Barracuda To Face Reign in 1st Round: Bordeleau, Ostapchuk, Poturalski Injury Updates

The San Jose Barracuda are taking on the Ontario Reign in the first round of the Calder Cup playoffs.

It’s a three-game series between the Barracuda, the Pacific Division’s No. 6 seed, and the Reign, the No. 3 seed, set entirely in Southern California.

Game One and Two are this Thursday and Saturday at Crypto.com Arena, the home of the Los Angeles Kings. Toyota Arena, Ontario’s home area, has prior commitments. Game Three, if necessary, will be at Toyota Arena on Monday in Ontario.

The San Jose Sharks’ AHL affiliate should be close to healthy for the start of the playoffs.

Top San Jose Sharks prospect Yaroslav Askarov missed the regular season-closing series at the Wranglers this past weekend because of an illness, per Barracuda play-by-play announcer Nick Nollenberger, but there’s no reason to believe that the starting goaltender won’t be ready for the first round.

Andrew Poturalski, the AHL’s leader scorer and San Jose’s No. 1 center, has been out since Mar. 28 with a lower-body injury. There’s hope that he will be ready for the playoffs, and San Jose Hockey Now has heard that he’s skating.

4/21/25 UPDATE:

There was hope that Poturalski would be ready for the playoffs, but as we get closer to Thursday, I'm hearing that won't be the case.

Can't downplay that absence for the Barracuda: Poturalski was the AHL's leading scorer, even though he missed 13 games

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) April 22, 2025

High-scoring winger Thomas Bordeleau (upper-body injury) and two-way center Zack Ostapchuk (lower-body) are expected to be ready for the playoffs, per SJHN’s sources. Both were injured playing for the San Jose Sharks. Ostapchuk was seen skating at Sharks Ice on Friday.

Puck-moving defenseman Jack Thompson suffered an upper-body injury with the San Jose Sharks at the end of the season, but he was seen skating at Sharks Ice on Thursday and Friday. Best guess, he also should be ready for the playoffs.

Pacific Division’s No. 1 seed Colorado Eagles has a first-round bye: No. 2 Abbotsford Canucks-No. 7 Tucson Roadrunners, Reign-Barracuda, No. 4 Coachella Valley Firebirds-No. 5 Calgary Wranglers will be re-seeded after their first-round match-ups.

The Barracuda are 3-4-1 versus the Reign this season.