An Erik Karlsson sleeper team …
Amir Basu: John Shannon: “A team that had an opportunity to get Erik Karlsson at the deadline last year and came very close, San Jose. Don’t be surprised if we start hearing about the Sharks and Doug Wilson attempting to get Erik Karlsson for his roster.”
The New York Rangers want a significant asset to help out the Lightning or should they take a run of Karlsson themselves?
Larry Brooks of the NY Post: The Rangers are willing to be the third team involved in a potential Senators-Lightning trade, but they are wanting a something more significant than a late first round pick to on a big contract to help the Lightning shed some salary.
Brooks wonders if the Rangers should make an offer to the Senators for Karlsson? There is the question of a contract extension, and if they could offer the Sens more than what other teams are offering.
Players that likely wouldn’t be available: Chris Kreider, Brady Skjei, Filip Chytil, Lias Andersson, Vitali Kravtsov, Libor Hajek, Ryan Lindgren, Brett Howden and Igor Shestyorkin. Henrik Lundqvist and Marc Staal have no-movement clauses and the Senators could be on Kevin Shattenkirk‘s modified no-trade list.
Would a 2019 first-round pick and three of – Mika Zibanejad, Kevin Hayes, Vlad Namestnikov, Pavel Buchnevich, Mats Zuccarello, Jimmy Vesey, Jesper Fast, Boo Nieves, Neal Pionk, Nils Lundkvist, K’Andre Miller, Tony DeAngelo, Yegor Rykov and Alex Georgiev – be too much for the Rangers or not enough for the Sens?
All is a hypothetical scenario.
Erik Karlsson and the Tampa Bay Lightning …
Amir Basu: John Shannon on if the Lightning were close to making a trade for Karlsson last week: “I don’t think it was ever close.”
Kucherov extension doesn’t change anything …
Joe Smith of The Athletic: The long-term and big dollar commitment to Nikita Kucherov doesn’t take them out of the Erik Karlsson running. Lightning GM Steve Yzerman said that any reports of them being close to a deal for Karlsson are “very inaccurate.”
Yzerman when asked how they could add another big contract.
“I don’t think it’s impossible,” Yzerman said. “But if you look at our commitments, if we were to bring on a significant contract, we would have to make the money work, so to speak.”
Next offseason Braydon Coburn, Anton Stralman and Dan Girardi come off the books – $11.2 million. They could move Ryan Callahan ($5.8 million) or Tyler Johnson ($5 million) to clear more space.
The Lightning will also need to hand out new contracts to Brayden Point and Andrei Vasilevskiy in a year.