The Jets are signing goaltender Kaapo Kähkönen to a one-year, $1MM deal, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports.
Winnipeg could be replacing Laurent Brossoit, last season’s above-average backup, by committee. After he left for the Blackhawks in free agency today, the Jets signed a duo of tenders – Kähkönen and Eric Comrie, who projects to be the third-string netminder but could compete for NHL starts.
Kähkönen is the overwhelming favorite to serve as the full-time backup to Vezina winner Connor Hellebuyck, though. The 27-year-old Finn was solid in a tough situation with the Sharks last year, putting up a respectable .895 SV% behind the league’s worst defense with a 3.81 GAA and 6-20-3 record. He continued a strong run of play after a deadline deal to the Devils, where he ended the campaign with a .923 SV% and 2.51 GAA in a brief sample of six starts.
There wasn’t any room for him in New Jersey after they traded for Jacob Markström, so he found a new market to take his services to. Now on his fourth team in the past four seasons, the 2014 fourth-round pick of the Wild likely won’t replicate Brossoit’s .927 SV%, but he’s a solid bet to yield some slightly above-average numbers at $1MM. If he truly flames out and regresses to his 2022-23 form, when he put up a .883 SV% for the Sharks and conceded 25 goals above average, the contract can be completely buried in the minors.
Now a defenceman and a #2 center
Wow. He’s better than that contract. Jets have a gem backup there for the price.
Nice get for Connor’s backup; but it’s what they make of Ehlers & McGroaty that will define the Jets’ off-season
The point of save percentage is how many of the shots you actually face get stopped, which is why it supplanted GAA as a measure of reliability for good goalies on otherwise bad teams. .895 isn’t “respectable.” It bites. Now his much improved play in New Jersey makes a $1 MM prove-it contract a good bargain, granted.