Sharks at Avalanche

SHARKS (20-24-5) at AVALANCHE (31-12-4)

Sharks projected lineup
Alexander Barabanov -- Tomas Hertl -- Evander Kane
Rudolfs Balcers -- Logan Couture -- Ivan Chekhovich
Timo Meier -- Alexander True -- Noah Gregor
Kevin Labanc -- Patrick Marleau -- Ryan Donato
Mario Ferraro -- Brent Burns
Nikolai Knyzhov -- Erik Karlsson
Christian Jaros -- Marc-Edouard Vlasic
Martin Jones
Josef Korenar
Scratched: John Leonard, Greg Pateryn , Brinson Pasichnuk, Marcus Sorensen
Injured: Joachim Blichfeld (undisclosed), Dylan Gambrell (foot), Matt Nieto (lower body), Radim Simek (upper body)
Avalanche projected lineup
Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon - Mikko Rantanen
Valeri Nichushkin -- Nazem Kadri - Andre Burakovsky
Carl Soderberg -- Tyson Jost -- Joonas Donskoi
Kiefer Sherwood -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- J.T. Compher
Devon Toews -- Samuel Girard
Ryan Graves -- Cale Makar
Patrik Nemeth -- Conor Timmins
Philipp Grubauer
Devan Dubnyk
Scratched: Liam O'Brien
Injured: Bowen Byram (upper body), Matt Calvert (upper body), Jacob MacDonald (lower body), Logan O'Connor (lower body), Brandon Saad (lower body)
Status report
Chekhovich will make his NHL debut after being recalled from San Jose of the American Hockey League. … Donato returns after missing two games with a lower-body injury. … Grubauer, Rantanen and Donskoi each will return after being removed from COVID-19 protocol. Grubauer and Donskoi each missed the past five games, Rantanen the past four. … The Avalanche assigned forward Martin Kaut to Colorado of the AHL.