On Wednesday night, possibly with their full roster finally under contract, the struggling Sharks open a season-long, eight-game road trip against the Thrashers in Atlanta.

This morning, team management put the final piece back in place when they re-signed restricted free agent defenseman Brad Stuart to a three-year contract worth approximately $5 million. The 23-year-old Stuart is scheduled to rejoin the club in Atlanta. Of course, there's no telling when he'll be ready to play.

	Sharks defenseman Brad Stuart was a runner up for the Calder Memorial Trophy in 2000.

It's been a turbulent first five weeks of the new season for the Sharks, who bring a very disappointing 5-8-1-1 record into their meeting with Kovalchuk, Heatley & Co.

The club was forced to make due without No. 1 goalie Evgeni Nabokov for the first five games due to a similar prolonged contract negotiation. And until Monday's 5-4 loss to the visiting Rangers, they'd been without gritty, two-way left winger Scott Thornton, who underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery during training camp.

Perhaps, with everyone back on board, the Sharks can regain their nasty bite. After all, this team piled up 44 wins and 99 points last season.

Against Atlanta, Darryl Sutter's troops might want to get out of the gate with some jump. The Sharks, who've been below .500 since losing to the Wings on opening night, have fallen behind in each of their last five games, going 2-2-1 in that span.

They'll also need to incorporate a bit more discipline into their game. On Monday against the Rangers, the Sharks took several dumb penalties that led directly to goals against. Under the best of circumstances, you don't want to take needless penalties. But when your penalty-killing unit is ranked a dismal 28th among 30 teams, you really don't want to start a parade to the box.

While it's still very early in the season, the Sharks can't be happy to be sitting near the bottom of a competitive Western Conference. A strong road trip would go a long way toward getting them back into the mix in the West. They can get off on the right foot with a win in Atlanta.

Fitting?
Yes, it did seem fitting that Stars center Pierre Turgeon chalked up the 1,200th point of his NHL career against the Canadiens in Montreal on Tuesday night. The former Habs captain, who was born in nearby Rouyn, Quebec, hit the mark with a first-period assist (on a goal by Jason Arnott) during the Stars' 4-3 win. Turgeon, who is the 37th player in NHL history to reach the 1,200-point plateau, is tied with Dino Ciccarelli on the league's all-time points list.

E.J. Hradek writes hockey for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at ej.hradek@espnmag.com.