After finishing with the worst record in the NHL last season, the San Jose Sharks aren’t exactly starting this year off on the right foot.
Captain Logan Couture, goaltender Yaroslav Askarov and defencemen Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Shakir Mukhamadullin will be absent from the start of training camp because of injuries, the Sharks announced Thursday.
Vlasic has an upper-body injury, while the three others have lower-body injuries.
Couture played just six games last season because of a lower-body injury. He told reporters he has not skated since last playing for the Sharks in January, per Max Miller of The Hockey News.
“There’s no immediate plan to get onto the ice,” Couture said. “(He has) played hockey for 30-plus years. When it ends abruptly, it’s difficult, especially when you don’t really have a choice. The body just breaks down. But that’s the way professional sports, or sports in general, normally work. It’s not always injuries, sometimes other reasons, but yeah, that’s the situation.”
Askarov, 22, was a high-profile acquisition this summer in a deal with the Nashville Predators.
After the Predators re-signed Juuse Saros to a long-term extension, Askarov’s door for full-time work in Nashville appeared to close.
Askarov, 22, appeared in two games for Nashville last season, going 1-0-0 with a 1.47 goals-against average and a .943 save percentage. He’s appeared in three total NHL games, all with Nashville, recording a 2.58 GAA and .914 save percentage.
The Russian goalie has had a .911 save percentage in the AHL each of the last two years.
Vlasic, 37, missed 25 games last year as he battled injuries.
Mukhamadullin made his NHL debut last year, playing three games.