San Jose Sharks forward Cam Lund will make his NHL debut on Thursday against the Toronto Maple Leafs, head coach Ryan Warsofsky confirmed.
After his junior NCAA season ended, the Sharks signed the 20-year-old forward out of Northeastern University and officially turned pro.
Lund skated on the San Jose Sharks’ third line with Patrick Giles and Ty Dellandrea.
“He knows Patty a little bit. I think the pace from [Dellandrea] will keep him going,” Warsofsky said. “We’ll see how it goes. I didn’t really want to mess with our top six right now. We’ll see how it goes and see how he does.”
Nikolai Kovalenko appears to have fallen out of favor to Lund in the Sharks lineup. The Sharks prospect was also on the second power-play unit in the net-front position.
“I think he’s a guy who can probably play in a lot of different spots. At school, he was running a flank,” Warsofsky explained. “He could play the net front. We think he’s a pretty smart kid, so we can move him around a little bit.”
Lund told reporters on Monday that he was nervous during his first practice but settled in as the session continued. Warsofsky noted that Lund shows more deceptiveness in his game than initially thought.
“I would say his skill deception stood out for me. Again, it’s only been a couple skates, and I’m sure there’s some nerves that go into the first skate, and then today got comfortable as it went on,” Warsofsky said. “You see the deception he has on the power play to make plays.”
San Jose hosts the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday in a tough test for the third-youngest team in the NHL.
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