Frederik Andersen, who shared the Williams Jennings Trophy last season for allowing the fewest goals in the league, was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, the National Hockey League’s Anaheim Ducks announced Monday.
Denmark’s Andersen and John Gibson combined to earn the Jennings award as the two allowed just 192 goals against during the 2015-16 regular season while sharing the goaltending duties with the Ducks.
“This is managing your assets. I’m not worried about what we have left,” said Ducks general manager Bob Murray.
“There was no animosity, but both goalies wanted to be number one. Both wanted the net.”
The Ducks received a pair of draft picks for Andersen - a first-round selection (30th overall) in the 2016 draft and a second-round pick in the 2017 draft.
The 26-year-old Andersen immediately signed a five-year contract with the Maple Leafs. Toronto originally received the 30th overall pick from Pittsburgh in a trade involving forward Phil Kessel, who helped lead the Penguins to a Stanley Cup championship on June 12.
Andersen posted a 22-9-7 mark with three shutouts, a 2.30 goals-against average and a.919 save percentage last season.
Andersen, who was slated to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, is expected to compete with Jonathan Bernier for the starting job with the Maple Leafs.
Meanwhile The Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday re-signed forward Kevin Porter to a one-year contract. The deal is a two-way contract that has an average annual value of $575,000 at the NHL level. Porter, 30, spent his first season with the Pittsburgh organization in 2015-16, helping the team earn a Stanley Cup championship by serving as a member of the club’s fifth-ranked penalty-killing unit.
The San Jose Sharks acquired center Maxim Letunov and a 2017 sixth-round draft selection from the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for San Jose’s 2016 fourth-round and 2017 third-round picks. Letunov led the University of Connecticut men’s hockey team in scoring as a freshman, posting 16 goals and 24 assists for 40 points. Among all NCAA freshman, he finished fifth in scoring, playing in all of the school’s 36 games. Letunov, a native of Moscow, originally was drafted by the St. Louis Blues in the second round of the 2014 NHL Draft. On March 2, 2015, his rights were traded by the Blues to the Coyotes in exchange for defenseman Zbynek Michalek and a conditional third-round pick in the 2015
The NHL announced the home openers for all 30 clubs for the 2016-17 regular season.
The Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins will begin the regular season by hosting the Washington Capitals on Thursday, Oct. 13 at CONSOL Energy Center.
Prior to the season opener, the Penguins will raise their 2016 Stanley Cup championship banner.
The Chicago Blackhawks will open the home portion of their regular-season schedule on Wednesday, Oct. 12, with a rivalry matchup against the St. Louis Blues at the United Center.