The San Jose Sharks made their first move of what might be a busy NHL trade deadline day by acquiring forward Klim Kostin from the Detroit Red Wings for veteran defenseman Radim Simek and a seventh-round draft pick on Friday morning.
Kostin, 24, was the 31st overall pick by the St. Louis Blues in the 2017 NHL draft, and the 6-foot-3 Russian made his NHL debut with the team in 2019. He has four points (three goals) in 33 games with the Red Wings this year and was a healthy scratch for eight straight games before returning to the lineup in Wednesday’s loss to Colorado.
Vancouver Canucks’ Ilya Mikheyev (65) and Detroit Red Wings’ Klim Kostin (24) vie for the puck as Canucks’ Quinn Hughes (43) defends during the second period of an NHL hockey game Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, in Vancouver, British Columbia. (Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press via AP)
He is in the first year of a two-year, $4 million deal signed last summer and has struggled to meet expectations after recording career highs last year with the Oilers in points (21), goals (11) and assists (10).
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This is the fourth NHL stop for Kostin, who has 36 points (19 goals, 17 assists) in 136 career NHL games, split between Detroit, Edmonton and the St. Louis Blues. He set career highs in 2022-23 with 21 points, 11 goals, 10 assists, two game-winning goals and a plus-12 rating with the Edmonton Oilers.
Simek, 31, has spent all of this season with the AHL’s Barracuda, where he was the team captain, but played in 209 games with the Sharks over the previous five seasons.
Simek was signed as a free agent in May 2017, and during the 2018-19 season was the Sharks’ Rookie of the Year, leading the team’s rookies in games, points and assists.
In 109 games with the Barracuda, he collected 45 points (11 goals, 34 assists). This season he had 16 points and 29 penalty minutes in 40 games.
The draft pick the Sharks sent to Detroit was a seventh-round pick originally belonging to the New Jersey Devils in the 2024 NHL Draft.
Staff writer Michael Nowels contributed to this report.