On this day 21 years ago, the Calgary Flames traded for Miikka Kiprusoff.
Acquiring a future Vezina Trophy winner must’ve cost the Flames an arm and a leg, right? Well, the Finnish netminder was drafted in the fifth round of the 1995 draft by the Sharks and put up pedestrian numbers with the California-based team.
In three seasons with the Sharks, Kiprusoff had an .897 save percentage, a 2.84 goals-against average, and a 14-21-3 record. So acquiring the netminder only cost the Flames a 2005 conditional second-round pick, we’ll double back on who that turned out to be.
However, who Kiprusoff turned out to be with the Flames was one of the best netminders in the league and one of the best, if not the best, netminders in Flames history. After they acquired him on Nov. 16, 2003, the then 27-year-old finished the season with a .933 save percentage and a 1.70 goals-against average in 37 games, with a 24-10-4 record
Kiprusoff was just as good in the postseason that year, as he had a .928 save percentage and a 1.85 goals-against average. In the first round, the sixth-seeded Flames defeated their divisional rivals, the Vancouver Canucks. In the second round, the defeated the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Detroit Red Wings.
The Sharks must’ve felt like fools after the Western Conference Finals, as their former netminder had a .925 save percentage in the six games he faced against the second-seeded team. Sadly, the Flames’ run ended in the Stanley Cup Finals, as a blown no-goal call allowed the Tampa Bay Lightning to send the series to seven games, where they won their first Stanley Cup in franchise history.
Despite the tough blow, Kiprusoff kept the good times rolling. In 2005-06, he had a .923 save percentage and a 2.07 goals-against average in 74 games played, with a 42-20-11 record. This became another post-season appearance for the team, but the Finnish netminder also won the Vezina Trophy and the William M. Jennings Trophy.
From the 2005-06 season until the 2011-12 season, Kiprusoff’s 514 games in the regular season were by far the most, with the next closest netminder being Henrik Lundqvist, who had 468 games played. Not only was Kiprusoff a workhorse, but he was good between the pipes, with a .914 save percentage and a 2.48 goals-against average.
His final season in 2012-13 wasn’t as great, playing 24 games with an .882 save percentage and a 3.44 goals-against average. However, Kiprusoff finished with a career .912 save percentage and a 2.49 goals-against average, along with a 319-213-71 record.
As for the second-round pick that the Flames sent to the Sharks, that was used to select Marc-Edouard Vlasic with the 35th overall pick. At his peak, Vlasic was one of the most underrated defencemen in the league, bursting onto the scene in 2006-07 with the contending Sharks.
For over a decade, the Sharks were consistently a contender, even making the Stanley Cup Finals in 2015-16, the same season that Vlasic scored a career-high 48 points with eight goals. Throughout his career, the left-shot defenceman has 83 goals and 376 points in 1,296 games, along with six goals and 39 points in 142 postseason games.
It’s not very often you can say both teams won a trade when one of the teams traded away a Vezina Trophy-winning netminder, but both teams ended up winning this one.
Thanks for reading! You can follow me on Bluesky @ryleydelaney.bsky.social.
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