One of the biggest offseason trade rumors has been the potential trade of reigning Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson. The talented blueliner seems destined to suit up for someone other than the San Jose Sharks next season, but with under 80 days to go until the season gets under way he is still on the San Jose roster.
So what is the delay? It seems that no one wants to meet the asking price that general manager Mike Grier has set to pry his superstar off of his hands. The consensus seems to be that the Carolina Hurricanes and Pittsburgh Penguins are the front runners. Karlsson himself confirmed that he has spoken with those two teams as well as the Seattle Kraken and the Toronto Maple Leafs among other teams.
Based on some of the moves Carolina has made over the last few days, it’s looking less likely that Karlsson might be heading that way. First of all they signed Anthony DeAngelo, an all-offense defenseman. Then they extended Sebastian Aho, tying up $9.75 million worth of cap room for eight years starting in 2024-25. They also have to deal with pending free agents Teuvo Teravainen and Brett Pesce as well as future RFAs Seth Jarvis and Martin Necas.
There likely isn’t enough cap space for them to bring in Karlsson even if San Jose retains 50% and another 25% is washed through another team. Karlsson’s cap hit is $11.5 million through the 2026-27 season. That’s a big hit for a team to take.
The Penguins are in a similar spot as they are up against the cap as well, but have a few pieces (looking at you Mikael Granlund) that they could send back to make the money work.
Grier can afford to wait out the other teams at this point. He’s not likely to pull in a king’s ransom in the deal simply due to the amount of money involved, but he should be able to acquire a few pieces. The relationship between him and Karlsson seems cordial enough and, while Karlsson has made it clear he wants to play for a contender, he may be willing to start the season in San Jose while waiting for the right fit.
Lightning / NHL News
Lightning add depth at forward [NHL.com]
The league’s website takes a look at the Lightning’s offseason additions and subtractions. Interesting projected line-up with Tanner Jeannot on the second line and Logan Brown getting the nod on the fourth line.
Top five franchise-altering trades [Sportskeeda]
I don’t usually link to this site because it’s pretty click-baity, but I found it absolutely hilarious that the number 2 trade on their list was titled “Lightning trade Kyle Quincy”. Dude was on the team for basically 15 minutes. However, the trade did net the draft pick the Bolts used for Andrei Vasilevskiy, so it was technically pretty franchise altering.
Hurricanes re-sign Sebastian Aho [Canes Country]
There will be no contract drama this time around as the Carolina Hurricanes lock up Aho for 8 years at a tidy $9.75 million per season.
Matt Murray placed on LTIR [ESPN]
The Toronto Maple Leafs placed goaltender Matt Murray on LTIR and have declared that he will be out indefinitely. The 29-year-old suffered a plethora of injuries last season including a head injury. The move allows the Leafs to put his $4.69 million cap hit on LTIR as they struggle to get under the cap following the signing of goalie Ilya Samsonov earlier this offseason. There is a very good chance that the league took a long, hard look at the medical records before this decision became official. The team had cleared Murray in the second round playoff loss to the Florida Panthers last season. so there had to be some overwhelming evidence he is still dealing with an issue for the league to let this happen.
Even with the move, Toronto is sill about $2 million over the cap limit. More cuts are a coming.
109 players participate in Hockey Canada’s Program of Excellence Summer Meetings [CHL.ca]
One of the players at the Under-20 virtual meeting was the Lightning’s Ethan Gauthier. These summer meetings give Hockey Canada an idea of who might participate in the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge as well as the IIHF Men’s World Junior Hockey Championship.
10 worst contracts in the NHL [The Athletic]
There is nary a Lightning name to be had on this list, even in the honorable (dishonorable?) mentions.
Vlad Namestnikov talks about re-signing with Winnipeg [Illegal Curve Hockey Show]
Russian Bieber never ages, does he? Vlad talks about his decision to re-sign in Winnipeg, as well as why he waived his no-trade to go to the Jets at the deadline (his familiarity with some of the coaches from his Tampa days played a part).
