Daily Faceoff: Frank Seravalli on how teams don’t want to give up anything of significant in a trade for San Jose Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson.
Seravalli: “The Sharks are still looking for a significant return for Erik Karlsson, and they haven’t found one team that’s willing to give them anywhere close to that.
And so those teams have all essentially sat back and said, ‘hey, call us in August. You let us know when you want to talk and when can pick this up again, but we’re not giving you anything significant.’
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And that’s problematic for the Sharks because they think this is a player that you have to get a return for. And more than that, they don’t really want to get nothing and retain 20% on this player just to get him off their books.
So I think the hang up has been a little bit along the same lines of what we heard back at the trade deadline, which is the Sharks are looking for a significant deal and they’re not properly valuing the cap space, the freedom, the flexibility from getting off an $11.5 million player. And that’s really what holding this back.
Mike McKenna of Daily Faceoff: San Jose Sharks GM Mike Grier can’t let the Erik Karlsson situation drag into training camp. Grier is doing is best to a ‘worthy return’ for Karlsson but the four years at $11.5 million is proving challenging.
Karlsson has a full no-movement clause and admitted to speaking with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Carolina Hurricanes, Toronto Maple Leafs and Seattle Kraken.
Looking at the potential fits.
Carolina Hurricanes – Would be a big help to their power play. Karlsson played four seasons with Brett Burns in San Jose and it didn’t go that well. The Hurricanes should pass and try to add a scoring forward.
Pittsburgh Penguins – If they could switch Jeff Petry for Karlsson, it would be an upgrade. The Penguins would need to move salary.
Seattle Kraken – Karlsson would give the Kraken a big name, but are they really Stanley Cup contenders? Would Karlsson see them as contenders? Would likely need to move a defenseman if they were to bring in a defenseman.
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Toronto Maple Leafs – They’ve been connected to Karlsson for months but was that former GM and current Penguins GM Kyle Dubas? Hard to see where Karlsson makes sense for the Maple Leafs unless they’re moving TJ Brodie or Morgan Reilly. The Leafs signed John Klingberg for just over $4 million.