San Jose Sharks Recall Aaron Dell
Nov. 26: Dell is now back up with the Sharks, giving San Jose three goalies on their active roster for the time being.
Nov 25: After Reimer missed a game this week, he’s ready to go again and will start for the Sharks today. Dell has been returned to the AHL.
Nov 22: In a curious move, the San Jose Sharks have recalled Aaron Dell from the minor leagues, giving them a third goaltender on the roster. James Reimer was present at yesterday’s skate and Kaapo Kahkonen was outstanding in the team’s win over the Ottawa Senators.
Dell’s recall would suggest there might be an injury, though it is unclear which goaltender would be unavailable at this point. The Sharks are scheduled to travel to Seattle to take on the Kraken in a match tomorrow night, before returning to San Jose for a mini two-game homestand over the weekend.
In seven games for the San Jose Barracuda, Dell has posted a .904 save percentage. The 33-year-old netminder is back with the organization that gave him a chance at the NHL level, icing him 107 times over four seasons. Dell has struggled since leaving San Jose, and appears to be nothing more than a third or fourth-string option at this point.
Kahkonen stopped 37 of 38 saves against the Senators, bringing his save percentage up to .894 on the season. Reimer, the team’s starter, has a .906 in 14 appearances so far.
Examining Trade Options For San Jose’s Goalie Surplus
Generally speaking, extra depth is rarely a bad thing to have. That extra impact forward, carrying more than four top-four defensemen, these are often elements of successful teams. But that same argument doesn’t apply to goaltending as almost all of the time, carrying three is seen as less than ideal and teams will often move their extra option before too long.
San Jose is presently an exception to that idea as they’re carrying three NHL goaltenders in Kaapo Kahkonen, Adin Hill, and James Reimer. All three are on short-term deals (Reimer and Hill have one year left and Kahkonen two) and all three make between $2.1MM and $2.75MM. At least from a contract standpoint, they’re more or less interchangeable.
But Kahkonen was brought in from Minnesota at the trade deadline and then given the two-year deal so it stands to reason that they don’t want to move him. That leaves the 26-year-old Hill and the 34-year-old Reimer as their two trade options with the latter only making $75K more than the former. The Sharks might prefer to keep the younger Hill but his trade value might be better depending on who shows interest.
With that in mind, let’s examine some of the teams that might be interested in adding one of San Jose’s netminders even with most of the goalie movement being done for the summer.
Arizona
The Coyotes know they don’t have their backup goalie on the roster yet. Karel Vejmelka is unproven as a starter so adding a second netminder that could play close to half the games wouldn’t hurt. Yes, they’re a team with an eye on the future but they can still try to lose competitively. Would they trade for Hill after moving him to San Jose just over a year ago or would they prefer Reimer? If not one of them, they’ll be watching the waiver wire in October.
Minnesota
There isn’t a true opening with Marc-Andre Fleury as the starter and Filip Gustavsson as the backup but Gustavsson is coming off a tough 2021-22 campaign with Ottawa. Playing Fleury heavy minutes would carry some risk so while Gustavsson is the backup of the future, GM Bill Guerin might want to assess if they’d be better off with a more reliable second option even if it forces them to turn around and carry three goalies with Gustavsson now being waiver-eligible.
Philadelphia
Back in May, it looked like the Flyers had their goalie situation figured out as they were able to sign highly-touted prospect Ivan Fedotov to partner up with Carter Hart. However, the netminder is now serving in the Russian military which will take him out of the equation. Felix Sandstrom is likely next in line but has just five career NHL appearances under his belt. Philadelphia is looking for more short-term success so adding a more proven backup is something GM Chuck Fletcher will likely be looking into.
Vegas
Following the season-ending hip surgery for Robin Lehner, GM Kelly McCrimmon came out and said his intention is to go with Logan Thompson and Laurent Brossoit as their tandem. Thompson has shown promise but his NHL experience is limited while Brossoit has been hit and miss in his career. If things don’t go well early on, they could look to turn to San Jose for a chance at an upgrade.
Washington
This might seem a little odd considering that they just signed Charlie Lindgren to a three-year deal to be Darcy Kuemper’s backup. But Lindgren’s cap hit is right at the line of being fully buriable in the minors if a better option presents itself. Their LTIR situation with Nicklas Backstrom gives them some extra flexibility to add a short-term deal so if they trust Reimer or Hill over a goalie that has just 29 games of NHL experience and finished up the AHL playoffs as the backup, GM Brian MacLellan will likely check in on what that upgrade would cost.
Winnipeg
They added David Rittich as a low-cost backup early in free agency, handing him a one-year, $900K contract. That can be fully buried in the minors if a better option presents itself. The Jets still have considerable cap space at their disposal and are a team with an eye on winning in the present so if they aren’t able to add at other positions, turning around and upgrading Connor Hellebuyck’s backup would be a reasonable backup plan.
Obviously, not all of these teams are going to make a move between the pipes in the coming weeks so the options for GM Mike Grier are going to be limited. If he wants to get top value – the asking price for Reimer is believed to be a second-round pick – he might have to wait until the season starts to see if injuries force someone’s hand. Otherwise, it will be a limited market for whichever one he decides to move. Surplus quality depth at most positions is usually a good thing and could yield a strong return in a trade but for goaltenders, it’s just not the case.
Sharks Seeking Second-Round Pick For James Reimer
The annual goalie carousel at the beginning of free agency has come and gone but there still could be some trade activity involving netminders. San Jose still has three NHL goalies and while they’ve said they’d be comfortable keeping all three to start the season, that’s usually not an ideal scenario.
That hasn’t stopped GM Mike Grier from placing a high asking price for James Reimer, however, as Sheng Peng reports in his latest column for NBC Sports Bay Area that the Sharks are asking for a second-round pick to move the veteran. If Reimer was the one to go, that would then have San Jose enter next season with a tandem of Kaapo Kahkonen and Adin Hill who has been cleared for training camp after missing most of the last three months of 2021-22.
In a vacuum, a second-round pick for a capable backup like Reimer isn’t crazy. The 34-year-old is coming off a year that saw him post a .911 SV% in 48 games, a mark that was above the NHL average despite the fact he was on a team that came up well short of making the playoffs. He’d represent an upgrade for several teams and with a $2.25MM AAV, he’s one of the cheaper veteran backups compared to deals that have been handed out over the past year or so.
But with most goalie situations settled, Grier will be hard-pressed to get that type of value for Reimer. Sure, Vegas could use a goalie with Robin Lehner out but if they do look to make a move, it stands to reason that they’d look for more of a proven starter and Reimer isn’t that type of player. The Flyers could need a backup with Ivan Fedotov’s uncertain short-term future but fitting him in on the cap would be tricky. Arizona needs a second-stringer but with them not really focused on winning, their preference might be to look on waivers for a cheaper option over trading a good draft pick for a player they’d ultimately look to flip a few months later at the trade deadline.
With that in mind, it’s difficult to see Grier being able to find a taker for Reimer at that asking price. The safer play for the new GM might be to see how things go in training camp and see if an injury or two shakes up the landscape a little bit. Again, it’s rarely ideal for a team to enter a season with three capable netminders but in this case, it might be the right call for the Sharks if they can’t get their desired trade return for Reimer.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
San Jose Sharks Sign Luke Kunin, Kaapo Kahkonen
The San Jose Sharks have signed Luke Kunin to a two-year contract, according to PuckPedia. The deal will carry an average annual value of $2.75MM. Kunin was eligible for salary arbitration this summer but chose not to file. Sharks general manager Mike Grier also announced Monday afternoon that the team has signed goalie Kaapo Kahkonen to a two-year contract. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports the deal carries a cap hit of $2.75MM.
Kunin, 24, was acquired from the Nashville Predators this offseason in exchange for John Leonard (who also signed today) and a third-round pick. The young forward has changed his game in recent years to lean into his physicality, and after racking up a whopping 223 in 2021-22, he offers something new to the San Jose bottom six.
There’s also a bit of offensive skill in the 2016 first-round pick, who has double-digit goals in each of his last three seasons, all of them coming at even-strength or while short-handed. That kind of scoring upside will come in handy as the Sharks start to tear apart the old core and rebuild it under new general manager Mike Grier.
Notably, it will leave Kunin as a restricted free agent at its expiry, giving the Sharks a chance to re-assess whether he can be a long-term solution. He will once again be up for arbitration at that point.
Kahkonen excelled after San Jose acquired him at the Trade Deadline from the Minnesota Wild. The 2020 AHL Goalie of the Year had just a 2-6-1 record, but that was no fault of his own, posting a more-than-respectable .916 save percentage in 11 games played (10 starts). Kahkonen has a career .908 save percentage through 65 NHL games, 54 of which came with the Wild. He’ll join a crowded crease in San Jose next year that also includes James Reimer and Adin Hill.
The 25-year-old Finn will be an unrestricted free agent in 2024 when his new contract expires.
Snapshots: Krejci, Reimer, Islanders
Recent rumors of a potential return of David Krejci to the Boston Bruins were shut down by Bruins’ GM Don Sweeney today, reports Joe Haggerty of Boston Hockey Now (link). Sweeney said that Krejci has decided to stay home with his family in the Czech Republic.
The Bruins have been looking to possibly add to their forward depth as the trade deadline approaches, and the former Bruins star center had been rumored to return almost since he announced he was returning to Europe after last season. Krejci had been a cornerstone for the Bruins for much of his career, totaling 215 goals and 515 assists in 962 career games.
- The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun reported that interest in San Jose Sharks goaltender James Reimer had been picking up, however he’s not sure if the Sharks will end up wanting to move the goaltender. Reimer has another season at $2.25MM left on his contract and has performed well for the rebuilding Sharks. After a promising start tot he season, the Sharks have fallen off, however they could be in line to turn the corner on their rebuild faster than expected, and keeping Reimer around could help to facilitate that. On the other hand, several teams are in need of goaltending, and Reimer’s extra year at an incredibly fair $2.25MM cap hit could land San Jose a return that is too good not to take.
- The New York Islanders announced prior to their game against the Philadelphia Flyers this afternoon that forward Cal Clutterbuck and defenseman Andy Greene were day-to-day and are being held out of today’s game for maintenance purposes. While that certainly may be the reason, it is important to note that both players are pending UFAs who are candidates to be traded by the trade deadline tomorrow. Also worth mentioning is that the Islanders are a very tight-lipped organization and could be holding their cards close.
Snapshots: Sharks Goalies, Coyotes, Langhamer, Lindberg
The Sharks are set to get some much-needed good news on the injury front when it comes to their goaltending as Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News relays that Adin Hill is likely to start tomorrow against Los Angeles. He has missed the last seven weeks with a lower-body injury and had posted a 2.78 GAA along with a .901 SV% in 24 games.
Meanwhile, James Reimer has resumed on-ice workouts and could be cleared to return at some point next week from his own lower-body injury sustained at the beginning of the month. Since then, the Sharks have gone with veteran Alex Stalock and prospect Zachary Sawchenko who picked up his first career NHL victory on Thursday.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- Coyotes GM Bill Armstrong told NHL.com’s Nick Cotsonika that he anticipates the team making one or two small deals by the trade deadline. Arizona has made it known that they’re willing to utilize their cap space to yield other assets as they’ve done several times already over the past year but they’re trying to space out their draft picks. To that end, Armstrong indicated that they’ve nearly accumulated enough picks for 2024 and will soon be starting to work on adding more selections for the 2025 draft.
- Still with Arizona, Coyotes goaltender Marek Langhamer has signed a one-year extension with Ilves, the Finnish team announced. The Coyotes still hold the rights to the 27-year-old when they tendered him a qualifying offer that went unaccepted in 2018. Those rights will expire in July and with this deal, it’s clear that Arizona will be losing him in a few months.
- Penguins prospect goaltender Filip Lindberg is out for the rest of the season, notes Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The 23-year-old was drafted by Minnesota but signed with Pittsburgh after three stellar seasons at UMass (Amherst). However, he suffered an ankle injury in November in just his seventh professional game and it appears it’s significant enough that he won’t return for the stretch run.
Snapshots: Archibald, Reimer, Mantha
Josh Archibald has not played a single game at any level this season but is in Edmonton skating after dealing with myocarditis. Mark Spector of Sportsnet sent out a string of tweets today updating the depth forward’s status, including confirming that Archibald is still unvaccinated.
Because of how difficult that makes it for him to play with the Oilers or go on a conditioning loan to the Bakersfield Condors due to cross-border travel, Spector expects Archibald to be traded to a U.S.-based team at some point and suggests his time as an Oiler is effectively over. The 29-year-old forward is a pending unrestricted free agent in the second season of a two-year contract that carries a $1.5MM cap hit. He scored seven goals and 13 points in 52 games last season.
- James Reimer is considered out week-to-week according to head coach Bob Boughner, who spoke with Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News. Reimer’s injury further explains why the San Jose Sharks traded for–and subsequently recalled from the AHL–Alex Stalock. Adin Hill is still out with an injury, though Boughner explained that the goaltender “felt good” this morning. Losing Reimer is a pretty hefty blow to the Sharks’ fortunes, as the veteran netminder was having a nice bounce-back season and has a .916 save percentage in 34 appearances.
- Peter Laviolette wouldn’t confirm whether the Washington Capitals would have Anthony Mantha back in the lineup tonight, but he has been activated from injured reserve. Should he play, it would be his first game since leaving a match against the Florida Panthers on November 4 and just his 11th of the season. The 6’5″ forward had six points in his first ten games before going down and could be a trade deadline-like addition for the scuffling Capitals.
Snapshots: Rust, Byron, Sharks
Pittsburgh Penguins forward Bryan Rust practiced with the team today after missing their last four games while in COVID protocol, per team reporter Michelle Crechiolo. The Penguins face off against Vegas tomorrow night, but head coach Mike Sullivan said today that he’s unsure whether or not he’ll insert Rust into the lineup. Rust’s yet again been lethal when in the lineup, although he’s been limited to just 15 games this season. He has nine goals and 11 points, on pace for his second career season above a point-per-game pace.
More from around the league:
- Montreal Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme issued a further update today on injured winger Paul Byron, stating that he’s probable to join the team at some point during the upcoming week. Byron’s been absent the entire 2021-22 season after having offseason hip injury, and he was expected to miss about five months. He’s now missed about five-and-a-half, so it’s a good sign that he won’t be out much longer. The 32-year-old winger has 26 points in 75 games over the past two seasons and will provide valuable leadership presence to a struggling Canadiens team.
- The San Jose Sharks could be getting a pair of players back into the fold. Head coach Bob Boughner said today that goalie James Reimer — who’d been out with a lower-body injury for over a week — and forward Alexander Barabanov, who was on COVID protocol, could be back in the team’s lineup for their Monday night game against Los Angeles. Both Reimer and Barabanov have been valuable parts of an impressive Sharks team this season. Reimer’s posted strong numbers in a tandem with Adin Hill, and Barabanov has 20 points through 32 games.
San Jose Sharks Sign James Reimer
The San Jose Sharks have brought back a familiar face to their goalie situation. TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reports that they’ve inked former netminder James Reimer to serve with new acquisition Adin Hill. It’s a three-year deal paying him $2.25MM per season.
Just like that, it’s a new day in net for the Sharks. Gone are the days of struggling starter Martin Jones and a series of backups unable to push him. The goal now belongs to young Hill and reliable veteran backup Reimer. Reimer will push for starts against the former Coyote, who himself has only even been a backup. The competition, which has been missing in San Jose of later, could spur both keepers to play at the top of their games.
For those who have forgotten, Reimer was nothing short of amazing in his first stint with the Sharks, recording a .938 save percentage and 1.62 GAA in 2015-16 after coming over from the Toronto Maple Leafs at the trade deadline. Considerable time has passed since then, but Reimer has been a very solid backup for the Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes in the years since, playing far more than a typical backup as well, and should continue to provide reliable play in San Jose.
Carolina Hurricanes Negotiating With Petr Mrazek, Jonathan Bernier
The Carolina Hurricanes traded away Alex Nedeljkovic yesterday, meaning they had no NHL goaltenders left under contract for the upcoming season. They do however have the exclusive negotiating rights to three veteran netminders and it looks like two of them could be in Carolina next season. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reports that the Hurricanes are in talks with Jonathan Bernier and Petr Mrazek, hoping to sign both.
Bernier, 32, was part of the return from Detroit yesterday and could very well represent an upgrade over the inexperienced Nedeljkovic. A veteran of nearly 400 regular season games, he posted a .914 save percentage in 24 appearances with Detroit last season, keeping his goals against average below 3.00 even behind one of the worst teams in the league. While those numbers certainly don’t hold up to the performance that Nedeljkovic put up in his short stint as the Carolina starter, Bernier has been rather consistent throughout his long career, never posting a save percentage under .904 in a full season.
Mrazek, on the other hand, has been a little less consistent over his 277-game career, though was excellent when healthy this year. In 12 appearances with the Hurricanes during the regular season, he posted an outstanding .923 save percentage and three shutouts.
The team did decide to go with Nedeljkovic over Mrazek in the playoffs though, which means bringing him back will not help the questions Carolina fans have been screaming since the trade was announced. At the very least, this will be a tandem with plenty of NHL experience, even if it does seem a bit underwhelming.
James Reimer, meanwhile, the other free agent goaltender in Carolina, is expected to go to market according to LeBrun. The 33-year-old had a .906 in 22 games with the Hurricanes this year, and has been a consistent performer–albeit usually in a tandem role–throughout his career.