23-24 San Jose Barracuda Season Review

[@phillipnguyen1178]

This is the best video you've ever done

[@professorhockey]

That is very nice to hear! This one took a while to get right

[@prosperfireson]

Hey Professor, I really don't follow the barracuda much so thanks for this update. The one thought I had as I listened is considering we are in year 2 of the Grier rebuild and most of our top prospects are scattered amongst the developmental leagues around the world (I use developmental loosely as I don't think the professional leagues in Europe would appreciate that designation hehe). We are finally starting to see some of our better prospects matriculate to the Barracuda but, until the various and sundry pipelines start disgorging our prospects on a yearly basis I would think it will be hard on the Cuda to be competitive in general? Right now the Sharks are struggling so hard they are robbing Peter to pay Paul as most of the best prospects that could be on the Cuda are playing with the Sharks. That is the problem with a nuts to soup rebuild when your franchise NEVER seriously invested in building up a viable feeder system (developmental leagues to the AHL). It seems to me this means that like filling a reservoir emptied by long drought the water must first fill the bottom of the reservoir before it fills the middle and top. If I had to guess (since I am clearly no expert) I would suspect that the Cuda will require a similar window of time before the prospects in our various pipelines begin to fill the Cuda roster with better quality players. In the meantime the situation is made more dire for the Cuda because any prospect the Sharks can snatch up to bolster flagging interest for the Sharks and ticket sales will be relied on at the NHL level thus depriving the Cuda of prime talent to help rebuild that franchise into a solid play off performer and hopefully someday a champion. I would suspect that coaching at the AHL level is likely not the biggest problem facing the Cuda but, like the Sharks its a dearth of talent. Are the coaching staff capable of developing our young prospects properly in preparation for the NHL? No idea. I think in two seasons we are likely to have sufficient data to determine if the staff are doing a good job or need to be replaced. Thanks again Professor for the fun update. Hope all is well with you. Pete Clovis, CA

[@GrahamSlam]

I have not heard a single Sharks fan who watches the Cuda regularly say a single good thing about John McCarthy as a coach. He needs to go before he ruins the development of some of our best prospects not yet playing at the AHL level.

[@professorhockey]

Me neither. The good news at least is that players like Musty, Cagnoni and Edstrom may very well be a couple years out from AHL time and Smith would probably be mostly in the NHL so this upcoming season might not have that huge an impact. Obviously it can still go wrong for the players who are already there or have just arrived (Bystedt) but maybe there is still hope. Either he turns things around or he is almost certainly out next year.

[@tylera86]

I think Romanov was a real hidden gem. Super raw. I think he’s who the organization was hoping Beaupit would be. His size and athleticism are ideal and he improved quite a bit as the year went on. It’s hard to trust Makiniemi because of his injury history.

[@tylera86]

I guess devil’s advocate you were supposed to have Carpenter, Gawanke, Bailey, MacDonald, Peterson, etc…add in the hope that Makiniemi would stay healthy, the Cuda would have been a bit better.

[@tylera86]

Nonetheless, I still think McCarthy needs to leave.

[@davidsperber4435]

Great arena.