San Jose Sharks acquire goaltender Adin Hill

Hill will be the Sharks’ protected goaltender in the Seattle Expansion Draft.

With the exception of the Vegas Golden Knights, 30 NHL general managers were scrambling to move players around before the roster freeze deadline at noon Pacific that took place before those same teams submitted their protected list to the NHL and NHLPA. San Jose Sharks general manager Doug Wilson saw this as an opportunity to pursue some help in between the pipes, acquiring goaltender Adin Hill from the Arizona Coyotes along with a seventh-round pick in 2022 in exchange for goaltender Josef Korenar and a second-round pick in 2022, as reported by Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.

Hill, 25, played 19 games for the Coyotes last season, finishing with a 9-9-1 record, as well as a goals against average (GAA) of 2.74 and a save percentage (SV%) of .913. According to MoneyPuck, Hill also had the highest goals saved above average (GSAA) on the Coyotes, with an even 0.0.

“Adin is an extremely competitive and athletic goaltender and he has played a significant amount of professional hockey games despite being only 25 years old,” said general manager Doug Wilson in a release. “We have been impressed with the trajectory of his play, particularly his ability to make saves in high-danger scoring opportunities. We look forward to having him in San Jose and being part of our goaltending unit.”

While Hill immediately becomes the best goaltender on the Sharks, the price to trade for him comes at an oddly steep price. Korenar will almost certainly be unprotected in the Seattle Expansion Draft, since this trade settles the question of if the Coyotes would protect Hill or their usual starter, Darcy Kuemper. The much more interesting part of the Sharks’ return is the 2022 second-round pick, which to some may be a little too much to give up for a good, but relatively unproven, goaltender in Hill. JFreshHockey, an analyst for Elite Prospects Rinkside, describes Hill aptly:

According to Pierre Lebrun of The Athletic, the acquisition of Hill means that Martin Jones will be left unprotected in the Seattle Expansion Draft. However, it remains to be seen if this marks the end of Jones’ time in San Jose.