Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman on The Jeff Marek Show on San Jose Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Marek: “Okay, so I mentioned this to you about an hour ago, and you said, ‘Let me do some work on this.’ So the fact that you brought it up means maybe you’ve done some work on this. Maybe found something out.
Mike Grier, general manager of the San Jose Sharks. Now, we all know what Erik Karlsson is doing right now. He is on an absolute heater. He’s hit the fountain of youth. It’s like he’s 25 years old and he’s never met Matt Cooke, and that’s how he’s playing right now. Fantastic season.
And Mike Grier indicating that we’ll see what happens, but we’ll be willing to listen. After this, he has four more years on his contract, $11.5 million is the AAV. The San Jose Sharks are open to trade him if he decides he wants to go elsewhere.
One of the teams that popped into my head right away, and again, San Jose Jose would have to do the, we’re going to eat half of this. This is kind of like the Brent Burns situation. We’ll take some money to make things happen. I wondered about Ottawa.
Friedman: “I think those conversations have happened between the Sharks and the Senators. I believe the two teams have talked about it.
I just don’t know if it’s going to be possible. It’s just, what I heard is that it’s just not going to be cap possible.”
Marek: “Even with the San Jose Sharks eating 50 percent, maybe the Senators send a contract the other way.”
Friedman: “Even with the retention. But look, even if you send the contract. This is what I was talking about, like the last hour when you gave me a homework assignment.
…
But what I was kind of going on through with someone was, you go through Ottawa’s lineup. You’re not trading Stutzle. You’re not trading Tkachuk. You’re not trading Norris. You’re not undoing.”
Marek: “I was gonna say, you want to make the same trade the other way?
Friedman: ” Balcer.”
Marek: “Where’s Balcer?”
Friedman: “Got to get Balcer’s, he’s in Tampa.”
Marek: “Get Balcer’s then.”
Friedman: “You’re not trading Norris. You’re not trading Sanderson, who you have to sign. You’re not going trade, they’ve made it very clear they have not interest in trading Pinto when it came up with Arizona. Who you’ve got to sign. I assume they still want to sign DeBrincat. I’ve got no reason to believe that’s different.
Look, if you go out and get Karlsson, then you can’t keep Zub, but they still want to do Zub. I just don’t think the math works.”
Marek: “Then are the Ottawa Senators frozen? Because these are a lot of players, I understand every team is going to have varying degrees, untouchables. Players that aren’t going to be included in the deal. They want to keep Tkachuk. They want to keep Stutzle. They want to keep all these players.
Friedman: “Ya. They don’t want to make yourself worse.”
Marek: “I understand that, but we’re talking about Erik Karlsson. And we’re talking about the fountain of youth Erik Karlsson.
Friedman: “Yes.”
Marek: “Give me something in exchange for nothing isn’t exactly a business transaction that general managers around the NHL kind of get the soap and warm water feeling about.
Friedman: “They get proposed that kind of stuff a lot.”
Marek: “Sure they do. We’ll relieve you of your burden of Erik Karlsson, and half the cap hit. I don’t know how, how crisis mode it is for Ottawa right now and when we’re going to start getting into ‘Ottawa must win this game.’ Maybe where there now.”
Friedman: “I heard something very interesting . I re-watched the Pierre Dorion scrum from and I think he was sending a message. All you have to do is listen to what he had to say. He switched from we’re desperate to go out and get a defenseman, or we’re really trying hard to get a defenseman to, you know what, Jake Sanderson and Jacob Bernard-Docker could be the answer for us.
Marek: “Maybe internally we’ve had the answer here all along.
Sometimes general managers say that when there’s a frustration in the marketplace and they can’t get a deal done.”
Friedman: “Well, but I think there’s truth to that. We talked about it on Saturday night, Dorion doesn’t want to make a bad trade. Which you kind of referred to there, they don’t throw you life preservers, they throw you anvils.
But I think the other thing as well is that, I do believe, now I kind of hinted about it last Saturday and I believe it more even now, I believe there was a deal somewhere that was vetoed by a player. I don’t know who that player was, but I do believe there was, that it happened in at least one case.
Do I think he really tried hard to go out and get a defenseman? Ya, I absolutely do. He doesn’t want to make a stupid trade and so he pulled back.
The Karlsson thing. I do believe the Sharks and Senators talked about it. I just looked at the landscape of the Senators and who they won’t want to trade and where their financial commitments are going to be, and I just don’t know how it works. I’m not saying it won’t happen. I think it’s unlikely to happen. I think the road map, even with the cap goes up the way the commissioner hinted, I think the road map is extremely difficult to making that work. Very difficult.”
** NHLRumors.com transcription