Interim titles tie up plans for Barracuda

The direction the Sharks take with their coaching staff for next season will likely have an impact on what the Barracuda’s staff will look like whenever the AHL is able to resume play.

Jimmy Bonneau and Michael Chiasson were named interim cocoaches of the Barracuda in December when Roy Sommer was promoted to become the Sharks’ associate coach under interim boss Bob Boughner. The Sharks also promoted Mike Ricci and Evgeni Nabokov from their developmental roles with the organization to be assistants with the NHL team.

The Sharks still have to decide whether to take the interim tag off Boughner’s title. Once that is finalized, the organization can go about filling the coaching staffs of both teams.

“Everybody, really, on the coaching staff is interim and is interrelated,” Barracuda general manager Joe Will said. “The Barracuda coaches, the development coaches, the NHL coaches, are all related there, and that will be addressed as a whole with the NHL situation.”

It will be interesting to see how the Sharks proceed with Nabokov, who has proven to be quite valuable.

On the morning of Dec. 11, the day Pete DeBoer, Johan Hedberg, Steve Spott and Dave Barr were fired, goalies Martin Jones and

Aaron Dell had save percentages of .891 and .893, respectively.

Nabokov closely worked with both Jones and Dell and from mid-December until March 12, the day the NHL paused its schedule, Jones had a .906 save percentage in 15 games, and Dell had a .912 save percentage in 22 games. Jones was particularly strong in the second half of February after he was given time to work on his game with Nabokov.

But Nabokov’s daily tutelage with the Sharks meant he wasn’t spending as much time with the Barracuda goalies. It showed.

Josef Korenar for instance, saved over 91 percent of the shots he faced in eight of 15 games he played from Oct. 4 to Dec. 11, including two shutouts.

After that, though, Korenar, a 2019 AHL all-star, stopped at least 91 percent of the shots he faced in just four of 18 games. Also, backups Andrew Shortridge had a .862 save percentage in 14 games and Zachary Sawchenko had a .911 save percentage in 13 games.

Korenar could have been better, but the Barracuda’s leaky team defense also has to shoulder some blame, Will said.

“Our goaltenders were kind of left high and dry at times,” Will said. “With the young, skilled players we had here, we, at times, got into a little firewagon hockey, a little bit of runand-gun.

“That got cleaned up in the second part of the year. But the first part of the year, we didn’t help our goalies very much.

“I would place some on (Korenar’s) teammates at certain parts of the year, and I would place some on Josef. He knows he can get better,” Will said. “We had a great exit interview and I can’t wait to see his bounce back next year.”

The Sharks recently signed goalie Alexei Melnichuk, 21, out of the KHL, and he figures to work closely with Nabokov, who also helped Troy Grosenick in 2017 and Antoine Bibeau in 2018 land AHL All-Star spots.

However, if Melnichuk starts the 2020-2021 season in the AHL, as would be ideal, what would that mean for Nabokov, who has been a big help to Jones as well?

“We’re not sure exactly how that’s all going to be drawn up. But we’re very fortunate to have Nabby,” Will said. “Nabby’s done a great job and has been a big part of this organization for many years. Nabby’s a part of it and how this gets drawn up will be part of the overall development staff, the AHL and NHL plan, that we put together.”

As co-head coaches, Bonneau and Chiasson had a record of 12-16-5-0 with the Barracuda, whose roster this season had an average age of 23, the youngest in the AHL. The lineup also fluctuated on a regular basis, as 16 players skated in at least one game with both the Sharks and Barracuda this season.

Will said he admired the job Bonneau and Chiasson did this year, particularly right after the coaching shuffle when the Barracuda’s staff went from five people to two. John McCarthy joined the Barracuda coaching staff on Dec. 27, the day he announced his retirement as a player.

Will said it is preferable to have one head coach with the Barracuda and two or three assistants to work with.

“And we will get to that point this summer,” Will said. “But it all kind of trickles down related to the NHL.”

McCarthy, 33, suffered an Ischemic stroke on Dec. 10 due to a previously undetected hole in his heart. That prompted his sudden retirement after 10-plus seasons as a player in the Sharks’ organization.

Will said there have been discussions with McCarthy about staying with the organization in some capacity.

“John’s really valuable to this organization, and he has been for many years,” Will said. “I think there’s definitely a place for John in the organization. I can say that John’s name is there, along with some other people, as we establish our coaching-development hierarchy moving forward. John’s a piece of that.”