The Penguins acquired forward Dominik Kahun, along with a fifth-round draft pick from the Blackhawks in exchange for Olli Maatta on Saturday.
What kind of a player did the Penguins get in Kahun?
Let's take a look:
THE BASICS
Kahun (pronounced ka-HOON), who turns 24 in July, is a left-handed forward who is capable of playing center and both wings, checking in at 5 feet 11, 175 pounds. He was born in Plana, Czech Republic, but moved to Germany with his family when he was a child. He represents Germany on the international stage and he has done so often, from the junior level to the World Championship to the Olympics.
THE CONTRACT
The Blackhawks first signed Kahun to a two-year entry-level contract in May 2018 with an average annual value of $3,775,000. His cap hit is $925,000, from a base salary of $832,500 and a $92,500 signing bonus. He's eligible for up to $2,850,000 in performance bonuses, which technically do count towards the cap. However, there is a cushion of 7.5 percent of the upper cap limit for performance bonuses.
Kahun's contract has a European Assignment Clause, which allows him to return to Europe if he is re-assigned to the AHL.
The contract expires at the end of the 2019-20 season, after which Kahun will become a restricted free agent.
THE BACKGROUND
Kahun's deal with the Blackhawks came after back-to-back championship seasons with EHC Munchen in the German DEL league. He set career highs in assists (29) and points (41), and matched a career high with 12 goals in 2017-18, his final season in the DEL.
Kahun did have experience in North America prior to signing in Chicago. He played two seasons of junior hockey with the Sudbury Wolves of the OHL from 2012-14, and recorded a combined 22 goals and 49 assists in 101 games. He returned to Germany the following season to begin his professional career.
LAST SEASON
In 2018-19, Kahun's first season in the NHL, he tied for eighth in scoring on the Blackhawks with 13 goals and 24 assists in 82 games. Of Kahun's 24 assists, 22 came during five-on-five play, and 16 of those five-on-five assists were primary assists.
He's wearing No. 24 in this clip from Feb. 10, his first multi-goal game in the NHL:
One of Kahun's greatest assets is his speed, which is evident in his second goal of the Feb. 10 game:
Kahun also showed his speed in this feed to Dylan Strome:
Kahun's plus-10 rating led all Blackhawks forwards and finished third on the team, and his six penalty minutes were the fewest of any Blackhawk who spent the entire season in the NHL.
The Blackhawks switched up their line combinations frequently throughout the season, and Kahun played on all four lines at some point during the year. The forwards he spent the most time with during five-on-five play were Alex DeBrincat (437:21) and Jonathan Toews (404:04).
Kahun had the ninth-highest frequency of shots on goal at five-on-five for the Blackhawks. He took an average of 7.32 shots per 60 minutes of ice time. A criticism of Kahun during his time in the DEL was that he needed to shoot the puck more, but his shot numbers on the Blackhawks really weren't an issue.
Kahun's Corsi For percentage during five-on-five was average. He was on the ice for 1,025 shot attempts for and 1,029 attempts against, which works out to be a percentage of 49.90. That ranked 11th on the team, but no Blackhawk had a Corsi For percentage higher than 55.42, given that the team as a whole was frequently outshot.
"Dominik had a great rookie season with the Blackhawks," Jim Rutherford said. "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."
Kahun was on the Blackhawks' second power play unit, and scored one goal and one assist in 86:58 of total power play time. He only played a total of 5:25 minutes of penalty-killing time all season, which I suppose technically can be called "seeing time" on the penalty kill, but he wasn't exactly a penalty-killer for the Blackhawks.
