The San Jose Sharks have announced that goaltender Aaron Dell has been reassigned to the team’s AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda. The move ends Dell’s relatively brief stay on the Sharks’ NHL roster, as he was originally called up on February 11th.
In that span, Dell played in two games for the Sharks. He let in two goals on 27 shots in the Sharks’ 3-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on February 14th, and saved eight shots in 23 minutes of action during the Sharks’ February 12th win over the Washington Capitals.
Dell has spent most of this season as part of a three-goalie arrangement in the AHL, sharing time in the crease with Eetu Makiniemi and Strauss Mann. In 21 games at the AHL level, Dell has a 7-11-1 record, .898 save percentage, and 3.23 goals-against-average, and he is the only one in the Barracuda’s goaltending trio who has a save percentage below the .900 mark.
The 33-year-old is an experienced netminder who worked his way up from the University of North Dakota to the ECHL then to the AHL before breaking into the NHL in 2016-17 as a backup for the Sharks. Dell has 130 NHL games on his resume, with a career .905 save percentage.
A pending unrestricted free agent, Dell will now head back to the AHL to resume his role with the Barracuda, and this move could also lead to Mann moving back to ECHL Wichita for the first time since late January.