Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
Maybe the San Jose Barracuda really are for real.
Coming into this season, the Barracuda had reason to have higher hopes following a last-place finish in the Pacific Division in 2023-24. They added two-time Calder Cup champion Andrew Poturalski and defenseman Jimmy Schuldt from Coachella Valley. Another former Calder Cup winner, Joey Keane, joined the organization after two seasons in Russia. NHL veteran Colin White inked an AHL deal with the Barracuda. And a summer blockbuster trade with Nashville brought two-time AHL All-Star Yaroslav Askarov to San Jose.
Throw in a deep pool of young Sharks prospects, and on paper at least, the Barracuda looked solid. Maybe even more than that.
Head coach John McCarthy’s club came out and took six of its first seven games. They closed out November by winning six of their last eight. At 12-6-0-0, they sit second in the Pacific a quarter of the way through their 72-game schedule.
Askarov, who served up shutouts in each of his first two starts, has a .937 save percentage in 10 appearances. And four of the Barracuda’s top five scorers are rookies, led by forward Collin Graf with 22 points. Defenseman Luca Cagnoni has 18 points in his first 18 games out of the Western Hockey League. Filip Bystedt, a first-round draft pick in 2022, has started his first full pro season in North America with 11 points in 15 outings.
In early November, the Barracuda faced a bit of turbulence for a team still working to firm up a foundation. They headed to Iowa on Nov. 2-3 and took a thumping from the Wild, outscored by the hosts 9-3 in a pair of losses. Another defeat followed on Nov. 9, a 3-2 home loss to Colorado. After their strong start, the Barracuda found themselves with a three-game losing streak and facing a rematch against a strong Eagles team.
But San Jose came out on Nov. 10 and grabbed a lead six minutes into the game on a goal from rookie Donavan Houle. The other half of the Barracuda goaltending tandem, Georgi Romanov, made 31 saves and Tristen Robins picked up a pair of goals in a 5-3 victory.
Two weeks ago, San Jose showed resolve in a two-game set against first-place Calgary. The Wranglers dealt the Barracuda a 6-2 loss in the opener and then took a 2-0 first-period lead in the rematch. But this is a sturdy San Jose group, and they tied the game at 2-2, 3-3 and 4-4 before Cagnoni gave them the win in overtime.
The Barracuda lost Askarov to recall ahead of a trip east to Toronto, and were shut out by the Marlies on Nov. 23. Gabriel Carriere, just up from the team’s ECHL affiliate in Wichita, stepped into the San Jose crease for the second game and earned first-star honors with 31 saves in a 2-1 shootout victory.
So yes, this team appears to be real. The Barracuda have three more home games in the coming week, then it’s eight of the next nine on the road. If October served as San Jose’s notice to the rest of the AHL that they were no longer a last-place team, then November showed that the Barracuda also have some fight-back in them. The success of the Sharks’ rebuilding plan depends heavily on what the Barracuda can accomplish, in terms of both developing the organization’s growing base of young talent and winning hockey games.
On the American Hockey League beat for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.
