More fall-out and reactions on the Olli Maatta for Dominik Kahun trade

After GM Jim Rutherford and Pittsburgh made waves with a Saturday night trade, we collected a bit more information while the dust settles on the Penguins sending Olli Maatta to the Chicago Blackhawks for forward Dominik Kahun.

Brandon at our SBN sister site Second City Hockey was kind enough to give a bit more detail on Kahun:

Kahun jumped right into a top-six role, found success with Alex DeBrincat as his opposite winger, and then played throughout the lineup. Kahun is not going to put up a bunch of points, and he’s not going to get burned defensively. He’s very quietly there until the team scores a goal, and then he shows more emotion than you’d ever imagine (see: #KahunFace on Twitter and his picture on EliteProspects). The Penguins won’t have to worry about him treating the penalty box like Buddy the Elf does a revolving door, as Kahun only committed six penalty minutes and was the last player in the league to have played in every game last season to commit a penalty.

He’s also friends with Bastian Schweinsteiger and a Bayern Munich supporter. You might see Kahun out at a Riverhounds game.

Friend of the blog and The Athletic’s Jesse Marshall offered a nice little look at a goal from last season:

You have to like seeing that. The Penguins rotate lines very frequently, so you would have to imagine over the course of the season Kahun will get opportunities to play with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin as the year winds along. You could see the above highlight happening a lot for the future in your mind’s eye — especially with Crosby. Kahun looks almost Jake Guentzel-like in the clip above to keep moving, find a soft spot, and then allow the playmaker to find him with the puck.

Penguins’ GM Jim Rutherford gave the expected sunny comments about the incoming player:

“Dominik had a great rookie season with the Blackhawks,” said general manager Jim Rutherford. “He is a speedy, versatile player capable of playing all three forward positions. He also saw time on Chicago’s power-play and penalty killing units. We are very excited for him to join our team.”

Vesatility is the name of the game, and Kahun brings that dimension. His salary cap hit of $925,000 is very favorable too. We will get a firm indication of where the upper limit of the cap is soon, but there have been reports it might be in the $82 million range, perhaps a bit under previously reported tentative figures. The Penguins always need to stay as flexible as they can, and adding Kahun is a big deal there.

Beyond that, we now wait for the draft to begin on Friday night. Rutherford acknowledged to The Athletic that more trades could be coming as the team continues to be in “win now mode.”