Sheng Peng
What’s taking so long for the San Jose Sharks to trade a goalie?
Since the last Trade Deadline, when the Sharks acquired Kaapo Kahkonen from the Minnesota Wild for Jake Middleton and a fifth-round pick, San Jose has carried three starting-caliber goalies in Kahkonen, James Reimer, and Adin Hill.
It wasn’t a big deal last year – Hill missed the rest of the season with a lower-body injury, so Kahkonen and Reimer shared the workload. But it will be a big deal next year – it’s not normal for teams to carry three netminders capable of regular NHL duty. For starters, that’s one valuable roster spot taken by a third keeper who doesn’t dress for games and still counts against the salary cap.
25-year-old Kahkonen is signed for two more years with a $2.75 million dollar AAV, 34-year-old Reimer has another season with a $2.25 million AAV, and 26-year-old Hill has one more year with a $2.175 million AAV. The Sharks might be able to fit all three goaltenders under the $82.5 million cap, but it’s going to be a tight squeeze.
We can presume Kahkonen is safe.
“Kaapo has shown potential to be a number one goaltender in the NHL, and impressed us when he joined our team in the last part of the season,” GM Mike Grier said in a press release after the Sharks re-signed Kahkonen three weeks ago.
But between Reimer and Hill, I’ve heard a couple important items recently.
On Reimer, from what I understand, there was interest from another team last month in the veteran netminder. But the San Jose Sharks and this team couldn’t find common ground for a deal to be struck. That team has since moved on.
It appears too that the market for a Reimer has shrunk: The musical chairs from the first wave of free agency is over, and most goaltending seats are taken.
I speculated yesterday that the Washington Capitals, Vancouver Canucks, or Philadelphia Flyers, if they could clear the cap space, might want a more reliable back-up. But it was pure speculation.
It’s worth noting too that Reimer has a five-team no-trade list.
On Hill, a source tells San Jose Hockey Now that he’s healthy.
Now the Sharks and Hill have always maintained that he was going to be ready for next season. But any time a player suits up for just one game in the last three months of the year – and the interim GM calls the setback a “nagging, puzzling type of thing” – that’s worth doubling back on.
“To define it, it’s just more of a nagging injury than it is anything really serious to worry about that goes long term or anything like that,” Joe Will said about Hill’s injury during his exit interview. “It’s just a nagging, puzzling type of thing.”
But it appears that Hill is on track for training camp.
Yesterday, I speculated that the Chicago Blackhawks, Arizona Coyotes, or Buffalo Sabres could be interested in a cheap, high-ceiling goalie. Hill could fit that bill – he struggled last year, so he wouldn’t be as expensive as Reimer would be in a trade – and if Hill performs well, his contract would make him easy to flip at the Deadline. Hypothetically, you could get Hill from the Sharks for a low draft pick before camp, then send him out at the Deadline for a higher pick?
But again, this is just my speculation. The Blackhawks, Coyotes, and Sabres don’t appear to be particularly interested in making the playoffs either, so why even bother with gambling on Hill?
There’s a little more than a month between now and training camp: We’ll see how the San Jose Sharks handle their three-headed monster between the pipes.