Former First-Round Pick Held Out Of The San Jose Sharks Lineup For Trade Purposes

Already in the last 24 hours, the San Jose Sharks have made some intriguing moves, most notably trading away Nico Sturm and Vitek Vanecek before acquiring Vincent Desharnais, and now they could have some more moves up their sleeves ahead of the trade deadline on Friday.

According to reports from TSN's Chris Johnston, the team are holding 27-year old Luke Kunin out of the line for trade purposes, with the expectation that a contending team could add him to their bottom six in the next 24 hours.

Kunin was originally the No. 15 overall pick in the 2016 NHL Draft by the Minnesota Wild, and since his NHL debut back in 2017, he has played in 422 NHL games for Minnesota and San Jose, tallying 73 goals and 142 points over that time.

His career highs came in 2020 when he had 15 goals and 31 points, but sine then the 6-foot-0 centre has primarily been used in the bottom-six as a solid two way player.

Unfortunately, the underlying numbers agree with the eye test that Kunin simply hasn't been very good in his NHL career, but as he approaches 28-years of age, he's continuing to draw interest at the deadline.

Thus far, the Calgary Flames have been the team most linked to Kunin, but with other contenders looking to add cheap depth to their roster ahead of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, there is expected to be a little more interest in him in the coming 24 hours.