SUNRISE, Fla. – Florida Panthers President of Hockey Operations & General Manager Bill Zito announced today that the club has acquired goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen from the Winnipeg Jets in exchange for goaltender Chris Driedger.
Kahkonen, 28, has appeared in 22 American Hockey League (AHL) games this season with Winnipeg’s affiliate, the Manitoba Moose, logging a 6-14-1 record, .885 save percentage, 3.29 goals against average and one shutout, and two AHL games with the Colorado Eagles. He also played in one NHL game with the Colorado Avalanche.
The 6-foot-2, 217-pound native of Helsinki, Finland has appeared in 140 NHL games between the Avalanche (2024-25), New Jersey Devils (2023-24), San Jose Sharks (2021-22 to 2023-24) and Minnesota Wild (2019-20 to 2021-22), producing a 49-68-15 record, .898 save percentage, 3.34 goals against average and four shutouts.
Kahkonen owns a career 48-36-12 record with 14 shutouts in 97 career AHL games between Manitoba (2024-25), Colorado (2024-25) and the Iowa Wild (2018-19 to 2019-20). He led the AHL in shutouts in both 2018-19 (six) and 2019-20 (seven), leading all AHL goaltenders with 25 wins in 2019-20 en route to being named the winner of the Baz Bastien Memorial Award as the league’s best goaltender posting a .927 save percentage and 2.07 goals against average.
On the international stage, Kahkonen earned a gold medal with Finland at the 2016 IIHF U20 World Junior Championship earning the win in all four games he appeared in at the tournament. He also earned a bronze medal at the 2013 IIHF U18 World Junior Championship.
Kahkonen was originally selected by the Minnesota Wild in the fourth round (109th overall) of the 2014 NHL Draft.
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