Sharks place Nick Leddy on IR

The Sharks announced Tuesday they’ve recalled center Patrick Giles from AHL San Jose. Defenseman Nick Leddy was placed on injured reserve retroactive to Oct. 23 to open up a roster spot.

Giles’ recall comes after fellow middleman Adam Gaudette left Sunday’s overtime win over the Wild due to an upper-body injury. Gaudette was not at today’s practice and could miss a longer stretch than just a few days, but the Sharks will know more tomorrow after his evaluation is complete, Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now relays.

San Jose was rostering 13 forwards and eight defensemen as it has for much of the year, so Giles comes up to give them an extra forward if they need one for however long Gaudette is unavailable. Giles was the lone piece that came back from the Panthers for goaltender Vítek Vaněček at last season’s trade deadline. The 25-year-old pivot spent the rest of March on the NHL roster before being returned to the AHL for the last couple of weeks of the season. Giles, waiver-eligible for the first time in 2025-26, then landed on the wire during training camp to complete the process of him being cut and reassigned to the minors.

An undrafted free agent signing by Florida out of Boston College back in 2022, Giles made his NHL debut last season. He made 17 appearances split between the Panthers and Sharks, scoring his first NHL goal and posting a minus-three rating while averaging 9:14 of ice time per game. The Maryland native brought some size (6’4″, 205 lbs) and physicality to both clubs’ fourth line, but doesn’t offer much upside beyond that. He struggled in the faceoff dot, winning only 34% of his draws, and only controlled 41.4% of shot attempts at 5-on-5. He saw some fringe penalty-killing deployment with San Jose down the stretch, though.

If Giles’ services are needed in the next several days, they’ll likely insert him as a fourth-line center and bump Ty Dellandrea, who has four assists through nine games, up into a top-nine role if needed. He’s off to a promising enough start in the minors, registering a goal and an assist through four appearances for the Barracuda, but his lack of offensive utility in the pros so far limits the minutes he’ll get.

Leddy has already missed two games with the upper-body injury he sustained early in their game against the Rangers last Thursday. The IR placement rules him out for their next two games but his absence shouldn’t last much longer than that. Leddy returned to practice this morning, per Curtis Pashelka of the Bay Area News Group. The 16-year vet was claimed off waivers from the Blues during the summer and has two assists with a minus-four rating through his first seven games as a Shark.