A Change Is Coming
Folks, I don’t want to alarm anyone, but this year’s Barracuda team feels different. They’ve lost key players like Nathan Todd (55 points last season, in the KHL this season), Daniil Gushchin (54 points last season, with the Sharks this season) and Cole Cassels (45 points last season, in the KHL this season). Shakir Mukhamadullin looks set to be a full time Shark when healthy. Jack Thompson and Ethan Cardwell will likely be up and down players (Thompson currently up, Cardwell currently down). That’s your top 6 scorers from last season, all elsewhere.
And yet, somehow, the atmosphere around this season is one of excitement. They’re 3-1-0-0 to start the season, including two shutouts. They’ve replaced strong veterans with promising young prospects like Luca Cagnoni and Kasper Halttunen. They’ve added long time AHL star Andrew Poturalski.
Oh, and they’re currently benefitting from the play of maybe the best goaltending prospect in North America, as the San Jose Sharks traded for Yaroslav Askarov in the summer, and he’s currently working away in the AHL waiting for his shot.
Askarov, by the way, is responsible for both shutouts so far this season. He has yet to allow a goal this regular season. But it’s not just his strong play. He’s being backed up by his defence, and the offence is getting it done too. The Barracuda have outscored their opponents 20-7 so far in the season, and while there’s reason to be cautious with this small sample size, there’s a real sense of team effort. This isn’t a goaltender bailing his team out. This is a goaltender that is perhaps the final piece of the puzzle for the Barracuda.
Talk Goalies To Me
Askarov’s first shutout was a 5-0 win over the Ontario Reign. His second was a 5-0 win over the Iowa Wild (his opponent? Jesper Wallstedt, arguably one of the top two goalie prospects in NA). He faced an average of 24 shots against in those two games. Askarov has been excellent to start the season for the Barracuda, but it feels like there’s been a real breakthrough on the blue-line specifically for this team, who allowed the most goals last season of any team in the league.
It’s not just Askarov, though. Georgi Romanov has returned this season, and looks ready to take a step forward. He’s 1-1 so far this season, and has allowed only 7 goals despite facing 78 shots (Important to note here is that Romanov has played only the second game in back to backs, whereas Askarov is benefitting from fresh legs during the first half of those same back to backs). Romanov was spectacular in his most recent game, coming out of it with a .923 sv% and 36 saves on 39 shots. He has a .910 sv%, after a wobbly but promising rookie season last year, and for as long as Askarov is in the A, this might be one of the more threatening goalie tandems in the AHL.
The Kids Are Alright
The San Jose Sharks have one of, if not the best prospect pools in the NHL. While guys like Macklin Celebrini will likely never touch AHL ice, the Barracuda have benefitted the last couple of season from being the stepping stone to the NHL for players like William Eklund, Thom Bordeleau, Daniil Gushchin and more. Now they’re preparing the new wave of future Sharks, with players like Filip Bystedt, who cut his teeth at the end of last season, and who has 5 points in 4 games for the Barracuda so far this year, Luca Cagnoni, a defenceman who had 90 points in the WHL last season, and Kasper Halttunen, who had 30 goals in the OHL last year.
Why Is This Year Different?
Complaints surrounding the Barracuda the last few seasons have all mostly been the same. Too many penalties, too much over-reliance on veteran toughness, weak defence. Only two players had more penalty minutes than veteran Scott Sabourin in the 2023-24 season. The Barracuda had the third worst goal differential in the league. The penalties are still a concern, but the Barracuda’s penalty kill is currently sitting at a perfect 100% success rate, and they’ve even added two shorthanded goals into the mix as well. When it comes to veterans, the Barracuda seem to be letting the kids play. All five of their top scorers are under the age of 25, and two of them (Cagnoni and Halttunen) are only 19 years old. Add 23 year old Colin Graf, 24 year old Donovan Houle and 20 year old Filip Bystedt to the mix, and the youth movement in San Jose is looking pretty darn good.
It’s still much too early to say that this is what the Barracuda are, and here at the Calder Times, we’re in the business of tempering our expectations. San Jose have only played 4 games of a 72 game season, and a hot start is by no means indicative of long term season-long success. But maybe, just maybe, this is the start of a special season for the Barracuda, one where they return to the Calder Cup playoffs for the first time since 2019.
(Editor’s note: they played in the Pacific Division playoffs in 2020-21, when the Calder Cup was not awarded due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, but have not played in the Calder Cup playoffs since the 2018-19 season).
It’s all to play for in San Jose this season. We’ll have to wait and see what happens.
The Barracuda are back in action on Wednesday, Oct 23, when they take on the Henderson Silver Knights in Henderson. Game action begins at 7pm PDT.
