Sharks Reassign Daniil Gushchin
The San Jose Sharks have announced that they have sent forward Daniil Gushchin down to their AHL affiliate San Jose Barracuda. This will be Gushchin’s second demotion to the minors in the month of April.
Drafted 76th overall in the 2020 NHL Draft, Gushchin did not make the jump to North America until the 2020-21 season, suiting up for the Muskegon Lumberjacks of the USHL. In 46 games for the Lumberjacks, Guschin put up 32 goals and 32 assists, finishing fifth in all USHL scoring. Last season, he made the jump to the OHL, joining the Niagara IceDogs.
In 51 games for Niagara, he continued his torrid pace in North America, scoring 41 goals and 30 assists, good for 29th in league scoring. At the end of last season, Gushchin finally got his call-up to the Sharks organization, playing three games for the Barracuda.
This year, he has spent the majority of his season in the AHL, playing in 61 games for the Barracuda and putting up 17 goals and 20 assists. In his two separate call-ups, he has played in two games for the Sharks, scoring two points, one of which was his first goal in his first game against the Arizona Coyotes. Unfortunately, both the Sharks and the Barracuda are well outside playoff contention, meaning Gushchin will have to wait at least another season to play important games in late April.
Sharks Recall Kyle Criscuolo And Danil Gushchin
The Sharks have tweaked their roster in recent days and they continued that trend today, announcing the recalls of forwards Kyle Criscuolo and Danil Gushchin from AHL San Jose. With only 11 healthy forwards on the active roster, at least one of these promotions should be on an emergency basis. CapFriendly notes (Twitter link) that these recalls put them over the salary cap so an LTIR placement was needed, likely Luke Kunin who is out for the year with a knee injury.
Criscuolo is in his first season with San Jose after the Sharks acquired him from Detroit back in January. The change of scenery helped as the 30-year-old has been more productive since the swap, putting up ten goals and five assists in 26 games with the Barracuda after being limited to five goals and five helpers in 28 games with Grand Rapids. Criscuolo, a pending unrestricted free agent, does have 15 career NHL games under his belt, six of which came last season with Detroit where he picked up his first two points, both assists.
As for Gushchin, the 21-year-old is in his first full season in the pros after spending last season with OHL Niagara where he had 71 points in 51 contests. The points haven’t been as easy to come by with the Barracuda but Gushchin does sit tied for fourth on the team in scoring with 16 goals and 20 helpers in 66 appearances, a decent rookie campaign. He still has two years left after this one on his entry-level deal.
Danil Gushchin Assigned To AHL
With the OHL regular season coming to an end today, several players signed to entry-level contracts will soon be joining their AHL affiliates to get a taste of professional hockey. Because the Niagara IceDogs failed to qualify for the postseason, that exodus has begun with Danil Gushchin, assigned today to the San Jose Barracuda.
Gushchin, 20, was selected in the third round of the 2020 draft by the San Jose Sharks, picked out of the USHL where he was playing with the Muskegon Lumberjacks. The Russian-born forward moved to the OHL this season to play for Niagara, where he exploded onto the scene with 41 goals in just 51 games. That tied him for tenth in the entire league, despite the IceDogs having a brutal season overall. In fact, the next closest player to Gushchin in terms of goal scoring in Niagara was Liam Van Loon, who had just 19 tallies.
A Hlinka-Gretzky gold medal winner, a USHL All-Star, and now a standout in the OHL, Gushchin has never really shown any signs of slowing his development. He’ll now face the biggest test of his hockey career, transitioning to professional hockey. Unfortunately, the Barracuda only have a handful of games left themselves, as they will miss the playoffs after a tough season. He’ll have to wait until 2022-23 to really get a full slate of game action.