NHL Network: Elliotte Friedman on the latest on San Jose Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Jamie Hersch: “Of course the biggest question we ask ourselves everyday, is today going to be the day when Erik Karlsson finds a new home and they get a deal worked out with San Jose.
Is there any more meat on this bone? What’s the latest there?
Friedman: “You know, I think the toughest thing with this story Jamie is that I think it kind of ebs and flows. I still do think it’s primarily two teams – Pittsburgh and Carolina. If there’s somebody else there, I’m not aware of it.
At times I’ve had people tell me that they think it’s more likely than not that Carolina’s going to be the destination. At other times, including the one most recently, I’ve had people say to me, ‘no, they kind of think it’s tipping a little bit towards Pittsburgh.’ But, the thing is, that’s the danger about reporting this is that it seems to change from time to time.
I think that, one of the things here, and specifically I’m talking about Carolina is, you know Carolina has a lot of balls in the air. They’ve got, they’re trying to deal with Brett Pesce’s situation. I think they’ve talked to some teams with about (Teuvo) Teravainen if they need to make some cap room.
So I think Carolina’s got a few things going on out there that are not only incumbent on Karlsson but also incumbent on things like Pesce and Teravainen in the last year of their deals. And I think that they have been talking to teams about those players. So I think Carolina has a few different things going on.
When it comes to Pittsburgh, like I said, I had some people a couple days ago say they thought it was tipping a little bit more towards Pittsburgh, but again, it comes down to what is the sweet spot on what Karlsson’s kept salary by San Jose will be.
And I think in particular, I think Carolina’s got a number in mind that in this point in time I don’t think San Jose’s going to get to. Well see what Pittsburgh can do.
But again, I always say this, this changes, I wouldn’t say day-to-day, but it changes periodically till it gets done.