Confirmed with Link: (NJD/SJS) Vanacek + a 7th for Kahkonen

[My3Sons]

7th round pick and a guy signed for next year who couldn't be here next year for a guy that's a UFA? I thought Kahkonen would return more than that for a team like Colorado that needed a backup to rest Georgiev down the stretch, if they didn't pick up MAF, who they didn't pick up either.

One other thing I posted on the Sharks board. Vitek played his best here last year at times where Blackwood was a threat to steal his job/steal starts from him. If you notice, his play fell off a bit in December while Blackwood was still hurt. Then Blackwood came back and had that game in Florida, after Vitek was pulled in Carolina the night before.

Vitek played some of his best goalie of his career from about Christmas through all star break when Blackwood was healthy and able to play. Then his play dipped again at some point in February/March and Blackwood was yet again injured around that time. He finished the regular season strong in the last couple of weeks and then Blackwood was relegated to third string goalie after game 82.

With no more threat of Blackwood taking games from him, he stunk up the joint in the playoffs.

Now with Blackwood breathing down his neck again, he may be able to turn it around somewhat.

Blackwood outplayed him when he returned from injury he’s really a 920 goalie

 

[aero8279]

Based on Fitzs comments that he just said I don't think he will be here past the season.

Basically said the quiet part out loud that he's just an NHL goalie (warm body for now) and gives them flexibility.

 

[Guadana]

Today's trades pretty much signal how fed up Fitz was with the goalies this year.

He really blew the position up today.

Wonder if that's somehow evidence that Rogalski won't survive this year or if maybe he will if goaltending improves somewhat to end the year?

We prey.

 

[Richer's Ghost]

If only we could have slid a 2nd in there and got Zetterlund back...

 

[PWiz30]

Hey, we finally got a goalie with a positive GSAA

 

[MadDevil]

Damn, I've been out of the loop all day and I see Fitz has been wheelin' and dealin'. Bye Vitek. You're an adorable goober of a dude, but you can't stop pucks to save your life.

 

[Marv4Life]

So the Saros/Markstrom/Ullmark plan is still on. For the summer.

 

[Poppy Whoa Sonnet]

Incredible work, I thought NJ was going to have to pay to dump Vanecek.

 

[nugg]

UFA class is pretty rough. Some backups with good numbers, but I'd be a bit skeptical of Brossoit/Stolarz.

View attachment 832693

That list is brutal

 

[Guadana]

So the Saros/Markstrom/Ullmark plan is still on. For the summer.

Or for the next deadline.

Start new season with Kahkonen, Allen and Daws. Sign top-4 LD. If its not enough - trade for Saros on the deadline, price will be not as high as it was now.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Or for the next deadline.

Start new season with Kahkonen, Allen and Daws. Sign top-4 LD. If its not enough - trade for Saros on the deadline, price will be not as high as it was now.

They absolutely cannot go into the season with those goalies. On paper, thats worse than we started with this year.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Damn, Fitz said Kappo is basically nothing. It was solely just to get out of Vitek's deal.

Might as well called him fodder

 

[Hockey Sports Fan]

hell yeah this rules, Fitz kicked ass today

 

[Guttersniped]

My analysis: This is a trade. Two NHL teams exchanged one player for another player.

These players were goalies.

The Devils had to include a 2025 7th Rd pick because Finnish people are attractive and admired around the world and the player they were receiving is Finnish.

Which goalie is better? One is injured and a healthy goalie will play better than an injured one.

Which goalie is better when both are healthy? Dear Reader, you’ll have to search your own heart for such answers.

 

[Guadana]

They absolutely cannot go into the season with those goalies. On paper, thats worse than we started with this year.

Nope, it isnt now. One Vanecek with 91% and two young goalies arent better than 91% Kahkonen and Allen from worser teams. If Allen and Kahkonen will show they are legit in actual context - more over. If not - than Kahkonen can go away and we will make something on the market.

Lets watch for the beginning before making conclusion. May be with more info we will know more?

 

[Bleedred]

It's addition by subtraction, imo.

If Kahkonen gives us ANY Decent goaltending, it's a bonus.

The main thing is getting rid of Vitek as we KNOW it's just about an auto-loss every time he takes the ice for us.

Happy Trails, Hibachi Man.

It's actually not an auto loss. It was a win more often than not this year, which was really weird and absolutely crazy. I know we won at least two games 6-5 with him this year. Maybe even more.

I can't think of many wins where he played particularly well, but there were a few. I can probably remember all of them, that's how few there were.

For a while his best game of the season was game 1 against Detroit. He allowed 3 goals (last was in garbage time after we scored the empty net goal) where he allowed 3 goals on 30+ shots and kept us in the game for a while. We were badly outplayed the first 2 periods or at least for a while.

Then the 2-1 OT win over Boston in December.

He had a few other good games. One was a loss against Tampa, where he faced 40 shots and many difficult. His last game here was his best of the season. Could have been a 1-0 shutout if we scored or even a 0-0 shutout if we held on another 2 minutes.

He literally had 3 games this year where allowed just 1 goal. That 2-1 OT win over Boston in December, a 4-1 win over Columbus in January and the 1-0 OTL in his final game as a Devil.

And then one game where he allowed 0 goals on 11 shots in relief against Carolina in January.

Schmid has one game where he allowed just 1 goal (2-1 win over Seattle in December) one other game where he allowed 1 goal on 21 shots in 47.5 minutes of relief and three different 0 goal relief games (2 of them came last week) in barely more than half the starts this year.

Daws also has as many 1 goal against starts in 10 fewer starts than Vitek this year.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

one of Markstrom, Saros, or Ullmark will be starting game 1 for NJ next year.

I would be shocked if otherwise.

Kahkonen won't be signed. Fitz basically said as much in his presser.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Fitz also said he believes Vitek is done for the year

 

[Louskoolaid89]

Crazy f***ing day! Fans comments on the Fitz YouTube presser. Lol.

Vitek, 3rd, 7th for Allen at 50% and Kahkonen, it's really not bad.

Cutting some dead weight and letting the AHL goalies play in the AHL. It's that simple.

 

[Bleedred]

Grier is gonna feel he won this trade because he gets a goalie for all of next year, who has been a 1a in the league or even starter for last year. While I don't think they had any plans to sign Kahkonen.

And we win because we got rid of a goalie who will never be good here ever again. We got the best we'll ever get out of him here last season.

 

[Guadana]

Summer should be fun. If Kahkonen is good - everything can happen. If not - Saros and Ullmark will be cheaper. Markstrom will be cheaper. Fitz is doing his job. Everybody talk about - it is too late, but you need a partner to dance. We cant trade Mercer, two firsts and some other stuff for Saros. Even first, Holtz and stuff is too much for unretained Markstrom.

 

[Poppy Whoa Sonnet]

I think SJ would have been better off getting paid to take a bad contract (e.g. Vanecek!) to put in net, sort of like how Chicago got paid to take Mrazek but I'm not complaining.

 

[Louskoolaid89]

So we'll have 2M commited for Allen Next year. Means we are in good shape for a Sign and trade deal for a Saros or Ullmark. With that in mind don't freak out on Fitz just yet. Eat those tomatoes and enjoy them with your favorite recipes and refrain from throwing them at our GM.

 

[R8Devs]

I like this trade just to get out of VV's contract without sending any real assets or using a buyout. I rather the Devils have signed Kahkonen for next season as the backup rather than Allen for a similar cap hit but who knows maybe Kahkonen will get a multi year deal and Marty prolly really wanted Allen.

Unless Allen goes off -- Kahkonen this season and having the 3rd goalie being Schmid/Daws with a real #1 goalie next season should help prevent that 3rd from becoming a 2nd and if he does go off then that 2nd would be worth I guess.

 

[longislanddevil]

Dumping Vanacek and shedding 1.5m (the delta between Vanacek and Allen contracts) in the process is the big win of the day for me. If the Allen deal doesn’t become a 2nd (and I don’t think it will), then we did OK on the goalie carousel.