After San Jose Sharks General Manager Mike Grier finished with his big moves on July 1, he had a few smaller moves to make in order to round out organizational depth.
On Thursday, the Sharks announced that they had signed four players, all of which are expected to end up playing for their American Hockey League affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda, this coming season.
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The most notable name among the group was former Tampa Bay Lightning forward Alex Barre-Boulet. Barre-Boulet is the most likely of the signings to appear in an NHL game this coming season, but he’s likely going to bring some high-end scoring to the Barracuda. Last season, the 29-year-old forward finished second in the AHL in points, trailing just Syracuse Crunch standout Jakob Pelletier.
Barre-Boulet joins the Sharks organization on a two-year contract with a cap hit of $875k per season.
The Sharks then went on to sign two of Barre-Boulet’s teammates with the Colorado Eagles last season, Kyle Keyser and Tye Felhaber. Felhaber is the more likely of the two to be an impact player for the Barracuda, as last season he scored 15 goals and 31 points in 63 games for Colorado.
Keyser, on the other hand, is a goaltender who regularly splits his time between the AHL and the ECHL. As a result, he’ll likely serve as the backup for the Barracuda behind Matt Davis, unless Connor Hasley is able to take over that role.
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Brett Leason, the Sharks’ final signing to this point, is another player who has an opportunity to get called up to the NHL at some point this season. The 27-year-old was an NHL regular for the Anaheim Ducks just a couple of years ago, but given the Sharks’ logjam of bottom-six forwards, he seems destined to be a high-end role player for the Barracuda.
Last season, Leason scored 14 goals and 44 points in 56 games with the Hershey Bears.
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