Top-pairing defenseman surprisingly announced as a healthy scratch

The San Jose Sharks have won three of their last four games after a sluggish start to the 2024-25 season, and things are looking up thanks to some incredible young talent on their squad. Blue liner Jake Walman, who has a strong nine points in 13 games so far, is one factor contributing to the team's recent success. However, there may be drama behind the scenes as reporter Max Miller has disclosed that Walman will be a healthy scratch for the team's upcoming game.

Considering that he is only one second behind Cody Ceci as the team's second-leading defenseman in minutes per game, calling this a "coach's decision" is intriguing since it raises the possibility that something is happening behind the scenes. Details of that have not yet been made public, and when questioned about the matter, Walman said he supports Head Coach Ryan Warsofsky's decision but would not elaborate on his conversation with him.

But in the team's close defeat against the Vancouver Canucks, where they allowed three goals in the third period and missed out on winning four in a row, Walman made two noteworthy errors. It could be due to this that he's scratched, or perhaps he broke some sort of team rule, such as showing up late to meetings, which we have seen happen many times before in the NHL.

We may not yet know why Warsofsky made the choice he did, but Walman wasn't the only one who was upset, his teammates were also taken aback by it.

Ultimately, their supporters will be hoping that this is just the coach wanting him to come out of the lineup for a game to think about what he did because Jake Walman has been outstanding in his early career with the San Jose Sharks and they need him on the ice if they want to win.