Way, way back in 2003, the Calgary Flames were a gritty team with some supremely inconsistent goaltending. On this day in 2003, general manager Darryl Sutter tried to find some consistency via a trade with the San Jose Sharks for third string goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff.
On this day in 2003, the Flames acquired goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff from the Sharks in exchange for a second-round pick (Marc-Edouard Vlasic). Kiprusoff would go on to become the Flames' franchise leader in wins and shutouts #Hockey365 #Flames pic.twitter.com/UAN6b0cjpv
— Mike Commito (@mikecommito) November 16, 2019
At the time Kiprusoff was playing behind Evgeni Nabokov and Vesa Toskala in San Jose and hadn’t really played at all, so the Flames sent a conditional second round pick to the Sharks to pry him loose. At the time the Flames were using Roman Turek and Jamie McLennan as their tandem and the results were iffy.
Kiprusoff went on to play 38 games and go 24-10-4 down the stretch. He set the modern day NHL record with a 1.69 goals against average and back-stopped the Flames to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. He also went on to win a Vezina Trophy and establish himself as the best goaltender in franchise history. The Sharks used the pick in 2005 to draft Marc-Edouard Vlasic, so the trade worked out for everybody.
