Kathryn Tappen: Sources are saying that Erik Karlsson doesn’t want to sign an extension with a Canadian team and that he wants to play in a U.S. market.
Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun: There were no new ‘public’ developments on the Erik Karlsson trade front yesterday, but it doesn’t mean things weren’t being discussed behind the scenes.
The Ottawa Senators are not just going to trade Karlsson for the sake of trading him. There has been traction of late and there are some indications that it’s possible that he’s traded before the start of training camp.
The Tampa Bay Lightning may be the most logical landing spot for Karlsson, and were one of the teams that spoke to Karlsson’s camp about a contract extension last month.
The Dallas Stars, Vegas Golden Knights, and San Jose Sharks have been in on Karlsson trade talks. The Stars and Golden Knights are believed to have made serious pushes. The Sharks may need to get a third team involved because of cap space.
There was a report yesterday that Karlsson doesn’t want to sign an extension with a Canadian team.
“If you don’t deal him now, then this is going to go into the season because every team feels it has all the answers in training camp,” a league executive said Wednesday. “Who knows? Maybe in November a team has got off to a tough start and wants to make a big move by dealing for Karlsson.”
Training camp is three weeks away and their best bet may be to get a deal done soon, and GM Pierre Dorion is trying to make that happen.
Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun: The Vegas Golden Knights, Dallas Stars, and San Jose Sharks have shown interest in Erik Karlsson again this week. It’s not known if the Tampa Bay Lightning are back in the mix. Elliotte Friedman has said the Vancouver Canucks have shown recent interest.
The teams that are involved in the trade talks would like to get a deal done before the trade of training camp so their core roster is set going into training camp.
It’s believed the Senators are looking for four assets for Karlsson including a player who could immediately help them, a high-end prospect, and a first-round pick.
Belief is that the Senators were looking for Quinn Hughes, a roster player, and a first-round pick from the Canucks, but the Canucks aren’t really interested in giving up one of their top young assets. The Canucks do have the assets to make a deal though.