{"id":127010,"date":"2022-03-21T13:01:03","date_gmt":"2022-03-21T17:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=127010"},"modified":"2022-03-21T13:05:35","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T17:05:35","slug":"minnesota-wild-trade-goaltender-kaapo-kahkonen-to-the-san-jose-sharks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2022\/03\/21\/minnesota-wild-trade-goaltender-kaapo-kahkonen-to-the-san-jose-sharks\/","title":{"rendered":"Minnesota Wild Trade Goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen to the San Jose Sharks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Minnesota Wild have traded goaltender <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/kahkoka01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kaapo Kahkonen<\/a> and a fifth-round pick to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for left-shot defenseman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/middlja01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jacob Middleton<\/a>. The deal comes in the direct aftermath of Wild general manager, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/g\/gueribi01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bill Guerin<\/a>, obtaining <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/f\/fleurma01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marc-Andre Fleury<\/a> via trade from the Chicago Blackhawks.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Sharks also get a 5th RD pick from Minnesota in this deal <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/LGFxwnkLdM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/LGFxwnkLdM<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PierreVLeBrun\/status\/1505933837183954945?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 21, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen Traded by the Minnesota Wild<\/h2>\n<p>Kaapo Kahkonen departs Minneapolis with a respectable .907 save percentage in 54 games with two shutouts and a 2.89 goals-against average. In 2021-22, the Finnish netminder has placed around the middle of the pack in terms of preventing expected goals. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/moneypuck.com\/goalies.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Money Puck<\/a>, Kahkonen ranks 31st out of 68 goaltenders with 0.1 goals saved above expected.<\/p>\n<p>Drafted in the fourth round in 2014, the 25-year old goalie will join only his second NHL club. He will likely slot in behind <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/r\/reimeja01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">James Reimer<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/h\/hillad01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Adin Hill<\/a> on the depth chart. Meanwhile, San Jose also recaptures the 2022 fifth-round pick they gave away when they traded for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/d\/dubnyde01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Devan Dubnyk<\/a> at the 2020 deadline.<\/p>\n<p>On the other side of the trade, Minnesota receives hard-nosed defenceman Jacob Middleton. In 45 games this season he has ranked second in team penalty minutes, third in blocks and sixth in hits.<\/p>\n<h3>What This Means Going Forward<\/h3>\n<p>Due to the cap penalties that are about to be enforced on the Wild, following their offseason buyouts of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/p\/parisza01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zach Parise<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/suterry01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ryan Suter<\/a>, this is a &#8216;shoot and don&#8217;t miss&#8217;-type year. Going after a three-time Stanley Cup winner in net seems like a good way of reinforcing the team&#8217;s intent. Though with Fleury&#8217;s addition, there is no room for Kahkonen, who has struggled of late.<\/p>\n<p>On the flip side, San Jose can consider this a massive boon. For a club that has struggled with average goaltending for years, they have picked up a rookie who has, for the most part, started his NHL career very positively. It also begs the question as to whether the Sharks are about to ship out 34-year-old starter James Reimer.<\/p>\n<p>With Adin Hill and Kaapo Kahkonen now on the books, the Sharks can drum up a healthy competition for the starter&#8217;s role among two young goaltenders. Both will hopefully be a solid part of the team&#8217;s restructure.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"Eh07HPPdQGRUoHO7AZd80Q\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1238486544\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'Eh07HPPdQGRUoHO7AZd80Q',sig:'pqWDxaQ_mCCzL53SuQIF3jItOuQh79uYyr_9qdPNPKQ=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1238486544',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Minnesota Wild have traded goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen and a fifth-round pick to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for left-shot defenseman Jacob Middleton. The deal comes in the direct aftermath of Wild general manager, Bill Guerin, obtaining Marc-Andre Fleury via trade from the Chicago Blackhawks. Sharks also get a 5th RD pick from Minnesota [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1733,"featured_media":127019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4547,30,34,4548,25],"tags":[3901,3869,322,4288],"class_list":["post-127010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hockey","category-wild","category-news","category-nhl","category-sharks","tag-adin-hill","tag-jacob-middleton","tag-james-reimer","tag-kaapo-kahkonen"],"modified_by":"Luke Flannigan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1733"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}