What is Sharks’ plan for Nikolai Knyzhov during conditioning assignment?

Sharks defenseman Nikolai Knyzhov, who hasn’t played a game in 20 months due to a litany of injuries and subsequent surgeries, is set to begin a long-term injury conditioning loan with the San Jose Barracuda of the AHL.

Knyzhov, for now, will just practice with the Barracuda as he continues to ramp up his strength and conditioning after he had surgery in August to repair a torn right Achilles tendon.

There is the potential for Knyzhov to play AHL games depending on how he feels physically, but he and the organization are taking a deliberate approach for now. This week, the Barracuda plays Wednesday and Friday in Henderson, Nevada, and Saturday in Bakersfield.

Knyzhov was skating with the Sharks earlier this month but remained in San Jose as the NHL team left for an eight-day road trip that ends Saturday in Pittsburgh.

“It just feels like everything’s coming back,” Knyzhov said last week. “Being around the guys being in-season, it doesn’t feel like summer training. It feels like the games are already going, so you’re trying to get into the lineup as fast as you can.

“I feel like we’ve done a lot in the last few weeks.”

Knyzhov, whose last game at any level came on May 12, 2021, is on the Sharks’ long-term injured reserve list. On a long-term injury conditioning loan, a player remains on LTIR and off the team’s 23-man roster, with his salary not counting toward the cap. Knyzhov is on a one-year contract that carries a cap hit of $850,000.

In his one full NHL year in 2020-2021, Knyzhov, a left shot, played in all 56 games and averaged close to 17 minutes of ice time per night for the Sharks as he finished the season as Erik Karlsson’s defense partner during a challenging 21-28-7 season.

Since then, Knyzhov, 24, has needed multiple surgeries, including sports hernia surgery and others involving his adductor muscles. He also had to fight off a bone infection during that time.

“I don’t really think about it,” Knyzhov said of his injuries. “If I focus on that, then it sounds like a negative. What I’m trying to (focus on) is, I’m in good shape, I’m competing with the guys and I don’t feel like I missed a day.”

The Sharks lost their first two games on the road trip, falling 5-3 to Columbus on Saturday and 4-0 to Boston on Sunday. They play the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday and the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday before they face the Penguins on Saturday.