Marc-Andre Fleury trade gets even worse for the Golden Knights.

The Las Vegas Golden Knights shocked their fan base last summer when they made the decision to trade star goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to the Chicago Blackhawks. The move also came as a shock to Fleury himself, but most shocking of all was the relatively pitiful return the Golden Knights received in exchange for what was arguably their number one goaltender at the time.

In exchange for sending Fleury, the reigning Vezina Trophy winner, to the Blackhawks, the Golden Knights would only receive Chicago Blackhawks prospect Mikael Hakkarainen. For some context, Mikael Hakkarainen was selected in the 5th round (139th overall) at the 2018 National Hockey League Entry Draft, and at the time had never played in an NHL game.

That made the trade look pretty bad for Vegas at the time, but as bad as it may have looked then it has now somehow gotten even worse.

Since the trade Hakkarainen's development has not shown that he is on his path to the NHL, and now the 24 year old forward has just shockingly confirmed that his career is over. According to a report from Finnish outlet Jatkoaika, Hakkarainen's hockey career has been cut short due to complications from a combination of Covid-19 and a congenital heart disease.

"I got corona at the end of January. I got severe symptoms and went to play too early," admitted Hakkarainen as per Jatkoaika. " Since April I have been doing nothing and observing what the situation is. Now it has become known that I have congenital heart disease."

As a result of the diagnosis, Hakkarainen says that he is now at a higher risk of cardiac arrest while playing on the ice. Furthermore the risk increases even more in contact situations, which obviously is a problem when it comes to a sport as physical as hockey. Although he believes he could have found a place to continue his career, he believes the risk to his health is simply not worth it.

It sounds like he intends to continue his career in hockey in some form or another, although he admits it is still too early to say anything definitive.

"I would like to do something with ice hockey, but I can't say anything for sure yet," said Hakkarainen. "You just had to accept that you can't play hockey anymore. And that's fine."