Sam Dickinson to make season-debut as Sharks face Dallas Stars

Defenseman Sam Dickinson will make his season debut on Monday when the San Jose Sharks face the Dallas Stars to open a two-game road trip.

Dickinson will replace Nolan Allan in the lineup and be paired with Jacob Trouba as the Sharks look for their third straight win to open the season.

Dickinson, 20, was a healthy scratch through the first two games as Allan, after a solid training camp, earned the right to start the season in the lineup.

“I don’t worry about the lineup or anything like that. I just try to focus on myself and my game,” Dickinson said last Wednesday before he was scratched for the season-opener against the Florida Panthers.

“I want to play, and I want to play every game, and I want to play a lot of minutes.”

Allan played 20:44 in the Sharks’ season-opening 4-3 overtime win over the Panthers, but saw his ice time dip to 16:00 in San Jose’s 5-4 overtime win over the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday. Much of that came down to the Sharks killing just three penalties against the Kings, compared with six against the Panthers.

Allan scored his second career NHL goal on Saturday, taking a pass from Michael Misa and firing a shot past Kings goalie Anton Forsberg at the 12:32 mark of the second period. But an Allan turnover in the third period led directly to a game-tying goal by Artemi Panarin with 5:00 left.

Still, the Sharks likely didn’t want to sit Dickinson for too long, and Allan was the most likely defenseman to come out if the team wanted a change.

The Sharks are once again starting goalie Yaroslav Askarov, who has stopped 54 of 61 shots through two games for an .885 save percentage. Still, the Sharks need to cut back on their turnovers and defend better. Per Natural Stat Trick, they have allowed 21 high-danger chances in two games, among the highest per-game averages in the NHL.

During 5-on-5 play, the Trouba-Allan pairing has been on the ice for four high-danger chances against and just one for. The Dmitry Orlov-Luca Cagnoni pairing has actually been worse during 5-on-5 play, with high-danger chances being 9-1 in favor of the opposition.

Adam Gaudette has been skating and is on the Sharks’ road trip but remains on injured reserve, with coach Ryan Warsofsky saying the winger will need more practice time to get up to speed before being activated. Gaudette missed most of training camp with an upper body injury and did not play in a preseason game.

The Sharks are scheduled to practice Tuesday and Wednesday before playing the St. Louis Blues on Thursday to close the road trip.

Center Patrick Giles, on the Sharks’ injured non-roster list at the start of the regular season, cleared waivers on Monday and was assigned to the Barracuda. Giles sustained an upper-body injury in the Sharks’ preseason game against the Vegas Golden Knights on Sept. 22 and had been considered day-to-day.

The Barracuda split their first two games of the season against the San Diego Gulls on Saturday and Sunday, and next host the Tucson Roadrunners this Friday and Saturday. Giles had 24 points in 67 games against the Barracuda last season.