Blue Jackets flip Jonathan Quick to Vegas, dump Jakub Voracek’s contract to Yotes
The Daily Goal Horn
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Two-time Stanley Cup winning goaltender Jonathan Quick is headed back to the Pacific Division.
The Vegas Golden Knights announced they acquired Quick from the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday. In exchange, they dealt Michael Hutchinson and a 2025 seventh-round pick.
Per Chris Johnston, Columbus will retain 50% of Quick’s salary.
Golden Knights get Jonathan Quick
This trade comes one day after Columbus acquired Quick and two draft picks from the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for fellow goaltender Joonas Korpisalo and defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov.
In that deal, the Blue Jackets received a conditional first-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft and a third-round selection in the 2024 NHL Draft. Should the Kings fail to qualify for the playoffs, Columbus would then receive second-round picks in the 2023 and 2024 NHL Drafts.
Quick, 37, joins a first-place Golden Knights team that holds a two-point advantage over the second-place Kings in the Pacific Division entering play on Thursday. The rivals play in Las Vegas on April 6.
Quick is 11-13-4 with a 3.50 goals-against average, .876 save percentage and one shutout in 31 games (27 starts) this season. He is a pending unrestricted free agent in the final season of a 10-year, $58 million contract.
Quick is the Kings’ all-time leader in goalie wins (370, 199 more than the next-closest player), save percentage (minimum 70 games played) at .911 and shutouts (57). He was the netminder for the club’s two Stanley Cup championships (2012, 2014), and the Connecticut native ranks third all-time in wins by American-born goalies.
Blue Jackets ship out Jakub Voracek contract
The Arizona Coyotes acquired the contract of injured forward Jakub Voracek and a sixth-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft from the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday in exchange for goaltender Jon Gillies.
The departure of Voracek effectively amounts to a salary dump for the Blue Jackets. Voracek’s current contract runs through the 2023-24 season with a cap hit of $8.25 million, per Spotrac.
“This move provides us with some organizational goaltending depth for the remainder of the season and flexibility from a salary cap standpoint to improve our team moving forward,” Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said.
Voracek, 33, last played in a game on Nov. 4 and may not compete again in the NHL. He announced in December that he would be sidelined long-term with concussion symptoms.
Voracek has six points (one goal, five assists) in 11 games this season. He is in the second season of his second stint with the Blue Jackets, who selected him with the seventh overall pick of the 2007 NHL Draft.
He has totaled 806 points (223 goals, 583 assists) in 1,058 career games with the Philadelphia Flyers and Blue Jackets.
Gillies, 29, has posted a 5-8-2 record with a 3.70 goals-against average and .878 save percentage in 15 games this season with the Tucson Roadrunners of the American Hockey League.
He owns a 7-15-3 with a 3.31 GAA and .893 save percentage in 32 career games with the Calgary Flames, St. Louis Blues and New Jersey Devils.
–Field Level Media