The San Jose Sharks attempted to address their goaltending situation on Saturday by acquiring Adin Hill and a 2022 seventh-round draft pick from the Arizona Coyotes.
In return for Hill the Coyotes will receive goalie Josef Kořenář and a 2022 second-round draft pick from the Sharks.
Along with that move, the Coyotes also acquired veteran forward Andrew Ladd and several draft picks from the New York Islanders. The Coyotes are getting a 2022 second-round pick (No. 60 overall), a 2023 second-round pick, and a 2023 third-round pick in exchange for taking on the remainder of Ladd’s contract. It still has two years remaining at a salary cap hit of $5.5 million per season. He has played in just four games since the start of the 2019-20 season.
That move clears additional salary cap space for the Islanders. They are getting no return from the Coyotes except for the salary cap relief.
Those trades came just before the 3 p.m. ET roster freeze that begins ahead of Wednesday’s Seattle Kraken expansion draft. It no doubt has expansion draft implications for the Coyotes.
With Antti Raanta an unrestricted free agent and Darcy Kuemper almost certainly being the Coyotes’ protected goalie, Hill would have been left exposed to Seattle and might have been an attractive target for the NHL’s 32nd franchise. Rather than risk losing him for nothing, or making a side deal with Seattle that could backfire, the Coyotes opted to trade Hill and pick up what could be a fairly high second-round pick next year.
Kořenář will now satisfy Arizona’s goalie requirement for the expansion draft.
As for the Sharks, the hope here is that Hill can upgrade a position that has been a major issue for three years now. The Sharks have consistently received some of the worst goaltending in the league during that stretch with Martin Jones, Devan Dubnyk, and Aaron Dell being unable to stabilize the position.
The 25-year-old Hill has appeared in 49 games over parts of four seasons with the Coyotes, recording a 19-21-4 record to go with a .909 save percentage. He has shown a lot of promise over the past two seasons, however, owning a .914 save percentage in his 32 appearances since the start of the 2019-20 season.
He is a restricted free agent this offseason.
The Sharks will almost certainly protect him on their expansion draft list, which would leave Martin Jones available to Seattle.
—
Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.