. “Stick detail, smart, smart individual, and he had his legs tonight. Another player that’s really come on and come around.”