Kaapo Kahkonen 2023 player review: Still adjusting his game

In the offseason, the Sharks were in an enviable position. The team had three NHL goaltenders and not enough space on the roster to carry them all. So, General Manager Mike Grier needed to make a decision. Which of the young netminders – Kaapo Kahkonen or Adin Hill – showed the most promise? Grier opted for Kahkonen.

Hill, as of this writing, is still battling it out in the Stanley Cup playoffs and backstopping the Vegas Golden Knights within inches of Cup glory. But this isn’t about Hill. This is about the guy who, last September, the Sharks believed would be the goaltender of the next few years for San Jose.

Kahkonen’s 2022-23 production

Kahkonen struggled mightily at the start of the season. He and James Reimer were supposed to compete to see who would be the number one guy for the Sharks. There was no frontrunner, it was simply a matter of performance. However, Reimer took an early lead in the race, and Kahkonen never seemed to catch up.

Even when he had the opportunity to steal the net back (and trust me, there were plenty of opportunities), Kahkonen never truly made the decision difficult for the coaching staff.

In his 37 games played for the Sharks, Kahkonen won just nine of them.

Natural Stat Trick shows that of the 79 goaltenders leaguewide that played 500 minutes or more this past season, only five had higher goals against averages (GAA) than Kahkonen. His save percentage was better than only seven other goaltenders with 500 minutes or more.

Kahkonen’s performance hindered Sharks

When you’re delivering bottom of the league goaltending, it’s understandable how that could impact your team.

While Kahkonen was not the only reason the Sharks finished near the bottom of the league, his performance did not do the team any favors.

Looking at his goaltending chart courtesy of Evolving-Hockey, the two orange bars on the left are the most telling. The light orange bar (xFSv%) is the team’s expected save percentage with Kahkonen in net. That means the save percentage a team should receive from a league average goaltender given the quality of scoring chances the goaltender faced.

You can see that for the Sharks, the xFSv% is below league average, but not by much.

However, Kahkonen’s performance in those same situations, shown by the second bar from the left (FSv%) indicates that Kahkonen delivered near bottom of the league goaltending in those same situations.

In other words, while the Sharks were a bad team last season, the team’s record could have been a lot better if San Jose had simply received league average goaltending.

Kahkonen’s other stats of note

Not to pile on, but there are a few other numbers of note in Kahkonen’s stats last year.

For example, according to Evolving-Hockey Kahkonen was a -2.2 in wins above replacement (WAR) this season. That’s just below Los Angeles/Las Vegas’ Jonathan Quick, who had a -2 WAR and just above Edmonton’s Jack Campbell who had a -2.9 WAR and was basically benched for a good part of the season.

Meanwhile, Natural Stat Trick says when it comes to goals saved above average (GSAA), Kahkonen was second to last (78th) among goaltenders with 500 minutes or more of ice time.

He had -24.96 GSAA this past season. The only player below him, Vancouver’s Spencer Martin, had a -27.51 GSAA.

Kahkonen’s adjustments

It’s commonly believed that goaltenders take some time to find their game before they excel in the NHL. At 26, it would not be out of line to say that Kahkonen can still find a form that will make him an above average goaltender in the NHL. He has time.

This past season, he adjusted his playing style, which likely contributed to his dismal numbers. In his exit interview, Kahkonen admitted that he was still trying to adjust at the beginning of the season, but he felt like things were better as the season wore on.

“There’s a few structural things I feel towards the end of the year I was starting to kind of figure out. And those things helped me to feel better in the games at the end of the year, which was obviously a good sign,” Kahkonen said in his exit interview. “They may be things that people don’t see on the outside, but it’s what I think is important and that I feel that improvement myself so that kind of gives me a feeling that by continuing doing those things that will help me move forward.”

Kahkonen said he is not a completely different goalie, but he has made adjustments that he thinks will help in the long run.

“Yeah, sometimes you have to, maybe, you have to take a step back to take two steps forward,” said Kahkonen “But I never really thought, at first place, that I’m going to change everything now or that now I should go back to what I did before…I don’t think that was ever the case. Obviously, a lot of learning, like I said, but I think it could be positive in the long run.”

Kahkonen’s future with the Sharks

Kahkonen has one more season left on his contract with a $2.75 million AAV. The good news is, San Jose has at least one goaltender locked in for next season. The bad news is, if Kahkonen is the best the team has to offer, it could be another long season.

Kahkonen has the ability to turn his game around and with a clean slate, he might do just that. He has the summer to fine tune his new game and could come to training camp and snag the starting job outright.

However, don’t assume that Kahkonen will be the starter on opening night. I imagine GM Grier will be scouring the free agent market this summer, looking for a good 1B/backup option in net. No matter who Grier picks up, Kahkonen will have to compete if he wants starts this season.

Editor’s Note: Over the next few weeks, we will be rolling out the player reviews for the San Jose Sharks. We realize there were a lot of guys rotating into and out of the lineup and some of the key depth players were traded. As a result, Fear the Fin plans to focus on the players that are 1) still with the Sharks and 2) played 20 or more games for San Jose this season.