San Jose Sharks might lose Nico Sturm to injury after Winnipeg game

SAN JOSE – Center Nico Sturm might have to miss some time after he was injured in the San Jose Sharks game against the Winnipeg Jets at SAP Center.

Coach David Quinn said Wednesday that Sturm was being evaluated, adding that while the team would know more about his prognosis later in the day, there is concern that the German-born forward will have to sit for an undetermined amount of games.

Sturm was injured in the third period of the Sharks’ 2-1 win over the Jets on Tuesday, as he appeared to fall awkwardly after a collision with a Winnipeg player just inside San Jose’s blue line.

Sturm immediately left the ice and remained on the Sharks bench as he was being tended to by a team trainer. He did not play the rest of the game as the Sharks went on to win for the fourth time in six games.

Sturm, the Sharks’ third-line center for most of the season, has just four points in 25 games but has established himself as a leader in the faceoff circle and one of the team’s better penalty-killers.

Sturm leads the Sharks with a 62.2 faceoff win percentage and is second on the team with 154 defensive zone draws, trailing only Tomas Hertl (190). He also ranks fourth among all Sharks forwards in average shorthanded time on ice (2:03).

Sturm has had to miss three games this season, two on the road last month against Seattle and Vancouver for personal reasons and one this month against the New York Rangers when he was hurt in the team’s skate that morning on Dec. 3. The Sharks lost all three games.

“It’ll hurt. It’ll hurt for sure,” Quinn said of Sturm’s possible absence. “But every team in the league goes through injuries and we’re no different. We’ve been hit hard here over the last three weeks, but hopefully, we get good news.”

If Sturm has to go on IR, the Sharks could thrust the recently activated Luke Kunin into that role. Injured center Ryan Carpenter is also ready to return, Quinn said, after he missed the last four games.

Others on IR for the Sharks right now are defensemen Ty Emberson and Matt Benning, and forward Oskar Lindblom.

Emberson was expected to miss two-to-four weeks with a lower-body injury after was also hurt on the morning of Dec. 3, and Benning is out indefinitely with the same lower-body ailment that caused him to miss 10 straight games last month.

Lindblom (lower body) has been skating more frequently of late. When he is healthy, he’ll likely be returned to the Barracuda.

The Sharks entered Wednesday in seventh place in the Pacific Division, as their recent success had them within seven points of a playoff spot, compared to 12 points back a month ago.