Two veteran AHL goaltenders swapped places Thursday afternoon.

The Florida Panthers acquired Kaapo Kähkönen from the Winnipeg Jets for Chris Driedger. Driedger will report to the Manitoba Moose while Florida assigned Kähkönen to the Charlotte Checkers on Friday morning.

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Kähkönen, who won the Aldege “Baz” Bastien Memorial Award as the league’s top goaltender with the Iowa Wild in the 2019-20 season, has had an hectic season. After signing with Winnipeg as a free agent last summer, he ended up being claimed on waivers by the Colorado Avalanche on Oct. 11. He made one appearance with the Avs, two more with the Colorado Eagles, and then went back to the Winnipeg organization via waivers on Nov. 12.

From there he settled in with Manitoba and has gone a combined 6-16-1 | 3.23 | .888 in 24 games between the Eagles and Moose. He had spent the past four seasons in the NHL with the Minnesota Wild, San Jose Sharks, and New Jersey Devils. Thursday's move is the third time in four seasons that Kähkönen has been dealt at the NHL trade deadline.

Charlotte (30-16-3-3) starts a two-game home set with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Saturday. Only five points behind the Hershey Bears for the Atlantic Division lead, the Checkers are also trying to fight off the Phantoms; Charlotte has a three-point edge on Lehigh Valley going into this weekend with four games in hand. They are in the middle of a stretch of 16 games in 31 nights.

With Florida, the defending Stanley Cup champion, loading up for another postseason run, the Checkers have been impacted as well.

Checkers forward Patrick Giles departed in the San Jose trade. Florida also signed forward Jesse Puljujärvi to a two-way deal for the rest of this season. Puljujärvi, the fourth overall pick in the 2016 NHL Draft, joined Charlotte on Feb. 10 and has 0-3-3 in seven games. He remains on the Charlotte roster.

For Driedger, 30, this is the latest move in what has been a chaotic week. He made his final start for the Checkers last Friday at Cleveland and was recalled to Florida following the Knight trade. He backed up Sergei Bobrovsky for the Panthers’ home game against the Tampa Bay Lightning before Thursday’s deal.

He had returned to the Florida organization as a free agent last July following a standout season with the Coachella Valley Firebirds in which he reached the Calder Cup Finals. He was 12-6 | 2.67 | .906 in 18 playoff games last spring. However, he struggled to find his form with the Checkers, going 10-6-4 | 2.97 | .878 in 20 games. Charlotte has had a crowded crease at times with Ken Appleby and Cooper Black also on the roster. Driedger’s career breakthrough had come with Florida following five seasons as an Ottawa Senators third-round pick. He came to the Florida organization in the 2018-19 season and eventually ended up playing a combined 35 games with the Panthers in the following two seasons. He departed the organization in July 2021, going to the Seattle Kraken in the NHL expansion draft.  

He spent the entire 2021-22 season with Seattle before sustaining a torn right ACL at the 2022 IIHF World Championship while representing Canada. He missed much for the 2022-23 season before finishing it as a back-up to Joey Daccord with the Firebirds.

Manitoba’s (19-30-1-3) next game is Saturday against the Calgary Wranglers. Last in the Central Division, the Moose are eight points out of a playoff spot with 19 games remaining.

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