Will the Sharks trade or keep Erik Karlsson and Timo Meier?
Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now: San Jose Sharks GM Mike Grier said they don’t really have any young players ready to take the torch from their older players.
Grier said that teams have reach out to him about defenseman Erik Karlsson and there is interest. Teams are kicking tires. Grier is fine with not trading this year and bringing him back. On the report that he asked for three first-round picks for Karlsson.
“I’m not gonna really get into what we’re asking for. But I don’t think that’s totally accurate.”
Grier adds that any Karlsson would have to make better in the future and to help them turn things around quicker. It’s not the same type of trade as Brent Burns given the age and term left on Karlsson’s contract.
Timo Meier is a pending RFA. Grier on if interest in Meier or if he could be extended.
“That being said, he’s the type of player that teams want, especially teams that are planning to be in the playoffs. He’s big, he’s fast, he can score, so yeah, there’s plenty of interest in him. We’ll see how it goes.
I’ve had some good talks with him about his situation and the team situation and things like that. I’ll kind of keep those between me and him and me and his agent and all. But I got all the respect in the world for him as a player and we’ll have to kind of see how it all shakes out.”
Grier added that he’s had some talks with Meier’s agent Claude Lemieux but they haven’t gone to far down the road. They have been positive.
Grier is against tanking, but he could move out from free agents that would help their odds
Corey Masisak of The Athletic: San Jose Sharks owner Hasso Plattner and GM Mike Grier are not fans of “tanking.”
“I’m against it,” he said. “I’m a super competitive person. Every organization has different thoughts on it and different opinions on it. But it’s never my intention, nor would I ever ask the coaches or players … I would never assume or hope or ask those guys not to go out there and try and win every single game. It’s not something I believe in. We’re going to try and win games right down to Game 82. We’ll kind of see where we are at the end of the day.”
This year, teams are only able to drop two spots, so finishing with one of the three worst records would mean a top-five pick.
Pending UFAs that could be trade to ‘improve their odds’ include Matt Nieto, Nick Bonino and James Reimer. Erik Karlsson’s contract make him a hard trade to pull off.
The Sharks will have some salary cap issues in the future, so trading Timo Meier could be an option to add a younger player or two that could be part of their future core,