San Jose Barracuda
Is This End of Bordeleau’s Time With Sharks? He Reflects on Coaching, Regime Changes
While making it to the NHL is difficult, staying in the best league in the world is even harder to do.
Thomas Bordeleau has discovered that firsthand.
The 23-year-old has played parts of the last four campaigns with the San Jose Sharks, but just one this season, and 44 NHL games in total.
“There’s definitely frustration,” Bordeleau admitted about his irregular NHL opportunity. “I think if there’s no frustration, you shouldn’t be playing hockey.”
This year, especially, was a hard-luck one for Bordeleau. He didn’t get called up until Game 80 at the Calgary Flames, then suffered his first-ever concussion, which knocked him out for the final games of the season.
This concussion also caused Bordeleau to miss the San Jose Barracuda’s entire playoff run.
“It’s getting better everyday, and [I’m] just doing everything I can to speed up the recovery and hit the ground running this summer,” he said.
Unfortunately for Bordeleau, that wasn’t the only time he was derailed by an injury during the 2024-25 season. Just a few days into the San Jose Sharks’ training camp in September, he suffered a lower-body injury that prevented him from making an impression during preseason. As a result, he rejoined the Cuda when he was healthy, two weeks into their season.
“It really, really sucked. I wanted to prove myself in those exhibition games and those preseason games,” said Bordeleau.
This might spell the end of Bordeleau’s career in the San Jose Sharks organization. The 2020 second-round pick is a pending RFA.
The 5-foot-10 center-winger has been a prolific playmaker in the AHL, and productive in the NHL too. The 2023 AHL All-Star has 47 goals and 107 points in 161 appearances with the Barracuda, and six goals and 18 points in 44 games with the big club.
But his all-around game hasn’t quite clicked. And Bordeleau has also dealt with topsy-turvy handling in his time in the Sharks organization.
With Ryan Warsofsky taking over behind the bench this season, it marked his third NHL coach in four years.
When he came out of the University of Michigan in 2022, he played eight games under Bob Boughner. Next was David Quinn, who he played most of his games under.
“It’s definitely been tough,” Bordeleau said of different coaches with perhaps different messages. “It’s definitely not what I was expecting when I got drafted. It’s just something you’ve got to adapt to. It wasn’t the most ideal for me personally, but I didn’t put too much thought into that, and I was just trying to focus on what I can control.”
He actually one of just five San Jose Sharks, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Noah Gregor, William Eklund, and Mario Ferraro, who’s played for the last three Sharks bench bosses.
Bordeleau also recognizes that he’s playing for a different management regime than the one that drafted him.
After his NHL debut in 2022, he was under the impression, while still under the Doug Wilson regime, that “they were ready for me to play an 82-game season in the NHL.”
For what it’s worth, a separate source from that Sharks season believes that was the plan at that time. But in Jul. 2022, Mike Grier took over for interim GM Joe Will, representing the Wilson regime then. Wilson had stepped down in Apr. 2022 for medical reasons.
“Everything changed. Hockey, it’s a business. Doug Wilson had to leave,” Bordeleau recalled.
So what’s next for Bordeleau?
“We’ll see how the summer develops,” he said, not ruling out a return to the San Jose Sharks organization. “Keep getting stronger, keep getting faster, and keep doing exactly what I’m doing right now. I only had one game this year, but I felt great. I felt calm, felt [like I’m] where I should be.”
We’ll see if the rest of the NHL agrees this off-season.
I doubt Bords is qualified. Same for Gushin as well. Both are smaller players that do not compete very hard. They do compete, just not at the level required by GMMG for players of their stature. Bigger bodies are coming in Musty, Halts & Igor so spots on the Sharks & Cuda will be hard won. Time to move on from both Bords & Gush sorry to say. Both are shades of Danny O’regan, small skilled players that doesn’t quite make it at the NHL level. If you are small & skilled you better compete like Connor Garland, Johnny Hockey… Read more »
I’d qualify both simply because they’re such good AHL producers and that team is going to need some experience next season, especially if Poturalski leaves town.
I kinda agree but I don’t know how many roster spots they’ll have next season with more prospects making the jump to the AHL. Cherny and Musty are AHL bound minimum. Not sure who else?
Honestly I could see Gushchin and Bordeleau both forcing their way out of town even if they’re qualified, but with Poturalski potentially headed elsewhere as well my hope is that at least one of the three is playing for the Cuda next year.
It’s really a bummer that the DW regime was so shitty at drafting there at the end.
Exactly. Good player but GMMG is trying to rebuild this club into a contender. There’s only room for smaller guys at the very top end of the line up and while Bords is a good player, he’s not a top 3 talent. Good luck to him and I hope he can find his path to the NHL with another org.
I would push back just that you don’t want smaller guys at the bottom of the lineup. That’s where you want your heavy weights. Only room for a smaller player in top 6 maybe top 9 if they have an elite offensive characteristic. Really fast, PK, great F1…
Geez. Nevermind Patrick. Clearly I misread your comment. That or you edited it after mine? I dunno. Probably my bad.🙂
Pretty sure compete was never really an issue for Gush, but it has been for bords at times for sure. I feel they will bring at least one back given that we are likely to lose our ahl mvp, but we shall see. Neither seems like gonna be long term nhl options.
Yeah, the conventional saying is to make it in the NHL as a small guy, you have to have an exceptional mix of compete, skating, and hockey IQ to make it in the NHL. The Doug Wilson Jr. era of scouting is not turning out great. Eklund may end up being the only player he drafted to make it in the NHL. The Wiesblatt-Bordeleau year is turning out to be extra galling since some pretty decent players are emerging from that second round. The biggest one is obviously Brock Faber then JJ Peterka, but Evangelista, Colangelo, and Klevin are all… Read more »
I would be surprised to see Bords with the Sharks organization next year.
Only 5 guys have played for this team, over the last 4 years…and Gregor is probably not coming. Back, so that is down to 4, since GMMG began. This is a major reason why been last place, that sort of turn over just causes chaos in a team. We should see some stability this year, and that itself helps with upward trajectory. That being said, does Bords, keep it at 4 or does it get to 3 (we could see only Eklund as the lone survivor, after next year— yes Shorky, here is an Obligatory Eklund trade bait call out,… Read more »
This team needed that turnover to avoid becoming the next Sabres. Contracts needed to be jettisoned for the opportunity for younger talent to come in, and the turnover would have been less except poor Wilson era draft management (think Merkley over Miller, Weisblatt before Faber). It was painful but we are seeing a good team ermerging.
Exactly. It wasn’t turnover that had them finishing last, it was a dearth of talent.
I 100% agree, my comment was more about looking forward, it needs to stabilize, and that stabilizing factor should help with upward trajectory. Also that it is impressive that quick of a turn around, and that chaos helped withh the tank part of rebuild. Sorta appreciate the strategy, if you are rebuilding, move it all out, try to throw stuff to wall what does not stick, get moved, while you draft the foundation.
You guys are silly. I’m a Sharks fan so I’m full on rooting for Eklund to progress to the next level and make himself so valuable they have to keep him. It’s not like I dislike the kid.
For the record, a number of commenters have come to agree that he’s the expendable talent if they want to trade for another need. So it’s not just me.😉
Bords though hasn’t shown nearly enough at any level to be a useful player on an NHL playoff team. He’s not even Labanc level at this point.
To some extent everybody is expendable in a trade for the right returns. I think that’s the mentality you need to win in today’s NHL. Jonathan Huberdeau was a Florida franchise cornerstone coming off a 115 point season. Then Matthew Tkachuk was on the market and Huberdeau went from golden boy to packing his bags for Calgary.
Exactly my thinking. It was just that I got lambasted for typing it in a comment a while back and now I’m just known as the guy who wants to trade Eklund. When in reality, I’m just the guy who wants the team to win a cup and won’t let attachments to certain players impede that goal.
I think it is a longshot that Eklund gets traded. There would have to be an offer we couldn’t refuse in order for that to take place. The kid’s too good to let go of and with Misa, Celly, Smith, and Toffoli at the top six, He will fit nicely somewhere.
No, he’s really not “too good”. Celly is “too good”… and that might be the end of the “too good” list.
I know just razing you!
Wish him the best. Too little too late and the competition is only getting more insurmountable as the Sharks keep drafting bigger, better wingers and centers. I’ve said it before but I don’t see him making it full time until he truly bulks up. Think Granlund, Boyle, even Eklund is thicker at this point and he’s younger.
The simple reality is that even as soon as next year, it’s going to be very hard to make this team as a forward. The depth chart is going to get imposing. I just can’t see Bords or Guschin getting higher than about 15th or 16th on that list. Weird to say it, but other teams might have better opportunities
Frankly I don’t see either guy playing more than 200 games.
They need to find an org with cap issues and a lack of scoring depth. Undersized tweener players are at their best playing protected minutes against inferior competition. A fourth line that is built to score a few goals rather than check, for instance. It also would help to be playing behind a high end top six, so that when injuries occur they can slot in. The current Sharks don’t have nearly enough depth in their top six to carry a player as one dimensional as Bordeleau or Gushchin. In the right situation, they could help a power play and… Read more »
Wasn’t Guschin the top scorer for the Cuda?
Yeah but I’m talking about an NHL situation that could work for them.
I don’t if Guschin can translate from the Cuda to the Sharks, but being #1 on the Cuda shows the guy IS developing. Being small is never going to change so if the Sharks are not committed to him, deal him. I’m not sure there is any game changer on the Cuda that is going to really help the Sharks. They need vets, NOW.
I’ve been thinking about Gushchin to Washington and Bordeleau to (as many others have suggested) Nashville. Low draft picks or bags of pucks at this point.
Washington’s right up against the cap and even though Backstrom comes off the books for them this summer, they likely owe some of the other keepable UFAs raises – and after this Cinderella season, why not delay the rebuild for Ovechkin’s last season?
Nashville’s season was such a tire fire of bloated contracts not working out, they could probably stand to give Sebatian’s kid at least a look.
These second tier prospects that have been in the org for 3+ years never really had a chance. They were always going to look like shit and have a hard time developing as part of a fully torn down roster. Grier’s team has been prioritizing the development of their elite prospects, which is the exact right move but I’m sure it does feel unfair to some of these players. Gushchin could have been a nice piece on a good Sharks team of the past. Trying to find his way as part of this mess was just never going to happen.… Read more »
I mean we are tanking officially for at least 2 season. Somehow it is just frustrating that the coaches Quinn and Wrasofwky, though it is understandable and their job, did not give Guschin and Boards the chance to play over guys like Lebanc and especially Hoffman because they anticipated a slightly lesser chance to earn a point in any specific game. I couldn’t care less about 1 or 2 extra points. To have them playing in the Quinn season would have been so refreshing. Somehow it felt like Hoffman and Lebanc checked out before the season was even out of… Read more »
Anyone know where we can stream a replay of the world championship games?
Celebrini’s goal today was nasty
I think it’s time for Bords to move on and get a fresh start. If he’s not qualified, my biggest question is will Celebrini take #17?
Bye! Good luck!