Assessing the Sharks AHL goaltending

With Alex Stalock’s time with San Jose quickly expiring, it’s natural to take a look at what’s going on with the Barracuda for at least a temporary solution. What you’ll find there is only pain, friends, only pain.

Even while Stalock was putting together a very nice debut NHL campaign, the writing on the wall (so to speak) was his very not good AHL career numbers. So unless either Troy Grosenick or Aaron Dell have been setting the world on fire for the Barracuda this year, it’s unlikely either will (at least longterm) provide a suitable replacement for Stalock.

So right, about those numbers… They aren’t great.

Troy Grosenick has a career AHL save percentage of .904 in all situations. For the sake of comparison, Stalock posted a .909 save percentage in 142 career games with the Worcester Sharks. Grosenick has only played 94 games, but he hasn’t exactly shown anything that would lead me to believe he’s going to be the answer in net.

So how about Dell? His numbers are actually quite good. He has a .923 save percentage in the AHL, but has played only 55 games. This season he and Grosenick have started an equal number of games despite Dell having a far superior save percentage. San Jose could simply be wanting to split up the workload evenly (and give each guy a chance to develop) but given Grosenick’s experience, it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s the guy the Sharks turn to first if they look at the AHL.

Grosenick has played in two NHL games while Dell is waiting to make his debut. Both netminders are 26 years old, so age wouldn’t factor into the decision. If it were my call, I’d give Dell a shot in backup duty and see what you have as you’ve already given Grosenick a couple of NHL games. That being said, I’m just looking at a relatively small sample of saves and am (obviously) not working with or even watching these guys on a day-to-day basis.

That all being said, it seems that if management thought replacing Stalock with Dell or Grosenick was an option, they would have done so by now. It seems a trade is still the most likely way for the Sharks to upgrade their backup goalie situation before the offseason.