{"id":40627,"date":"2025-07-05T11:23:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T11:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/40627\/"},"modified":"2025-07-05T11:23:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T11:23:13","slug":"luke-kunin-garnering-interest-from-around-the-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/40627\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke Kunin Garnering Interest From Around The League"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new contract could be closing in soon for centerman Luke Kunin<\/a><\/strong>, who has garnered interest from multiple teams since hitting the open market on July 1st, per David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period<\/a>. Kunin kicked off last season with the San Jose Sharks, and was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets for a 2025 second-round pick at the Trade Deadline.<\/p>\n

Kunin has carved out a role as a utility third-liner over the course of his eight-year pro career that carried into his year with both San Jose and Columbus this season. He started the year with 11 goals, 18 points, and a minus-24 through 63 games as the Sharks\u2019 third-line center. The Blue Jackets opted to move him to fourth-right wing, and he\u2019d finish the year with no scoring and a minus-four through 12 games in Columbus.<\/p>\n

Through a bleak stat line, Kunin did manage the second-most hits of his career (187) this season. He ranked second on the Sharks in hits (162) prior to his move, and then posted the second-highest hits-per-60 minutes of ice time (10.19) in Columbus behind only Mathieu Olivier<\/a><\/strong> (15.48). He also recorded a career-high 77 blocked shots this season. That physical presence has become the defining piece of Kunin\u2019s pro style, and would surely be what teams are looking to buy on the open market.<\/p>\n

Kunin was once the 15th-overall pick in the draft, hearing his name called in 2016 by the Minnesota Wild after a strong year with the US U18 National Team Development Program. Kunin\u2019s sharp-edged physicality defined his game even as a teenager, though he earned lofty praise after scoring 70 points in 69 games over two years at the University of Wisconsin. He turned pro once his sophomore year came to a close, and managed to score eight points in his first 12 AHL games. He followed that with 19 points in 36 games through the first-half of the 2017-18 season \u2013 enough to earn a call-up to the Minnesota Wild mid-season.<\/p>\n

Kunin has since appeared in 434 games across eight seasons in the NHL. He\u2019s recorded 73 goals, 142 points, and a minus-97 across his full career \u2013 spanning three years with the Minnesota Wild and Sharks, two years with the Nashville Predators, and one year in Columbus. He is a cost-effective bruiser available on the open market, though likely won\u2019t bring more than a third-line role to his next landing spot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new contract could be closing in soon for centerman Luke Kunin, who has garnered interest from multiple…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":40628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[3110,32272,293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-40627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-columbus-blue-jackets","9":"tag-luke-kunin","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114800374818454158","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}