The Blue Jackets have pulled off another trade and this time, it’s not with Ottawa. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman relays a Nick Kypreos report (via Twitter) that Columbus has acquired goalie Keith Kinkaid from New Jersey. Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports adds (Twitter link) that New Jersey acquires a fifth-round pick in return while Craig Custance of The Athletic clarifies (via Twitter) that the pick is a 2022 selection.
Last season, Kinkaid was instrumental to New Jersey’s postseason push. However, his numbers this year are the worst of his career and with Cory Schneider now healthy and MacKenzie Blackwood waiting in the wings, the pending UFA was actively being shopped. In 41 games this season, he has a 3.36 GAA with a .891 SV%, numbers that are considerably worse than current Columbus netminders Sergei Bobrovsky and Joonas Korpisalo. Despite that, GM Jarmo Kekalainen provided the rationale for the move in their team release on the trade:
While we believe goaltending is a position of strength for our club with Sergei Bobrovsky and Joonas Korpisalo, we thought it was important to add depth to the position. Keith Kinkaid is an experienced National Hockey League goaltender who will provide that depth as we move through the final month of the regular season and into the spring.
The 29-year-old is in the final season of a two-year, $2.5MM contract and is slated to become an unrestricted free agent this summer. If he remains as the number three down the stretch for Columbus, that likely won’t be boosting his prospects in free agency.
This means one of 2 things. Bobrovsky is getting traded or they wanted to upgrade the backup goalie spot
Kinkaid has given up 4-4-8-2-5 goals in his last 5 games. That’s good for a GAA of 4.2 OUCH
This is a depth move for next year in case they lose Bob,Goalie Stats on a bad team are overrated
Kinkaid is a UFA
A draft pick in 2022?!? Jeez, we will all have died in the nuclear holocaust by then, and the NHL draft will be run by cockroaches. (Srsly, I can’t remember the last draft pick traded that was FOUR years out! For a pretty bad backup netminder no less.)
If they traded more draft picks this year you’re getting into 8 year old playing NHL franchise mode territory