Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Options Author
The San Jose Sharks open coaching camp Thursday with lots to indicate and much more to show. That comes with ending on the backside of the NHL final season.
Change has swept the group this summer time. It begins with a brand new head coach in Ryan Warsofsky, who received Calder Cups with the Carolina Hurricanes group as an assistant coach in Charlotte (2019) and as a head coach in Chicago (2022). The Sharks are searching for extra inside competitors, they usually introduced in free brokers like Andrew Poturalski, Jimmy Schuldt and Lucas Carlsson to battle for jobs this preseason.
The Sharks’ AHL affiliate is coming off a last-place end additionally. The San Jose Barracuda went 24-34-10-4 in 2023-24, final within the Pacific Division and thirtieth within the 32-team league. They surrendered 260 objectives, most within the AHL, and ranked thirty first on the penalty kill. So along with Poturalski, Schuldt and Carlsson, the group signed middle Colin White to an American Hockey League contract this summer time. White, 27, will assist drive that combat for ice time and arrives in San Jose seeking to make his personal break as properly.
An eighth-year professional out of Boston Faculty, White spent a lot of final season within the NHL, combining for 28 video games between Pittsburgh and Montreal. He additionally spent 21 video games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, contributing 10 factors (5 objectives, 5 assists). He has performed 320 NHL video games in all and reached the Stanley Cup Remaining with Florida in 2023, however it was a difficult job market this offseason.
Expertise like White’s will push everybody in camp. And he’s a middle, one thing that’s vital for any contending group. White was a first-round decide (twenty first total) by the Ottawa Senators in 2015. He gathered 41 factors (14 objectives, 27 assists) in 71 video games with Ottawa again in 2018-19, his first full NHL season, and except for final season’s task to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and a single recreation with Belleville in 2019-20, White has in any other case been an NHL common.
White is on an AHL deal, however he needs to earn an NHL contract. So if that NHL job doesn’t pan out instantly, he not less than needs to go away an impression as he participates in Sharks coaching camp. And with the Barracuda, White shall be taking up a management position amongst what must be a younger roster round him. Consistency may be so tough to grasp, and White has been via the method. He can supply a gradual presence to the Barracuda lineup whereas additionally bringing his youthful teammates via these uneven instances.
White wore a letter as an alternate captain whereas with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and this flip with the Barracuda will lend one other probability at mentorship. In some methods, White remains to be looking for consistency too. The battle is a actuality for many gamers, actually.
“I feel a giant factor is confidence,” White mentioned. “It’s simple to lose confidence in both league. You’re going to make errors, so the large factor is with the ability to be taught out of your errors however maintain your confidence. It’s one thing I’m nonetheless making an attempt to do. But it surely’s undoubtedly one thing that I will help (others) with.
“Quite a lot of guys are simply used to being ‘the man’ rising up, and as you grow old in several roles and totally different leagues, typically it’s robust to seek out what your position is immediately. And that may damage your confidence. You get scared to make a play.”
And not using a Calder Cup Playoff look since 2019, the sensation is that it’s time for the Barracuda to win video games together with bringing alongside the group’s prospects. In spite of everything, the final word success of the Sharks’ rebuilding program will rely closely on the Barracuda with the ability to develop expertise. And a part of that improvement course of is having a successful setting.
White put it bluntly.
“I don’t assume they wish to carry on dropping.”
On the American Hockey League beat for 20 years, TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams additionally at the moment covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is an everyday contributor on SiriusXM NHL Community Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his excellent protection of the league in 2016.
