Pacific division foes meet as the San Jose Sharks take on the Vancouver Canucks. Welcome back to NHL Predictions! Today, like every day, Last Word on Hockey looks at the games happening and gives our predictions for each.

But only a few hours after the Sharks traded center Mikael Granlund and defenseman Cody Ceci the Dallas Stars, Poturalski, a veteran of 509 AHL regular season games and that league’s leading scorer this year, found out Saturday night that he was going back to the NHL after more than a full season away.

Poturalski, 31, is the American Hockey League’s leading scorer with 41 points in 45 games with the Barracuda this season. He and goalie Yaroslav Askarov represented the Barracuda in the AHL All-Star Classic on Sunday and Monday in Palm Desert.

The Canucks have dominated the Sharks historically, winning nine of the past 10 matchups. That trend should continue against a bad San Jose team that has made itself worse with the departures of Granlund and Ceci, as well as the demotion of their best netminder, Yaroslav Askarov.

With only two games remaining before the break for the 4 Nations Face-Off, the Vancouver Canucks travel down to San Jose for a single-game road trip to battle with the Sharks. Note the 7:30 p.m. PT start time for Thursday night’s game.