The San Jose Sharks are making some adjustments to their lineup for Saturday’s game against the Seattle Kraken.

Unfortunately, they had to make a last-second switch to their defense as Timothy Liljegren suffered an upper-body injury during morning skate. The defenseman was supposed to play with Sam Dickinson, but now Vincent Iorio will play.

Iorio will play. Liljegren got hurt in morning skate #SJSharks upper-body injury

— Max Miller (@Real_Max_Miller) December 20, 2025

Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky wasn’t able to provide too much of an update on Liljegren’s status, stating he is still being evaluated.

The other change to the Sharks’ lineup is that Jeff Skinner will return from being a healthy scratch, replacing prospect Ethan Cardwell. Warsofsky told reporters that the team is hoping to get the veteran winger going offensively, but within their structure.

“It comes to the way we want to play with our structure and having good details and good habits,” Warsofsky said. “This is probably a little different situation than he’s been in in his career. Again, there are some expectations that you need to play with and a standard that you need to play with while you’re wearing that jersey.

Really, that’s what it comes down to. We know he’s a guy that can score, he can create offense, we’ve seen that. Can he clean up some detail stuff?”

Skinner will slot into the San Jose Sharks’ second power play unit, which hasn’t seen much ice time lately. Skinner will be critical to the second unit, and Warsofsky wants to see that group have a shot-first mentality.

“Just having a mentality to shoot pucks. Get pucks back when we shoot. That’s what your second unit really should be all about,” Warsofsky said. “Skins has done a really good job. I think he does a good job of moving pucks on the half wall. We’ve seen that here in practice, but as a whole, that group needs to put pucks to the net.”

Cardwell has averaged 12:09 minutes per game in the past two games. He’s played well, but hasn’t recorded any points. He’s been in a third-line role, and although the coaches have liked his play, they want to see more.

“It’s just some detailed stuff that we need to improve on, and something he and I discussed. He’s played some pretty good hockey,” Warsofsky explained. “We want to get Skins going here. A veteran guy, but there are some details and habits that we need to continue to improve on with Cards.”

The Sharks will look to win for the fourth time in the past five games and complete a three-game homestand with a 2-1-0 record. Yaroslav Askarov will start in goal for the Sharks.

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