OTTAWA — It looks like the San Jose Sharks could be hurting up the middle for a while.
Head coach Ryan Warsofsky announced this afternoon that second-line center Alex Wennberg has a week-to-week upper-body injury, which will be further evaluated when the team returns to San Jose at the end of the week. Wennberg will remain with the team until then.
Wennberg left the third period of the Oct. 19 game at the Toronto Maple Leafs twice.
So that means the Sharks won't have Wennberg on Thursday night at the Ottawa Senators and Saturday at the Boston Bruins, and likely for longer.
Despite Wennberg's slow offensive start, that's a huge blow for a San Jose Sharks ' line-up that will miss the 20-minute do-everything center .
For now, Warsofsky is giving Collin Graf , typically a winger, more minutes up the middle.
Why Graf at center?
"I think the hockey sense really jumps out for him to be able to play that position. His pace," Warsofsky said. "I think those are the two things that we feel comfortable with him playing the center."
Is this part of an organizational plan to move Graf to center?
Warsofsky wouldn't tip his hand: "We'll get through this road trip and go from there."
Looks like the girls team has a Will and Mack banner for Sharks morning skate pic.twitter.com/qc1rBlxhIX
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) October 22, 2026
Yarsolav Askarov starts.
Otherwise, San Jose Sharks' lines and power play units stay the same:
#SJSharks lines at morning skate:
Chernyshov-Celebrini-Smith
Marchment-Graf-Toffoli
Stenberg-Misa-Sherwood
Goodrow-Ostapchuk-Dellandrea
Gaudette
Nurse-Kesselring
Dickinson-Trouba
Orlov-Allan
Cagnoni— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) October 22, 2026
#SJSharks power play groups…
PP1: Orlov-Stenberg-Celebrini-Smith-Marchment
PP2: Trouba-Chernyshov-Marchment-Toffoli-Misa— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) October 22, 2026
Warsofsky talked about keeping the same lines as last game, despite their struggles against the Montreal Canadiens through two periods:
Linus Ullmark has been placed on IR.
Both Ullmark and Samuel Ersson played in Wednesday's emotional 5-1 win over the Florida Panthers.
Jonas Johansson got the recall, so we'll see who gets the start, Ersson or Johansson, in the back-to-back on Thursday.
Here's how the Sens lined up otherwise last night:
Today's alignment for #Sens
Zetterlund-Stuzle-Giroux
Foegele-Cozens-Batherson
Greig-Pinto-Amadio
Cousins-Halliday-Hodgson
Burakovsky-MacDermid
Sanderson-Zub
Kleven-Spence
Matinpalo-Yakemchuk
Crotty
Ullmark
Ersson— Bruce Garrioch (@SunGarrioch) October 21, 2026
Gameday in Ottawa!
🆚: Senators
⏰: 4 p.m. PT
📺: @NBCSSharks
🎙️: @SharksAudioNet pic.twitter.com/Rm0SzzZhee— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) October 22, 2026
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