NOLLY'S NOTES - BLOG #38
Nick Nollenberger
Aug 15, 2023
Hello Cuda Country, hope you’re all doing well. We’re halfway through August, and as I noted in my previous blog, this is the final month without any hockey. We’ve got the Rookie Tournament in Las Vegas from Sept. 15-18 and the Sharks kick off their preseason schedule on Sept 24 at SAP Center against the Golden Knights. You can almost smell it in the air. Preseason NFL football has begun, my niece and nephew are back at school, and baseball games are starting to matter, meaning summer break is almost over and hockey season is ready to begin.
Between now and the last time we spoke, the Sharks made a franchise-shifting trade, sending Erik Karlsson to the Pittsburgh Penguins as part of a three-team deal. I try to be as Cuda-centric as possible with Nolly’s Notes, so I’ll do my best to tie it all back to the Farm, but first, let’s dive into what the deal means in the immediate and how it may impact the Barracuda this upcoming season.
While it seemed inevitable that EK-65 would eventually be dealt, it didn’t dampen the shock when it actually went down last Sunday (Aug 6). After all, there was an outside chance Karlsson could have returned to Team Teal in 2023-24. Sharks’ GM Mike Grier was steadfast on retaining as little salary of Karlsson’s $11.5 million AAV, which runs through the 2026-27 season, as he could. In the end, I think he surprised many with how he was able to accomplish that goal, as the Sharks will pay just $1.5 million annually of his salary through 2027. In return for the reigning Norris Trophy winner, the Sharks received a first rounder in 2024 (lottery protected), forwards Mike Hoffman, and Mikael Granlund, and defenseman Jan Rutta. While there is no way to replace a player of Karlsson’s caliber, the salary he carried and with the position the Sharks are in as an organization, it didn’t make sense for him to be back in the Bay Area for another season. As a trade asset, it’d be fair to say his value is as high as it will ever be, given his age, 33, and injury history. In my opinion, in the immediate, the Sharks are a deeper team, and while they don’t possess the offensive punch from the blueline as they did when Karlsson was patrolling it, the Sharks hope the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
In the Sharks' third season of existence, they went from 24 points (11-71-2, .143) in 1992-93, to 82 points (33-35-16, .488) in 1993-94 and upset the highly favored Detroit Red Wings in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Although it was a historic point turnaround at the time, it’s not out of the realm of possibilities the Sharks could go from lottery team to playoff contender in a year, but they'll need some bounces to go their way. That being said, I’m not getting ahead of myself just yet and predicting the Sharks make the playoffs, but I’m just saying it’s happened before.
Now to the Barracuda and how the additions of Hoffman, Granlund, Rutta and others will impact the Sharks prospects and their hopes of earning an NHL job this year. To start, it’s going to be more difficult than it was before. Strictly going off the numbers, there isn’t much room. But that’s what you want, right? Internal competition at all levels. The bubble prospects like William Eklund, Thomas Bordeleau, Danil Gushchin, Tristen Robins, etc. will probably have to steal a veteran’s job if they’re to begin in the NHL. That’s how it should be and if you asked the players, I think they’d want it that way as well.
Barracuda Opening Night Roster Prediction:
William Eklund*-Ryan Carpenter*-Danil Gushchin*
Thomas Bordeleau*-Nathan Todd-Tristen Robins*
Brandon Coe-Ethan Cardwell-Ozzy Wiesblatt
Adam Raska*- Scott Sabourin-Anthony Vincent
Henry Thrun*-Leon Gawanke
Nick Cicek*-Shakir Mukhamadullin
Nikita Okhotyuk*-Ethan Frisch
Eetu Makiniemi*
Magnus Chrona
*= games played in the NHL in 2022-23
Would I be surprised if Eklund ends up making the Sharks out of camp? No, not one bit. But if Grier and Co. elect to go more veteran heavy, at least to begin the year, I could see Eklund playing big minutes in the AHL to start, and then getting called up a month or so in. Maybe another young player surprises and steals a job like Gushchin or Robins or Bordeleau. The lineup above is just a guess, so don’t hold me to it. Plus, a lot is made of the Opening Night Roster, even though things change constantly throughout the season. Using last year as an example, the Sharks deployed 40 different skaters during the year, and four different goaltenders. Of the 24 players on the Sharks’ home opening night roster in 2022-23, five finished the campaign on different teams (Nick Bonino, Timo Meier, Matt Nieto, Scott Harrington, Jaycob Megna).
Warming Feeling
The Barracuda signed another goaltender last week, inking former Rochester Americans and Chicago Wolves netminder, Beck Warm, for the 2023-24 season. A year ago, the third-year pro finished T-first in the ECHL in wins (28) and T-fourth in games played (43) and minutes played (2509) as a member of the Cincinnati Cyclones. Warm joins Eetu Makiniemi, Magnus Chrona, Georgi Romanov as contracted goaltenders who are expected to compete for the two goalie spots with the Barracuda. If Warm is to start in the ECHL, he’ll be a nice addition for the Wichita Thunder, the Sharks and Barracuda ECHL affiliate. Warm played under current Sharks' assistant coach Ryan Warsofsky in the AHL with the Wolves and during that time was a teammate of Makiniemi.
Preseason Schedule Release
The Barracuda announced its preseason schedule today (Aug. 15).
Game #1: Fri., Oct. 6th – San Jose Barracuda at Bakersfield Condors – 6 p.m. (Mechanics Bank Arena)
Game #2: Sat., Oct. 7th – San Jose Barracuda vs. Bakersfield Condors – 6 p.m. (Tech CU Arena)
AHLTV will not be available during preseason action but you can listen to the games at SJBarracuda.com/listen.
That will do it for this edition of Nolly's Notes. Thanks for reading and I'll talk to you all in a couple of weeks.