The San Jose Sharks have executed a small trade as the deadline nears. The Sharks have traded defenseman Radim Simek and a seventh-round draft pick to the Detroit Red Wings for forward Klim Kostin. The seventh-round pick is the one the team acquired from the New Jersey Devils last season in the Timo Meier trade. While Simek has not factored into the Sharks’ line up much this season, he was named the captain of the San Jose Barracuda recently.
Our friends at Winging It in Motown don’t expect Simek to factor into the Red Wings lineup this season. It sounds like this was simply a money move for Detroit.
What we know about Klim Kostin
Kostin is a 24-year-old forward who has three goals and one assist in 33 games with the Red Wings this season. He’s just one year removed from a career year in which he had 21 points (11 G, 10 A) with the Edmonton Oilers.
Perhaps the best summary of who Kostin is would be this excerpt from the Edmonton Journal at the end of the 2022-23 season.
“‘The Real Klim Shady’ made the most of his 10 minutes a night at even strength, scoring 11-10-21, +12 in just 57 games. He emerged as one of the team’s most influential bangers and crashers, leading the squad in hits (157), fights (4) and penalty minutes (66). Not a bad contribution for a 23-year-old post-waiver pickup at NHL minimum,” wrote Bruce McCurdy.
“Ultimately, the player Kostin replaced in the Oilers line-up was not so much EKane as former agent of chaos Zack Kassian, dealt at the 2022 Draft in a cap dump. And even there, Kostin’s comparable is not so much the late-career Kassian (who played 51 games in Arizona this past season, scoring 2-0-2, -18 with 50 PiM and just 32 hits), as the pugnacious younger version of that player,” continued McCurdy.
While Kostin’s only 24, the 6-foot-4, 232-pound forward has already played for a few teams. He has 136 career NHL games with the Red Wings, Oilers and St. Louis Blues. He has also played with the Bakersfield Condors, Springfield Thunderbirds and San Antonio Rampage in the AHL. At the AHL level, Kostin has 92 points (34 G, 58 A) in 207 career games.
He is signed with the Red Wings through the 2024-25 season according to CapFriendly at a $2 million AAV.
Gut reaction to the Simek for Kostin trade
This is a good deal by General Manager Mike Grier. He’s added a tough player at a cheap price who has term and a good contract that won’t break the bank. If Kostin can become a 20-point fourth-liner next season on a bad Sharks team, Grier will find plenty of takers for him at the trade deadline and the deal will look even better for the Sharks.
