“Game Of His Life” tells the story of Pittsburgh athletes who may not have had the most illustrious, Hall of Fame level careers, but had one absolutely amazing game. In today’s edition, Dominik Kahun.
Dominik Kahun has one of the weirder career arcs in the NHL’s history. In his rookie season, he played all 82 games for the Chicago Blackhawks. Three calendar years and as many teams later, he was out of the NHL entirely.
Over his roughly 200 games in the NHL, Kahun averaged just under half a point per game. He was the type of forward that could slide up and down the lineup, playing wherever the team needed him to.
In Kahun’s first and only year with the Blackhawks, he put up 13 goals and 24 assists for 37 points. He received one fifth place vote for the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s best rookie, but he had established himself at the NHL at 23 years old as someone who could provide some offense.
A few weeks before the draft, however, Kahun was traded to Pittsburgh. Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford acquired the German-born forward and a fifth round pick in that year’s draft for defenseman Olli Määttä, who had fallen out of favor with the Penguins.
That pick was later used as part of a deal between Pittsburgh and Arizona (not the Phil Kessel trade) and was used to select Aku Räty out of Finland. Fun fact about Räty: he made his NHL debut in the last ever game the Coyotes played, on April 17th, 2024 — a 5-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers.
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