When Barclay Goodrow entered the offseason after the Sharks’ dismal ending to the 2024-25 season, he talked about getting healthy. For too many seasons in a row, he had spent April, May and sometimes even June battling in the postseason despite injuries, bumps and bruises. He wanted last summer to be different. With the Sharks not even close to sniffing the playoffs, he knew he finally had the opportunity to spend some time truly healing.
When he returned to training camp in the fall, the then-32-year-old looked healthier than he had been in a while. There was some pep in his step as they say and he was ready to play.
Goodrow’s 2025-26 production
As a result, Goodrow was able to put in a consistent effort throughout the season. He was one of the few players on the Sharks roster who slotted in for all 82 games.
| Games Played | Goals | Assists | Points | +/- | Shooting % | TOI/Game |
| 82 | 5 | 7 | 12 | -18 | 7.6% | 11:21 |
That said, statistically, it wasn’t his best effort. His 12 points matched the number of points he put up in his final season with the New York Rangers before the team put him on waivers, but his minus-18 was much better than the minus-37 he sported last season.
Goodrow averaged 11:21 per game, a low he hadn’t reached since the 2018-19 season when he was playing with the Sharks the first time around. That was back when San Jose had players like Logan Couture, Joe Pavelski, Timo Meier and Tomas Hertl at the top and Goodrow was fighting for ice time with the likes of Joonas Donskoi, prime Kevin Labanc, Marcus Sorensen and Melker Karlsson.
In other words, even in better shape, he already saw his ice time cut back last season.
Goodrow was the lowest-performing forward on the Sharks
And there’s a good reason for it. In every season, there’s one player who is the worst-performing player, and this season it was Goodrow. According to Evolving-Hockey, Goodrow had the worst Goals Above Replacement (GAR) stat of all the forwards.
At even strength, there was virtually no combination of lines in which Goodrow’s line had a positive impact on the game. Looking at Evolving-Hockey’s stats for line combinations that played 30 minutes or more, you find that only the combination of Goodrow, Adam Gaudette and Zack Ostapchuk had an even goals-for percentage. All that means is that they scored as many goals as were scored on them.
| Line Combination | TOI | Goals For % |
| Goodrow – Reaves – Ostapchuk | 198.4 | 30.77% |
| Gaudette – Goodrow – Ostapchuk | 168.7 | 50% |
| Gaudette – Goodrow – Reaves | 60.7 | 25% |
| Goodrow – Reaves – Dellandrea | 36.5 | 25% |
None of Goodrow’s other line combinations with 30+ minutes played together had a goals-for percentage above 50. Neither did any of his other line combinations that played 15+ minutes together.
Tough work on the penalty kill
Goodrow played 930:30 of ice time last season;157:39 of that time was on the penalty kill. That’s approximately 17% of his ice time.
Goodrow was the least reliable of the forwards who played on the penalty kill this season. He was third among forwards in ice time on the PK — Alex Wennberg and Collin Graf played more — but Goodrow allowed the most goals against while he was on the ice, 26. What’s more, he had zero goals for.
Looking at the high-danger scoring chances, there were 11 high-danger goals against with Goodrow on the ice, again, the highest on the team.
For a player who is being leaned on heavily for those penalty-killing minutes, Goodrow did not perform well. What it says is that one of Goodrow’s bread-and-butter assets, his ability to kill penalties, is going by the wayside. If that goes, then there’s little else to recommend him as a nightly player in the lineup.
Goodrow’s toughness, veteran leadership
Given all this, there has to be a reason that the Sharks keep Goodrow in the lineup. For that, there are two stats that we can zero in on. First, his toughness. The Sharks had 13 major penalties last season, and Goodrow had three of them. There were only two other players with more than one fighting major on the roster last season — Ryan Reaves and Ostapchuk. It’s questionable whether Reaves will be back next season, and so far, there’s no word on a new contract for Ostapchuk, so there’s only Goodrow as a “fighter” under contract for next season.
On top of that, Goodrow delivered the second-most hits on the team last season with 140. The only player ahead of him was Reaves. It stands to reason that the Sharks will want a line that hits and fights, or at least is more willing to play the body on a nightly basis. Goodrow, at this point, is the only Sharks player under contract that’s going to do that.
Second, and most fans hate hearing this, but Goodrow has the playoff experience that most of the players on the Sharks lack. Seven players on the team have double-digit playoff games under their belts; that’s it. Only three have won the Stanley Cup, and Goodrow is one of them.
| Player | Playoff Games Played | Stanley Cups Won |
| Dmitry Orlov | 107 | 1 |
| Barclay Goodrow | 97 | 2 |
| Tyler Toffoli | 93 | 1 |
| Alex Wennberg | 58 | 0 |
| Vincent Desharnais | 28 | 0 |
| Ty Dellandrea | 22 | 0 |
| Adam Gaudette | 16 | 0 |
| Alex Nedeljkovic | 9 | 0 |
| Kiefer Sherwood | 8 | 0 |
Looking at the makeup of next year’s roster, and we’re counting Vincent Desharnais even though he’s not under contract, the Sharks are currently lacking playoff experience. Goodrow brings that, so it’s not something the Sharks need to go shopping for at the trade deadline next season.
Goodrow’s future with the Sharks
Goodrow is in the final season of a deal with a cap hit of $3,641,667. It comes with a modified no-trade clause, which requires him to submit a 15-team no-trade list at the beginning of the season. The good news for the Sharks is two-fold. If the team wanted to trade him mid-season, it would have already paid his $1.25 million signing bonus, which means he’s a very cheap asset for a contending team to acquire near the trade deadline. His contract should be movable if the Sharks decide to go that route.
Alternatively, if the Sharks chose to keep Goodrow for a potential playoff run, he could be that veteran presence that playoff teams like without costing the team anything in terms of assets or cap space. He’s San Jose’s own rental player and there are worst things to be.
Editor’s Note: Over the next few weeks, we will be rolling out the player reviews for the San Jose Sharks. We realize there were a lot of guys rotating into and out of the lineup and some of the key depth players were traded. As a result, Fear the Fin plans to focus on the players who are 1) still with the Sharks and 2) played 20 or more games for San Jose this season.
