San Jose Sharks Acquire Jannik Hansen from Vancouver
As the San Jose Sharks continue to lead the Pacific Division, they have acquired winger Jannik Hansen form Vancouver to shore up their lines.
During Tuesday night’s contest with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the San Jose Sharks’ front office pulled off a trade. In a deal with the Vancouver Canucks, San Jose acquired winger Jannik Hansen in exchange for 21-year-old winger Nikolay Goldobin and a conditional fourth-round draft pick. Should San Jose win the Stanley Cup, which would be their first in franchise history, that pick becomes a first-rounder.
The 2015-2016 season was one of Hansen’s best, when he played alongside the Sedin twins, Henrik and Daniel. With the Canucks, Hansen scored a career-high 22 goals and tallied 38 total points and a +16 +/- rating, both the second-best of his 10-year career.
This season has been an injury-plagued one for the now 30-year-old Hansen, as he has been limited to 28 games played so far. He has 13 points (six goals and seven assists) and a +2 rating in those games.
Overall in his career, he has scored 105 goals and dished out 130 assists, and owns a career +46 rating.
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Hansen’s first game with San Jose will be first career NHL game while not wearing a Canucks’ jersey. Each of his 565 games played to this point has come with Vancouver, and if he is in the lineup for San Jose’s next game on Thursday, it will come against the team that just traded him.
Vancouver is receiving a promising young player in Goldobin, but San Jose has a glut of young forwards in their system so it isn’t really a loss the team can’t overcome. Goldobin has spent time in San Jose both last season and this season, but has only found his way onto the ice 11 times. Last year, he played in nine games and tallied his first (and thus far, only) career goal and assist. This season, he has taken part in just two games, and has picked up only statistics besides four shots on goal.
With the San Jose Barracuda this year (the Sharks’ AHL affiliate), Goldobin has played in 46 games and tallied 41 points (good for third on the team) with 15 goals and 26 assists. Last season, he piled up 44 points in 60 games, including tying with Bryan Lerg for the team lead with 21 goals. He added 23 assists.
San Jose is hoping that the quick, hard-working forward Hansen can put the injury woes behind him and contribute to the Sharks down the stretch as the team fights for another deep playoff run. With over three-quarters of the regular season in the books, San Jose is leading the Pacific Division with 81 points, putting them five points ahead of the Anaheim Ducks despite the Ducks playing two more games than the Sharks. They sit third overall in the Western Conference, trailing only the Minnesota Wild (88 point) and the Chicago Blackhawks (83).
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The Sharks have 20 games left in the regular season, and are trying to one-up their journey last year. Of course, the 2015-2016 season culminated with San Jose’s first trip to the Stanley Cup Finals, but they ultimately fell short to the Pittsburgh Penguins, losing the series in six games. Hansen may not be a huge difference maker, but he can be a solid contributor in the team’s journey.