Dressing an ineligible Mirco Mueller against Calgary on Wednesday has brought further repercussions for the Sharks from the NHL.
CSN California has learned that the Sharks organization has been fined a total of $20,000, after Mueller was left off of the offical scorer's sheet but played for a portion of the first period anyway. When the officials realized Mueller was in the game against the Flames at the Saddledome, he was told to leave the bench six minutes and 36 seconds into the opening frame.
The Sharks violated NHL Rule 5.2, which states, in part: "Only players on the list submitted to the Official Scorer before the game may participate in the game. The determining factor when considering whether or not a player is eligible is that the player's name, and not necessarily the player's number, must be correctly listed by the Manager or Coach of that team."
Down to five defensemen, the Sharks lost to Calgary, 3-2.
The mix-up occurred when a banged up Paul Martin took warmups, but was ultimately not able to play due to a lower body injury.
Pete DeBoer was asked what happened after the game.
"That's on us, the coaches," he said. "We have some checks and balances on our lineup, and went into warmups and we felt [Martin] could play. There was some last minute movement there, obviously, and he didn't play. [Mueller] just got left out. Feel badly. Apologized to Mirco, it's not a good spot to put him in. I thought the other guys did a good job."
Mueller was reassigned to the AHL Barracuda on Friday morning. In three games, he has one goal and one assists for two points and a plus-two rating.
