San Jose Barracuda
CitySan Jose, California
LeagueAmerican Hockey League
ConferenceWestern
DivisionPacific
Founded1996
Home arenaTech CU Arena
ColorsTeal, orange, black, white
       
Owner(s)San Jose Sports & Entertainment Enterprises (Hasso Plattner, Governor)
General managerJoe Will
Head coachJohn McCarthy
CaptainVacant
MediaSan Jose Mercury News
CSN California
KDOW (1220 AM)
AHL.TV (Internet)
AffiliatesSan Jose Sharks (NHL)
Wichita Thunder (ECHL)
Franchise history
1996–2001Kentucky Thoroughblades
2001–2006Cleveland Barons
2006–2015Worcester Sharks
2015–presentSan Jose Barracuda
Championships
Division titles1 (2016–17)
Current season

The San Jose Barracuda are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL) that began play in the 2015–16 season. The team plays at Tech CU Arena beginning with the 2022–23 season.[1]

The Barracuda is a relocation of the former Worcester Sharks AHL franchise; it joined several other AHL franchises to form the AHL's Pacific Division in 2015.

History

On January 29, 2015, the San Jose Sharks announced that they would be moving their AHL affiliate, the Worcester Sharks, to San Jose, California, as one of five charter members of the AHL's new Pacific Division. The team played at the SAP Center at San Jose, being one of two of the current AHL teams to share a home arena with its parent club (along with the Manitoba Moose sharing Bell MTS Place with their parent Winnipeg Jets).[2]

On April 1, 2015, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reported that the Sharks had signed a multi-year presenting sponsorship with Barracuda Networks to be the AHL team's presenting sponsor; the team name would be the San Jose Barracuda and the reported team logo would feature the corporate logo in the background. Neither the Sharks nor Barracuda would comment, however, they stated that an official announcement would come later in the week.[3] The name and logo were confirmed the next day in a joint press release.[4] The team retained longtime AHL head coach Roy Sommer with the relocation.

Friday October 9, 2015 marked the first official game in Barracuda history. They took on the Rockford IceHogs at home, coming up on the losing end of a 4–2 score. Micheal Haley scored the first ever franchise goal while on a power play in the first period. The Barracuda picked up the first win in franchise history while visiting the Stockton Heat on October 15, 2015, by a score of 4–1.[5]

On February 10, 2016, head coach Roy Sommer broke the record for most wins as an AHL coach, picking up his 637th win against the Ontario Reign by the score of 4–2.

The Barracuda finished the season 31–26–8–3. Its .527 winning percentage meant that it was matched up against the Ontario Reign during the Pacific Division semifinals. After splitting the first two games of the best-of-five series, the Barracuda came out on the losing end of game three by a 3–1 score, and also lost game four by a score of 4–1 to end their season. Bryan Lerg and Nikolay Goldobin led the team in goals with 21, while Ryan Carpenter had a team high 55 points. Goaltender Aaron Dell played a team high 40 games in net for the Barracuda, while winning 17 of them.[6] The team's average attendance of 4,412 placed them 24th of 30 in the AHL.[7]

The Barracuda's 2016–17 season would be more successful than its first season, winning 14 consecutive games from January 15 to March 1 and winning the Pacific Division and Western Conference. Goaltender Troy Grosenick won the "Baz" Bastien Award as the AHL's outstanding goaltender. The Barracuda made it to the Western Conference finals during the 2017 Calder Cup playoffs before being eliminated by the Grand Rapids Griffins four-games-to-one.

The Barracuda were the final team to make the playoffs in 2018, winning multiple games in a row. They were eliminated in the first round by the Tucson Roadrunners.

In 2018–19, the Barracuda led the AHL's Pacific Division for most of the first half of the season before the Bakersfield Condors went on a 17-game winning streak, and finished in second place in the division, four points behind the Condors. The Barracuda lost in the first round of the 2019 Calder Cup playoffs three games to one against the San Diego Gulls.

During the 2019–20 season, head coach Sommer was called up to the Sharks as an assistant after over 21 seasons as the Sharks' AHL affiliate head coach. The Sharks named Barracuda assistants Jimmy Bonneau and Michael Chiasson as co-coaches for Sommer's replacements.[8] In January 2020, the city of San Jose approved of a proposed 4,200-seat arena to be built at the Sharks' Solar4America Ice complex that would be utilized by the Barracuda for home games[9] and expected to be completed by 2022.[10] The 2019–20 season then ended prematurely due to the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sommer returned to the Barracuda as head coach on September 22, 2020.[11] The start of the 2020–21 season was postponed during the pandemic and Santa Clara County eventually barred all indoor and contact sporting events until at least February 2021.[12] The AHL season schedule was announced to begin on February 5, causing the Barracuda to play its opening home games in Tucson against the Tucson Roadrunners before embarking on a seven-game road trip, as well as scheduling some games at Solar4America Ice due to the Sharks's home schedule at SAP Center.[13]

On May 18, 2022, the Barracuda named development coach and former team captain John McCarthy as the second head coach in franchise history. Sommer moved to an advisory position.[14]

Beginning the 2022-23 AHL season, the Barracuda will begin play at the TechCU Arena.

Season-by-season records

Regular season Playoffs
SeasonGPWLOTLSOLPtsPCTGFGAStandingYear1st round2nd round3rd roundFinals
2015–166831268373.5371981934th, Pacific2016L, 1–3, ONT———
2016–176843164595.6992321761st, Pacific2017W, 3–2, STKW, 4–1, SDL, 1–4, GR—
2017–186834264476.5591861984th, Pacific2018L, 1–3, TUC———
2018–196839223485.6252271972nd, Pacific2019L, 1–3, SD———
2019–205521275249.4451791927th, Pacific2020Season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2020–213615154236.5001051274th, Pacific2021[lower-alpha 1]W, 2–1, TUCW, 5–1, COLL, 0–2, HSK—
2021–226820424246.3382022919th, Pacific2022Did not qualify
2022–237231342569.4792052498th, Pacific2023Did not qualify
  1. ↑ The 2021 Calder Cup playoffs were not held; the Pacific Division held a postseason tournament for the division title. The bottom four teams had single-elimination play-in games to qualify for the semifinals (the first two rounds). The division semifinals and finals were best-of-three for the John D. Chick Trophy (the last two rounds).

Mascot

Frenzy the Barracuda is the mascot for the San Jose Barracuda.[15]

Players

Current roster

Updated January 11, 2024.[16]

Team roster
No. Nat Player Pos S/G Age Acquired Birthplace Contract
17 United States Thomas Bordeleau C L 22 2022 Houston, Texas Sharks
56 Canada Ethan Cardwell C/RW R 21 2023 Oshawa, Ontario Sharks
60 Canada Cole Cassels (A) C R 28 2023 Hartford, Connecticut Barracuda
70 Canada Brandon Coe RW R 22 2021 Toronto, Ontario Sharks
79 United States Ethan Frisch D R 23 2023 Moorhead, Minnesota Barracuda
26 Germany Leon Gawanke D R 24 2023 Berlin, Germany Sharks
82 Russia Artem Guryev D L 20 2023 Moscow, Russia Sharks
75 Russia Danil Gushchin W L 21 2022 Yekaterinburg, Russia Sharks
41 Canada Tanner Kaspick C L 25 2023 Brandon, Manitoba Barracuda
71 Russia Nikolai Knyzhov D L 25 2019 Kemerovo, Russia Sharks
28 Canada Gannon Laroque D R 20 2022 Edmonton, Alberta Sharks
23 Sweden Oskar Lindblom LW L 27 2023 Gävle, Sweden Sharks
32 Finland Eetu Makiniemi G L 24 2022 Vantaa, Finland Sharks
86 United States Brad Marek C L 23 2023 Big Rapids, Michigan Barracuda
85 Russia Shakir Mukhamadullin D L 22 2023 Ufa, Russia Sharks
24 Sweden Jacob Peterson LW L 24 2023 Lidköping, Sweden Sharks
77 Germany Valtteri Pulli D L 22 2023 Turku, Finland Sharks
91 United States Kyle Rau (A) C L 31 2023 Eden Prairie, Minnesota Barracuda
52 Canada Tristen Robins C R 22 2021 London, England Sharks
58 Canada Mitchell Russell Injured Reserve RW R 22 2022 Peterborough, Ontario Sharks
51 Czech Republic Radim Simek (A) D L 31 2017 Mladá Boleslav, Czechoslovakia Sharks
16 Canada Jack Studnicka C R 24 2024 Tecumseh, Ontario Sharks
45 Canada Nathan Todd (A) C R 28 2023 Kemptville, Ontario Sharks
76 United States Anthony Vincent Injured Reserve RW R 26 2023 Wilton, Connecticut Barracuda
89 Canada Ozzy Wiesblatt Injured Reserve RW R 21 2021 Calgary, Alberta Sharks

Team captains

References

  1. ↑ "SHARKS SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCES NAMING RIGHTS DEAL WITH TECHNOLOGY CREDIT UNION ON TECH CU ARENA, FUTURE HOME OF THE SAN JOSE BARRACUDA | San Jose Barracuda". www.sjbarracuda.com. Retrieved 2022-07-21.
  2. ↑ "Sharks Moving AHL Franchise to SAP Center". San Jose Sharks. January 29, 2015. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  3. ↑ Donato-Weinstein, Nathan (April 1, 2015). "Exclusive: Here's the name and logo of the Sharks' minor-league farm team". BizJournals.com. Silicon Valley Business Journal. Retrieved April 1, 2015.
  4. ↑ "Sharks, Barracuda Networks Agree to Revolutionary Multi-Year Presenting Partnership". SJBarracuda.com. San Jose Barracuda. April 2, 2015. Retrieved April 2, 2015.
  5. ↑ Barracuda, San Jose. "Games | San Jose Barracuda". www.sjbarracuda.com. Retrieved 2016-05-24.
  6. ↑ Barracuda, San Jose. "Stats | San Jose Barracuda". www.sjbarracuda.com. Retrieved 2016-05-24.
  7. ↑ "AHL 2015-16 team attendance at hockeydb.com". www.hockeydb.com. Retrieved 2016-05-24.
  8. ↑ "SHARKS, BARRACUDA ANNOUNCE CHANGES TO COACHING STAFF". San Jose Barracuda. December 11, 2019.
  9. ↑ "Huge expansion planned for Sharks Ice skating complex in San Jose". The Mercury News. January 21, 2020.
  10. ↑ "City council approves new rink for Barracuda". AHL. January 28, 2020.
  11. ↑ "San Jose Sharks Announce Organizational Coaching Staff". San Jose Sharks. National Hockey League. September 22, 2020. Retrieved September 22, 2020.
  12. ↑ "Deep Blue Sea: How soon before Sharks come home?". SB Nation. January 14, 2021.
  13. ↑ "Barracuda 2020–21 Regular Season Game and Broadcast Schedule Announced". OurSports Central. January 22, 2021.
  14. ↑ "San Jose Barracuda announce changes to coaching staff". San Jose Barracuda. May 18, 2022. Retrieved May 18, 2022.
  15. ↑ Barracuda, San Jose. "San Jose Barracuda Introduced Mascot Frenzy Before Barracuda Game On Saturday | San Jose Barracuda". www.sjbarracuda.com. Retrieved 2022-04-03.
  16. ↑ "San Jose Barracuda :: Team". San Jose Barracuda. Retrieved December 29, 2023.
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