Sharks place Marc-Edouard Vlasic on Injured Reserve
Mirco Mueller recalled
The Sharks put Marc-Edouard Vlasic on the Injured Reserve list today and recalled Mirco Mueller from the San Jose Barracuda, ruling out the veteran defender from play the rest of the week according to Acquaintance of the Blog Curtis Pashelka.
With Mueller being recalled, Vlasic placed on IR. Out for tomorrow's game, and Thursday's vs. Minnesota I believe #SJSharks
— Curtis Pashelka (@CurtisPashelka) January 2, 2017
That’s rough news for the Sharks, particularly given how poorly the team played without their defensive leader against the Kings on New Year’s Eve. The silver lining is that they get a bit of a break in the schedule before hosting the Kings on Tuesday, which should give Vlasic time to recover. The hope is that his injury isn’t too serious, of course, and that he can recover quickly.
Mueller is unlikely to play and I expect we’ll see a similar defensive look on Tuesday that we saw on Saturday. Brent Burns and Paul Martin will stick together while we see Brenden Dillon and David Schlemko together and Dylan DeMelo and Justin Braun paired off. This is where the Sharks’ defensive depth comes very much in handy.
You can’t replace Vlasic, but San Jose’s depth will keep them afloat without Vlasic and Tomas Hertl for now. Hang in there!