Sharks Reassign Mattias Havelid

The San Jose Sharks announced today that defenseman Mattias Havelid has been reassigned to the club’s AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda.

Havelid had been dealing with an upper-body injury dating back to the very start of the Sharks’ preseason process. The injury cost him the chance to participate not only in the team’s training camp and preseason, but even the club’s rookie showcase.

The Sharks named Havelid an injured non-roster player as part of their season-opening roster announcement. Now that Havelid appears ready to return to the ice, the Sharks have assigned him to the AHL as they do not have room to fit him into their 23-man roster.

The AHL is, of course, where Havelid would have almost certainly started the season even if he had been fully healthy. The 22-year-old is a 5’11” right-shot defenseman who was selected in the second round, No. 45 overall, at the 2022 draft. After he was drafted, Havelid spent three seasons developing at the professional level in his native Sweden, playing mostly for the SHL’s Linköping HC.

In 2024-25, Havelid got into 19 games for Linköping, but managed just one point. In the middle of January 2025, amid declining SHL ice time, Havelid was loaned to Sweden’s second tier, joining Djurgårdens IF. He instantly became a top blueliner at that level, and scored 17 points in 32 combined regular season and playoff games as he led Djurgården to a HockeyAllsvenskan title and promotion back to the SHL.

Last season, Havelid crossed the Atlantic and made his debut in North American professional hockey, skating in 44 games for the Barracuda. In San Jose, Havelid scored five goals and 15 points in 44 games while playing a third-pairing role that included second-unit power play time.

Since the Barracuda’s No. 1 power play quarterback from last season, Luca Cagnoni, appears to have graduated to the NHL level, there is an opening for Havelid to secure a role on the team’s top unit and advance his odds of making the NHL considerably. But he’ll likely have to compete with former college hockey star Eric Pohlkamp for that role in what will be Pohlkamp’s rookie professional campaign. The Sharks do have some developmental runway with Havelid, as his ELC won’t expire until the summer of 2028, and Havelid has two seasons of waivers exemption remaining.