Projected Lineup: Avalanche vs. Sharks (Jan. 26, 2021)

The Colorado Avalanche will make a few changes to its lineup this evening when the squad opens a two-game set against the San Jose Sharks at Ball Arena.
Kiefer Sherwood will play his first game with the Avs and enter the lineup on a trio with Tyson Jost and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, as Matt Calvert is day-to-day with an upper-body injury and will miss his first game of the season. Sherwood has played in 60 NHL contests, registering six goals and seven assists while with the Anaheim Ducks, and signed with the Avalanche as a free agent this offseason.

On defense, Erik Johnson and Ryan Graves will return to game action while Greg Pateryn and Conor Timmins will be the scratches. Johnson has played in one outing this year (Jan. 19 at the Los Angeles Kings), but Bednar has tried to give Johnson time to get his conditioning back following a stint in COVID-19 protocol at the start of the season. Graves has skated in five of the Avs' six games this year and has one assist.
Philipp Grubauer is expected to once again be between the pipes for the Avalanche. He has a 3-1-1 record with a 1.82 goals-against average and .932 save percentage in six career regular-season contests against San Jose.
Grubauer will be backed up by Hunter Miska while Pavel Francouz remains out with a lower-body injury. Head coach Jared Bednar said this morning he did not have a timeline on when Francouz could be back.
Tonight's matchup is the first of eight meetings between the Avalanche and Sharks and the first of four at Ball Arena. The Avs won both contests last year before the third meeting was ultimately cancelled after the season paused on March 12.
Below is the Avalanche's projected lineup. All forward combinations and defensive pairings are subject to change.
Forwards
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
20 Brandon Saad - 91 Nazem Kadri - 95 Andre Burakovsky
13 Valeri Nichushkin - 37 J.T. Compher - 72 Joonas Donskoi
17 Tyson Jost - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 44 Kiefer Sherwood
Defensemen
7 Devon Toews - 8 Cale Makar
4 Bowen Byram - 49 Samuel Girard
27 Ryan Graves - 6 Erik Johnson
Goaltenders
31 Philipp Grubauer
32 Hunter Miska
Scratch: Greg Pateryn
Injury Report: Matt Calvert (upper body), Pavel Francouz (lower body)
Taxi Squad:Martin Kaut, Conor Timmins, Adam Werner