Sharks sign F Dainius Zubrus

Two tryouts and nearly four months later, Dainius Zubrus found another job in the National Hockey League.

The contract is a two-way deal, protecting the Sharks if the move doesn’t work out. If anything, adding him should help prevent the Sharks’ coaching staff from dramatically shortening their bench, as they were forced to do late in several close games in the third period on the recent trip. Clearly Doug Wilson and Peter DeBoer felt the same way as Curtis Pashelka reports the Sharks will sign Zubrus today. Zubrus joined the Sharks on their charter flight back to the Bay Area on Sunday night after San Jose beat Columbus 5-3.

At the beginning of the season, he tried out for the St. Louis Blues, alongside former New Jersey teammate, Martin Havlat. “He PK’d for me in New Jersey, and we had a real good penalty kill in New Jersey most of the time we were there”, Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said. DeBoer liked Zubrus conditioning, his skating, penalty killing ability and versatility to play all three forward positions. The Barracuda play two games against the Charlotte Checkers this week, starting Tuesday night. “There’s a lot to like there”.

Zubrus has 225 goals and 359 assists in 1,243 career games with Philadelphia, Montreal, Washington, Buffalo and New Jersey. New Jersey bought out the remainder of his contract last July – an unexpected dump by the team he spent eight seasons playing for.

The 20-year-old Goldobin has posted one goal and one assist in six games with the Barracuda this season. “I don’t know if I want to use the word rebuild, but I think they’re bringing in new everything”.