Sharks veteran defenseman to make season debut vs. Lightning

SAN JOSE – Defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic will make his somewhat surprising season debut Thursday when the San Jose Sharks host the Tampa Bay Lightning, looking to end an eight-game losing streak.

Vlasic confirmed after the Sharls’ morning skate, when he was paired with Jan Rutta and took part in the team’s penalty-killing drills that he would play against the Lightning.

The 37-year-old Vlasic, now in his 19th NHL season, missed all of camp with an upper-body injury, which he described in October as an issue mainly involving his upper back. But he has regularly participated in Sharks practices and morning skates since at least late November.

Still, Vlasic’s sudden addition to the active roster is a surprise.

Wednesday, Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said Vlasic was still working on his conditioning and that the team was still building him up to play again. Specifically asked if Vlasic might be ready to play again in the next couple of weeks, Warsofsky said, “It’s hard to say, I’d like to see him in some more practices, but we’ll see.”

“It’s building him up,” to a place, Warsofsky said, of where “we’re all comfortable with putting him in.”

Vlasic had been considered a non-roster player since the start of the regular season when the Sharks submitted their salary cap-compliant roster to the NHL. The Sharks created a roster opening for Vlasic when they placed forward Carl Grundstrom on injured reserve on Thursday.

Grundstrom was injured in the first period of the Sharks’ game against the Calgary Flames on Dec. 28 when he was hit in the neutral zone by defenseman Brayden Pachal.

Vlasic missed 40 games, as the Sharks enter Thursday with an 11-23-6 record and in eighth and last place in the Pacific Division.

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