Former San Jose Sharks prospect and San Jose Barracuda captain John McCarthy has called it a career as of Friday morning, ending his 11-year professional career due to medical reasons.
The reasons for his retirement are quite jarring: on December 10, McCarthy suffered an ischemic stroke due to an undetected hole in his heart. After medical attention from the Barracuda’s medical staff and physicians at Kaiser Permanente, McCarthy’s condition was stabilized and had made a complete recovery. McCarthy will undergo a minor heart procedure to correct the issue in the next few weeks.
McCarthy will join interim Barracuda co-coaches Jimmy Bonneau and Michael Chiasson on the bench for the rest of the season, beginning with today’s game against the Stockton Heat.
There will never be another Barracuda player quite like John McCarthy. He retires on top of the all-time San Jose Barracuda leaderboards with 62 goals, 76 assists and 138 total points, and 275 total games played. Across his total AHL career, he scored 130 goals and tallied 167 assists for a grand total of 297 points in 577 games played. He also played 88 NHL games, all with the Sharks, scoring threethree goals and three assists.
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