Ivar Stenberg may have been the name drawing the loudest attention on the San Jose Sharks’ Rookie Faceoff roster, but Sunday also gave the organization a clear look at something else: depth.
San Jose edged the Utah Mammoth 3-1, with Jake Gustafson doing the heavy lifting offensively by scoring twice. Quentin Musty finished it off with an empty-net goal.
Stenberg remains the big-ticket offensive prospect in the group, the 2026 No. 2 pick whose ceiling sits alongside other top Sharks talents like Musty, Michael Misa and Igor Chernyshov. But the weekend also put a spotlight on the kind of players who keep an organization moving: the bottom-six types who understand their lane and make a case for a future role.
That’s where Gustafson, Andre Gasseau and Carson Wetsch came in.
Gustafson, a 6-foot-4 center and the son of SAP Center vice president Jon Gustafson, is trying to build his own identity as a dependable NHL checking center. He grew up wearing Jumbo, Patty, Pav & Burns jerseys, and now he’s trying to turn those childhood dreams into something more concrete.
When asked who the Sharks have asked him to study, Gustafson pointed to Cody Glass on New Jersey.
“Cody Glass on New Jersey,” Gustafson shared, when asked who the San Jose Sharks have asked him to watch. “He’s a tall, lanky centerman, plays really well in the defensive zone.
Scores a lot of goals. So try to model my game after him.”
Glass, the 2017 No. 6 pick, has carved out a surprising path as a checking center with scoring pop, putting up 19 goals in bottom-six minutes last year.
San Jose Barracuda head coach John McCarthy had strong things to say about Gustafson, Gasseau and Wetsch over the weekend, and the Sharks’ staff clearly wanted a longer look at that group. McCarthy also said Misa and Bystedt aren’t banged up, and that San Jose simply wanted to evaluate other prospects.
Gasseau, listed at 6-foot-4, doesn’t have the same lanky frame as Gustafson or Glass, but he’s shown enough to look like a real candidate for an NHL bottom-six role.
Wetsch, a 6-foot-2 winger and the Sharks’ 2024 third-round pick, brought a different kind of edge. He was ejected from Sunday’s game after getting into two fights in one period, but McCarthy had no issue with him standing up for teammates in an exhibition setting. Wetsch picked up a big reaction from the crowd as he headed to the room with a game misconduct after his second fight of the night, this time with Biber.
His weekend production backed up the energy, too. Gasseau and Wetsch each scored two goals in Saturday’s 8-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings, and both are set to make their Barracuda debut this season.
There was also a goalie angle in the mix. Matt Davis, who is signed to the Barracuda organization, started the Sharks’ Rookie Faceoff win before Connor Hasley took over halfway through. Davis, 25, put together a strong year with the ECHL’s Wichita Thunder last season, going 8-10-5 with a .928 save percentage.
His road to San Jose is a crowded one. Yaroslav Askarov, Alex Nedeljkovic, Eric Comrie, Ilya Samsonov and Kyle Keyser are all signed with the big club, and if Comrie, Samsonov or Keyser clear waivers during training camp, they’re projected to land on the AHL roster. The crease below that could get busy as well, with the Barracuda having also signed former Arizona State goalie Connor Hasley this summer. 2024 seventh-rounder Yaroslav Korostelyov, who left the KHL this summer, is another variable.
After the game, Davis talked about the competition in net and the details of goalie skating.
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