Barabanov on Last Year’s Sharks: ‘The team played primitive hockey’

This probably won’t be the last embarrassing story about the 2023-24 San Jose Sharks.

“The team played primitive hockey,” Alexander Barabanov told RG.org in Russian recently. “You run around without the puck and don’t understand why you need all this. We didn’t even try to keep the puck, play for your partner. It was the most simple hockey that kills the player in you.”

It was that miserable a season for the Sharks: San Jose’s .287 Points % was the second-worst of the salary cap era.

Barabanov’s production rock-bottomed along with the San Jose Sharks’ fortunes. In his first three seasons in teal, since being acquired at the 2021 Trade Deadline from the Toronto Maple Leafs for Antti Suomela, KHL import Barabanov enjoyed a breakout, averaging 0.63 Points Per Game. But last year, the 30-year-old winger, heading to unrestricted free agency, put up just four goals and nine assists in 46 contests in an injury-riddled campaign.

At the end of the season, head coach David Quinn was fired, but the Sharks also won the first-overall pick of the 2024 Draft, which they used to select Macklin Celebrini. Meanwhile, UFA Barabanov shared that he had NHL options, but they weren’t good enough to stay, so he signed in the KHL with Ak Bars Kazan.

Check out Barabanov’s full interview with Sergey Demidov! He gets into more detail about the type of NHL offers that he had on the table this summer, and what he loved and hated about California.

He also shared his hopes for Celebrini and the rest of the San Jose Sharks prospects.