Coyotes at Sharks

COYOTES (23-26-6) at SHARKS (21-27-6)

Coyotes projected lineup
Clayton Keller -- Christian Dvorak -- Phil Kessel
Michael Bunting --
Lane Pederson
-- Conor Garland
Derick Brassard -- Jan Jenik -- Christian Fischer
Aaron Ness
--
Michael Chaput
-- John Hayden
Jakob Chychrun -- Ilya Lyubushkin
Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- Victor Soderstrom
Alex Goligoski -- Jason Demers
Adin Hill
Darcy Kuemper
Scratched: Niklas Hjalmarsson, Dryden Hunt, Jordan Oesterle
Injured: Lawson Crouse (undisclosed), Johan Larsson (undisclosed), Tyler Pitlick (lower body), Antti Raanta (lower body), Nick Schmaltz (upper body)
Sharks projected lineup
Alexander Barabanov -- Tomas Hertl -- Evander Kane
Rudolfs Balcers -- Patrick Marleau -- Timo Meier
Jeffrey Viel -- Dylan Gambrell -- Kevin Labanc
Ivan Chekhovich -- Noah Gregor -- Alexander Chmelevski
Mario Ferraro -- Brent Burns
Nikolai Knyzhov -- Erik Karlsson
Marc-Edouard Vlasic -- Brinson Pasichnuk
Alexei Melnichuk
Martin Jones
Scratched: Ryan Donato, Kurtis Gabriel, Christian Jaros, Josef Korenar, Greg Pateryn, Marcus Sorensen, Alexander True
Injured: Joachim Blichfeld (upper body), Logan Couture (lower body), John Leonard (upper body), Matt Nieto (lower body), Radim Simek (upper body)
Status report
Ness, on the taxi squad all season, is expected to be in the lineup for the first time since Feb. 25, 2020. ... The Coyotes dressed 11 forwards and seven defensemen in their 5-2 win at the Sharks on Friday. … Leonard, a forward injured Friday, is out Saturday and may also be out for San Jose's final regular-season game Wednesday. ... Couture, a center, is not expected to play Saturday or Wednesday. ... Melnichuk will start in his NHL debut.