Barracuda News & Discussion - Part 6

[Munnyro]

The Sharks should send Weatherby down to work on his game now. His long-run role is a fourth-liner, but he needs to get more physical to play that role. With the Cuda, he would get more ice time to work on physical play and how to use it to create some offense.

I'm onboard with Weatherby going to the Cuda for a bit.

 

[jMoneyBrah]

OK, Barney style...

1. Have clear expectations for the role of each player at the NHL level in the long run. A realistic projection of what you want them to develop into.

2. If the player does not fit those expectations, sent him back to the AHL to work on his weaknesses. There he can get more ice time in the appropriate role than he can in the NHL even if he is good enough to play in the NHL but below his expectation. This includes PP and PK time which he can get a the AHL level but maybe not the NHL level.

3. Have a consistent style of play throughout the organization so they learn how to play the team's style in the minors. (I leave it to those who watch the Cuda to say if the Sharks organization does this; the Wings do.)

4. When the player shows they are ready for their NHL role, they get promoted and stick. Often this involves promotions where if the player cannot meet their expectation, they go back down.

5. Most important, have patience to let players develop into their roles even if it hurts the NHL team in the short run.

Here are two examples that occur to me:

1. The Sharks should send Weatherby down to work on his game now. His long-run role is a fourth-liner, but he needs to get more physical to play that role. With the Cuda, he would get more ice time to work on physical play and how to use it to create some offense.

2. LaBanc played about 20 games in the AHL, but he could have used more time to force him to develop his defensive awareness and eliminate the lazy penalties. But his offense was good enough to play at the NHL level, and the team lacked depth, so he stayed up.

Thanks. Good stuff. Totally agree on Weatherby. It’s too late for Labanc, but yeah he could have used a little more seasoning on the defensive side. Very good examples. Mueller comes to mind as well.

1. I’d be shocked if the org doesn’t have clear expectations for what players should project to.

2. My, admittedly casual, understanding is that the team has been decent about this. Hertl, Meier, Goldobin, Couture off the top of my head all went back for overage years. Goldobin got lots of time in the AHL to put his game together. Merkley is right now. Eklund is in Sweden. For a long time Ive casually wondered if Vlasic couldn’t have been a more rounded offensive contributor had he spent a bit more time working on that part of his game in the AHL.

3. IIRC this was one of the selling points on moving the AHL team from Worcester to San Jose. Also we have been sold that Sommer is the guy to rollout whatever playstyle/game plan the big club is using for the Barracuda. I’ll let those that actually watch the ‘Cuda chime in on how successful he is at it. To a certain extent a voracious endorsement of Sommer’s ability/eagerness to do this sounds to me like Sommer doesn’t have his own playstyle/systems to implement

4. Seems to me this org is doing this, with some glaring ommisions. Meier, Goldobin, Tierney, and further back McGinn seem like examples of this. One omission is Mueller who just got handed an NHL spot way prematurely.

5. I can’t really add much to this point other than to say perhaps SOME considerations to where the NHL team is at/needs seems appropriate. If they are a solid playoff team and are contending and have a player on the Barracuda that is an improvement over the existing player, and the young player is close but not quite fully ripe do you make that swap? IDK. Certainly being the Wings with some Stanley Cup Championship banners hanging in the rafters makes it a little easier to leave that player in the AHL.

 

[LadyStanley]

 

[Shark in Hockeytown]

Yup, we're a big, happy family. We broadly agree on most of these points.

I think the Sharks promote players too soon, or more accurately don't send them down for more seasoning, because the team lacks depth at the NHL level. They have traded away so many first and second round picks that the organization has lacked depth in the third and fourth lines for decades. This means when a player like LaBanc comes along who is good enough for the NHL but could address his limitations in the AHL with more ice time, he ends up with the Sharks at the expense of his long-term development. The key in development is telling players that they need to deal with their shortcomings to be all they can be, even when what they are is good enough to play in the NHL.

Goldobin is an interesting case. He put up points in the AHL, but the organization clearly did not like him and dumped him quickly. Why couldn't they address his weaknesses? His advisor was Larionov who certainly understood the importance of an all-around game.

View attachment 491099

Thanks. Good stuff. Totally agree on Weatherby. It’s too late for Labanc, but yeah he could have used a little more seasoning on the defensive side. Very good examples. Mueller comes to mind as well.

1. I’d be shocked if the org doesn’t have clear expectations for what players should project to.

2. My, admittedly casual, understanding is that the team has been decent about this. Hertl, Meier, Goldobin, Couture off the top of my head all went back for overage years. Goldobin got lots of time in the AHL to put his game together. Merkley is right now. Eklund is in Sweden. For a long time Ive casually wondered if Vlasic couldn’t have been a more rounded offensive contributor had he spent a bit more time working on that part of his game in the AHL.

3. IIRC this was one of the selling points on moving the AHL team from Worcester to San Jose. Also we have been sold that Sommer is the guy to rollout whatever playstyle/game plan the big club is using for the Barracuda. I’ll let those that actually watch the ‘Cuda chime in on how successful he is at it. To a certain extent a voracious endorsement of Sommer’s ability/eagerness to do this sounds to me like Sommer doesn’t have his own playstyle/systems to implement

4. Seems to me this org is doing this, with some glaring ommisions. Meier, Goldobin, Tierney, and further back McGinn seem like examples of this. One omission is Mueller who just got handed an NHL spot way prematurely.

5. I can’t really add much to this point other than to say perhaps SOME considerations to where the NHL team is at/needs seems appropriate. If they are a solid playoff team and are contending and have a player on the Barracuda that is an improvement over the existing player, and the young player is close but not quite fully ripe do you make that swap? IDK. Certainly being the Wings with some Stanley Cup Championship banners hanging in the rafters makes it a little easier to leave that player in the AHL.

 

[Alwalys]

Kane has 2 SH points I think so far.

 

[Hobocop]

I’m going to need Kane to remain down here so we can keep running this Kane-Raska PK unit.

 

[Alwalys]

Raska needs a look soon

 

[Alwalys]

Boy lots of scoring

 

[Pavelski2112]

Kane and Merkley each with three assists

 

[Mattb124]

Goldobin is an interesting case. He put up points in the AHL, but the organization clearly did not like him and dumped him quickly. Why couldn't they address his weaknesses? His advisor was Larionov who certainly understood the importance of an all-around game.

Vancouver didn't do any better with him.

 

[Hobocop]

10-5 Barracuda, final. Barracuda record for goals scored. That game was gloriously stupid and fun.

Let's see. Four points for Kane (1G, 3A), including two shorthanded points while playing with Raska, who had a goal and an assist. Those two kept being getting sent out there on the PK and rather than killing off the penalty by defending they'd just take it and rush:



Two goals for Viel, including a blast from the slot on a setup from Leonard. Three assists from Ryan Merkley. Two goals, one assist for Nick Merkley.

Patrick Holway, by the way: one assist, +5 on the night. I'm going to be sad if I see a transaction saying this guy got released from his PTO.

Their goalie Annunen was not playing well, I'm just going to put that out there. He had a lot of pucks trickle in past him. They weirdly pulled him with ten minutes to go in the game during a TV stoppage, already down 8-4, but then Miska let in another two goals anyway.

Little disappointed the Barracuda put up such short GIFs for the goals tonight. There were some more highlights worth including.

Edit: Looking at the stat sheet, there's only three guys that didn't record a point tonight. Weinger, McGrew and Kniazev. Kniazev still has zero points on the season.

 

[Bowie22]

I think Raska could benefit from learning from Kane (off-ice jokes aside). They looked good together.

 

[hotcabbagesoup]

Good job evander, you do a better job developing the Cuda than Sommer does!

1. So most explosive goal output game of Cuda history.
2. R. Merkley with 3 pts.
3. Raska hadn't scored a point all year. Kane shows up and Raska has 2G, 1A in three games since. And Kane loves Raska; "Rasky" is the only guy that he has mentioned in his interviews so far.

 

[hohosaregood]

How's Kniazev doing outside of the zero points thing?

 

[LadyStanley]

Road trip

 

[Hobocop]

How's Kniazev doing outside of the zero points thing?

Man, I didn't want to be negative after tonight's game, but you're asking about the guy on the team I'm most disappointed in.

He's error-prone, isn't getting shots through. An offensive minded defenseman who's generating no offense. He's got things he needs to work on, on both ends of the ice, but we're 20 games in now and he still looks the same as he has all season. I keep waiting for him to show something. Something other than throwing the puck into an opposing player.

It made sense to me when Kniazev was the very last of the available Barracuda defensemen to get called up during that covid mess the Sharks had earlier in the season.

 

[LadyStanley]

Progress

 

[hohosaregood]

Man, I didn't want to be negative after tonight's game, but you're asking about the guy on the team I'm most disappointed in.

He's error-prone, isn't getting shots through. An offensive minded defenseman who's generating no offense. He's got things he needs to work on, on both ends of the ice, but we're 20 games in now and he still looks the same as he has all season. I keep waiting for him to show something. Something other than throwing the puck into an opposing player.

It made sense to me when Kniazev was the very last of the available Barracuda defensemen to get called up during that covid mess the Sharks had earlier in the season.

Good info. I was always a little surprised by how hyped up he was going into this season since I felt he was pretty flawed myself. Hopefully he figures it out sooner than later.

 

[tiburon12]

seems like really bizarre scores for the Cuda these days. every game is high scoring, almost like beer league scores.

 

[OrrNumber4]

Interesting reading about Raska and Kniazev. They were quite good in training camp, no?

 

[Hobocop]

 

[LadyStanley]

TheAHL.com | The American Hockey League

Foley released from PTO

 

[91Fedorov91]

How's Kniazev doing outside of the zero points thing?

No idea but, I was really impressed by his skating ability in his one game with the sharks.

 

[The Nemesis]

Watching SJ/Ont since it's the free game on the AHL's streaming service.



I'm starting to think Melnichuk isn't that good. I know the Cuda aren't a great team, but I've only seen like 1 really good part-game performance from him in all the games I've watched in the last couple months.

 

[Alwalys]

Jeez melnichuk suks