{"id":416680,"date":"2026-01-19T21:59:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T21:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/416680\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T21:59:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T21:59:12","slug":"san-jose-sharks-activate-vincent-desharnais-for-game-vs-florida-panthers-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/416680\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks activate Vincent Desharnais for game vs. Florida Panthers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defenseman Vincent Desharnais has been activated off injured reserve and will be in the San Jose Sharks\u2019 lineup for Monday\u2019s game against Matthew Tkachuk<\/a> and the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena.<\/p>\n

Desharnais has missed the last seven-plus weeks<\/a> with an upper-body injury. His last game was on Nov. 26, when the Sharks lost 6-0 to the Colorado Avalanche.<\/p>\n

Desharnais was not injured in that game, but said Monday he had surgery, which was not announced by the Sharks, to repair a bothersome elbow, according to San Jose Hockey Now.<\/a><\/p>\n

Prior to his injury, Desharnais was the Sharks\u2019 top penalty-killing defenseman, with a team-leading 3:27 in average shorthanded time on ice in 20 games. For the season, he\u2019s averaged 16:33 in ice time,<\/a> mainly as a third-pair defenseman.<\/p>\n

The Sharks\u2019 penalty kill on Nov. 27 ranked 18th in the NHL at 80%, and entered Monday ranked 25th at 76.9%.<\/p>\n

The Sharks on Sunday made room for Desharnais\u2019s return to the 23-man roster by placing veteran defenseman Nick Leddy on waivers. The 34-year-old Leddy, whose contract carries a $4 million cap hit,<\/a> cleared waivers on Monday and was assigned to the Barracuda of the AHL.<\/p>\n

Leddy, a veteran of 1,061 NHL games, last played in the AHL on Jan. 5, 2013, with the Rockford IceHogs. He was recalled by the Blackhawks eight days later and remained in the NHL for the rest of the season, including dressing for all 23 playoff games as Chicago went on to win the Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n

The Barracuda\u2019s next game is on Wednesday in Coachella Valley. It was not immediately clear if Leddy would be in the lineup for that game.<\/p>\n

Tkachuk will be making his season-debut for the Panthers after he had surgery in August to repair a torn adductor muscle and sports hernia. He last played on June 17, 2025, when the Panthers beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-1 to win the Stanley Cup Final in six games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m feeling great,\u201d Tkachuk said. \u201cJust so excited to be back. It has been a little over five months since the surgery, so I have just been champing at the bit to come back. Really happy the day is finally here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here to be a hockey player, not to cheer from the sidelines. I am here to compete with the guys. It\u2019s not like I can dip my toe like it is the preseason or even the beginning of a season like past years. I told them I am coming back. Throw me in the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s game is the third on the Sharks\u2019 four-game road trip that ends on Tuesday against the Tampa Bay Lightning.<\/p>\n

Earlier Monday, the Sharks acquired forward Kiefer Sherwood<\/a> from the Vancouver Canucks for second-round draft picks in 2026 and 2027 and AHL defenseman Cole Clayton.<\/p>\n

The Sharks (24-20-3) entered this week locked in a tight playoff battle. San Jose, before Monday\u2019s games, was the Western Conference\u2019s second wild-card team with 51 points, the same as Pacific Division rivals Seattle Kraken, Ducks, and Los Angeles Kings. The Nashville Predators are right behind with 50 points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defenseman Vincent Desharnais has been activated off injured reserve and will be in the San Jose Sharks\u2019 lineup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5127],"tags":[5,2614,1180,4,519,167,168,5306,5305,1780,2615,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-416680","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose-sharks","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-inside-sports","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-san-jose","13":"tag-san-jose-barracuda","14":"tag-san-jose-sharks","15":"tag-sanjose","16":"tag-sanjosesharks","17":"tag-sharks","18":"tag-sharks-alert","19":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115924015829922664","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}