The Blackhawks acquired defenseman Olli Maatta from the Penguins in exchange for forward Dominik Kahun and a 2019 fifth-round pick Saturday night. Darren Dreger of TSN first reported the news.
Maatta, who turns 25 in August, is left-handed Finnish blue liner who had 14 points (one goal, 13 assists), 116 blocked shots and 97 hits in 60 games last season for Pittsburgh. The 6-foot-2, 205-pounder had a down season offensively after scoring a career-high 29 points (seven goals, 22 assists) in 82 games during the 2017-18 season.
He won back-to-back Stanley Cup championships with the Penguins in 2016 and 2017 after being a 2012 first-round pick. He has three years left on his contract that carries a $4.083 million annual salary cap hit and includes a modified no-trade clause starting in 2020-21.
How Maatta compares to the rest of Chicago’s defense in zone exits. Kind of similar to what they already have. pic.twitter.com/5sFQNlHkER
— Corey Sznajder (@ShutdownLine) June 16, 2019
Kahun scored 13 goals and 37 points in 82 games during his first NHL season with the Blackhawks. The soon-to-be 24-year-old spent time in the top-nine for Chicago, who signed him as an undrafted free agent out of Germany in 2017 to a two-year deal with a $925,000 cap hit.
The trade leaves the Blackhawks without a fifth-round pick for this year’s draft. Chicago traded its own pick (No. 136) to the Canadiens at last year’s draft for Florida’s fifth-round pick (No. 139). The Blackhawks used that pick on center Mikael Hakkarainen, who is expected to play in the AHL next season after he signed a three-year entry-level contract in April.
Chicago then acquired a fifth-round pick in the Marian Hossa deal with Arizona, but traded it to the Kings in January for the rights to winger Dominik Kubalik, who signed a one-year deal with Chicago in May and is projected to play in the NHL next season. The pick the Blackhawks traded to Pittsburgh was the pick (No. 151) they acquired from the Lightning in a trade that sent defenseman Jan Rutta and a 2019 seventh-round pick to Tampa Bay in exchange for defenseman Slater Koekkoek and that pick.
When asked his philosophy behind the trade, Bowman replied “Kahun for a Määttä. It means ‘no worries.’”
— Randall J. Sanders (@RandallJSanders) June 16, 2019