San Jose Hockey Now Podcast #5: Duclair Talks "Black Ice" + What's Going Wrong With Barracuda?

Anthony Duclair joins the San Jose Hockey Now Podcast! But before we get to Duclair (1:04:33), who talks about his involvement with the “Black Ice” documentary, getting Joe Thornton to center him next year, and the Hockey Diversity Alliance/Evander Kane drama – Keegan McNally and Sheng Peng talk about the biggest San Jose Sharks’ news of the week. First, we got the latest Erik Karlsson trade rumors out of the way (2:30). We recorded this episode yesterday, so we didn’t talk about the Toronto Maple Leafs or Seattle Kraken’s now-confirmed interest in Karlsson. Then, we drilled down on Martin Kaut’s accusations that a San Jose Barracuda coach tried to get him to fight in every game (8:36). It must be mentioned that the San Jose Sharks categorically deny Kaut’s claims. Sheng talked with about a dozen league sources to get their opinion of Kaut’s claims and to investigate if there’s a deeper problem with the Barracuda. Did the Barracuda try to coerce Kaut to fight every night (13:56)? Sheng and Keegan agree with Kaut that there were Barracuda youngsters who were playing for themselves (23:19). Keegan felt it was team that lacked discipline, and Sheng adds that “selfish” young players are normal at the AHL level. Sheng also thinks there was validity to Kaut’s problem with the Sharks’ contract offer, but it speaks to a larger question with how Mike Grier and Doug Wilson appear to be operating differently (28:14). What do Jeffrey Viel, Jonah Gadjovich, Ryan Carpenter, Andrew Agozzino, Evgeny Svechnikov, and Jacob Peterson have to do with all this? Through it all, Kaut still wants to return to the NHL, and translated from the original Czech interview with Robert Rampa, had an interesting quote about his new HC Dynamo Pardubice head coach, former San Jose Sharks draft pick Vaclav Varada (37:30). Moving beyond the Kaut story, Sheng digs into how all of the Cuda veterans left this off-season, and if that’s a red flag for a “culture” problem within the organization (39:23). Sheng talked to top AHL reporter Patrick Williams of NHL and AHL.com on his perception about what’s going on with the Barracuda. Sheng expanded on what he’s heard about the departures of Agozzino (43:05), Montana Onyebuchi (45:06), and Viel (46:35). Sheng then talked about JD Young’s recent Locked On Sharks podcast about the Barracuda's culture problem (50:02). Sheng talked about AHL norms with meals (51:37) and seating wives and girlfriends (53:58), which were issues brought up in JD’s podcast – and how it doesn’t appear that the Cuda have been doing anything unusual in those areas. There was one random Joe Will complaint that Sheng got from his sources (56:45). Besides Kaut’s fighting allegations, however, Sheng doesn’t think there’s a significant culture problem with the Barracuda (59:10). They aren’t necessarily considered a first-class AHL organization, and there are areas where they can improve, but they’re not necessarily dysfunctional or problematic either. “The Barracuda are just another AHL organization.” Now, Anthony Duclair (1:04:33)! Duclair talks about “Black Ice”, a hockey documentary that details the gut-wrenching racism that Duclair and his peers faced in youth hockey (1:05:13). “Black Ice”, produced by LeBron James and Drake, is out now, exclusively at AMC Theatres – it’s also the story of the pre-20th century Colored Hockey League, and its many innovations.