Newly acquired goaltender Adin Hill likely will be competing with Martin Jones for playing time, but the 25-year-old explains why he grew up admiring the veteran netminder.
Goaltender Adin Hill was acquired by the Sharks on Saturday, addressing one of the organization's top offseason needs. General manager Doug Wilson spoke to the media on Saturday following the announcement of the trade, and explained why the former Arizona Coyote was a top target for the team.
"He hit on all the boxes we were looking for: age, experience, size, a compete side to it, and if you're going to give up an asset to get a player like that, you want it to be somebody that fits for both now and future," Wilson told reporters on Saturday.
Hill, 25, has played 49 NHL games in his career, posting a .909 save percentage on 1,324 shots against. At 6-foot-6, Hill also is one of the tallest netminders in the league, standing the same height as former Sharks goalie Devan Dubnyk.
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A restricted free agent, Wilson said the team hasn't entered discussions on a new contract for Hill just yet, but that the front office doesn't "anticipate any problems in that area."
The trade was completed just before the deadline for NHL teams to submit their lists of protected players for the upcoming expansion draft for the Seattle Kraken, and sure enough, Hill was the one goalie the Sharks elected to protect from being selected.
Martin Jones, who has started 325 games for the Sharks, is among the players exposed to potentially being picked by the Kraken in Wednesday's expansion draft.
"We just felt that this is the type of goalie in the age group that we needed to add, we need to have a different look and a different approach to our goaltending, and we think that Adin certainly brings that to us," Wilson said.
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RELATED: Why new Sharks goaltender Hill looked up to Jones as a kid
Wilson also cited Hill's ability to defend high-danger scoring chances as a primary factor in the organization pursuing Hill. Interestingly enough, however, Hill had a slightly lower high-danger scoring chance save percentage last season (.786) than Jones (.791).
Given the number of goaltenders available in this expansion draft pool, it doesn't seem likely that Jones will be selected by the Kraken in the expansion draft.
Going into next season, it appears the Sharks hope Hill can push Jones and potentially become the team's primary goaltender.
The Sharks also will have 23-year-old Alexei Melnichuk in the organization, who had an .864 save percentage in 131 NHL minutes and an .868 save percentage over 1,003 AHL minutes with the Barracuda.
Wilson emphasized that this was a critical component of the organization's offseason plans, but don't expect the Sharks to be done adding pieces before the 2021-22 season gets underway.