The New Jersey Devils announced today that the team has acquired goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen from the San Jose Sharks in exchange for netminder Vitek Vanecek and New Jersey’s seventh-round draft pick in the 2025 NHL Draft. The announcement was made by President/General Manager Tom Fitzgerald.
Kahkonen, 27, joins New Jersey after spending parts of the last three seasons with San Jose from 2021-22 to 2023-24. The 6’2”, 215lbs. goaltender was traded to San Jose from the Minnesota Wild on March 21, 2022. Kahkonen began his NHL career with Minnesota and logged his NHL debut on Nov. 26, 2019, in a 3-2 win at New Jersey. He spent parts of three seasons with the Wild (2019-20 to 2021-22), and owns a career 48-63-15 overall record with a 3.36 goals-against average (GAA).
The native of Helsinki, Finland earned a career-high 16 wins and two shutouts with Minnesota in 2020-21, which set a franchise record for the most wins that a rookie goaltender earned in a single season. Additionally, he recorded a nine-game winning streak from February 18 to March 16, 2021 which marked the fifth-longest stretch that a rookie goaltender earned in NHL history.
Before his NHL experience, Kahkonen spent parts of two seasons with Minnesota’s American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate in Iowa from 2018-19 to 2019-20. He posted a 25-6-5 record with Iowa in 2019-20, while his 25 wins and seven shutouts ranked first for all AHL netminders. Additionally, his .927 save percentage and 2.07 GAA ranked in the top five for AHL goaltenders in 2019-20. He then earned the Aldege “Baz” Bastien Memorial Award as the AHL’s outstanding goaltender for the 2019-20 season.
Born on Aug. 16, 1996, Minnesota selected Kahkonen in the fourth round, 109th overall, in the 2014 NHL Draft. The Finnish goaltender also represented his home country at the International Ice Hockey Federation’s (IIHF) U18 2012-13 and 2013-14 World Junior Championship (WJC) and helped Finland win a Bronze Medal at the 2012-13 tournament. He then earned a Gold Medal with Finland at the 2015-16 WJC, after posting a 4-0-0 record with a .909 save percentage and 2.52 GAA.
Kahkonen was teammates with current Devils forward Timo Meier in San Jose from 2021-22 to 2022-23.
