After historic season, San Jose Barracuda forward named AHL’s MVP

After enjoying the most productive season in San Jose Barracuda history, forward Andrew Poturalski was named the winner of the Les Cunningham Award on Friday as the AHL’s most valuable player for the 2024-25 season.

Despite missing the final three weeks of the regular season with a lower-body injury, Poturalski, 31, led the AHL with 73 points in 59 games, helping the Barracuda to their first Calder Cup playoff appearance since 2019.

“You don’t really play the game for the individual awards,” Poturalski said Friday. “But I think it’s a testament to our team and the good players that I get to play with every night that helped me to be in this position and have given me the opportunity to succeed.”

San Jose had a record of 31-19-5-4 with Poturalski in the lineup and was 5-8-0-0 without him. The Barracuda also went 24-10-4-3 in games when Poturalski had at least one point.

This is the first MVP award for Poturalski, who also has three AHL scoring titles and two Calder Cup championships. The award is voted on by coaches, players, and media members from the league’s 32 cities.

“It’s not something you really think too much about, or it’s not really why you train in the summer to do that,” Poturalski said of the award. “You want to win championships, so that’s what motivates me. But it’s definitely a huge honor, and I’m very thankful to be in a position to win it.”

Signed to a two-year, two-way contract by the Sharks last July, Poturalski set new Barracuda franchise records for points and goals (30) this season. Recalled by the Sharks in February, Poturalski had one assist in three NHL games.

Poturalski’s last game with the Barracuda was on March 28, when he sustained a lower body injury in a game against the Abbotsford Canucks. Poturalski has missed the last 10 games, including the Barracuda’s 2-0 win over the Ontario Reign in Game 1 of their best-of-three opening-round series at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Thursday.

Poturalski is considered week-to-week with the injury. The Barracuda can advance to the Pacific Division semifinals with one more win over the Reign on Saturday in Los Angeles or Monday in Ontario.

Poturalski watched Thursday’s game in Buffalo, where he and his wife welcomed their third child, a son.

“It’s awesome to see the boys get the job done,” Poturalski said. “It sucks right now being hurt and it’s out of my hands, but for them to have my back and get a win like that, it’s huge. So hopefully they can keep going.”

Poturalski has 493 points in 527 career AHL regular-season games and 73 points in 81 career playoff games. He won the Calder Cup with the Charlotte Checkers in 2019 and the Chicago Wolves, under then-coach Ryan Warsofsky, in 2022. He also helped Coachella Valley reach the Calder Cup finals in 2023 and 2024.