Despite the fact that the Sharks prospect-pool is, according to many, very shallow and that there’s a lack of high draft picks in the Sharks system they keep being mentioned as a potential destination for Erik Karlsson. Is this a serious claim, or are NHL-insiders just misinformed?

In this post I will not go in-depth into how a potential Erik Karlsson trade would look, but instead if it’s even logical and realistic that it could happen. This will be a brief post, because quite frankly it’s in my opinion a brief topic. So, I’ll give you my opinion straight up. No. The Sharks should not be considered serious contenders for the generational talent that is Erik Karlsson, and here’s why. For starters, Karlssons value is insanely high, meaning the Sharks would have to give up very valuable assets to acquire him. Such as our first round draft pick in 2020, Ryan Merkley, Josh Norris, Rudolf Balcers, and most likely roster-players like Tomas Hertl, Timo Meier, or Kevin Labanc. Considering the fact that Karlsson has one more year left on his contract, paying such a steep price for what would essentially be a rental simply doesn’t make sense. This means that Doug Wilson would likely have a contract extension in place for Karlsson if he would trade for him, so that makes it all worth it right?

Except no, it really doesn’t. We can assume that Karlssons next contract will atleast have the same value as the contract Drew Doughty signed with the Kings four days ago. That means an AAV of atleast $11 million. Karlsson has somewhat more hardware to show for and is by many considered being slightly better, so he’ll probably get a little more. Say $11,5 million. Lets stop right there. Imagine this scenario, the Sharks traded for Erik Karlsson and gave up some of the assets I mentioned earlier, and he just signed a new 8 year $11,5 million contract with the Sharks. This still sounds pretty brilliant right? Except this is where the trouble starts. Our defence is now stacked, but it’s extremely expensive. Our highest earners are Karlsson ($11,5 million), Burns ($8 million) and Vlasic ($7 Million), Braun ($3,8 million) and Dillon ($3,270 million).

Essentially, what they’ve done is handcuffed ourselves. The defence is impeccable, but the Sharks now no longer have the cap-space or assets to acquire what they need the most, a number 1 centre. Furthermore, they’ve probably already lost some offensive firepower in the trade for Karlsson himself leaving them vulnerable up front. There’s no doubt that Erik Karlsson is an amazing player, but he’s not the type of player that the Sharks need. This would be the reverse situation that Toronto has gotten themselves in. Adding Tavares was huge for their offensive capabilities, but they still have very weak defence and now lack the means to effectively cover that hole. In the future they’ll probably have to trade one of Nylander or Marner for a defenseman if their defensive prospects don’t pan out.

There is one scenario that could potentially work in the Sharks favor, even though it’s highly unlikely. And that would be a 3-way trade. If Doug Wilson could pull off a maneuver where he trades for Erik Karlsson and then flips him to another team for a number 1 centre, that would be a sight to behold. If this would somehow happen, I would hang a picture of Doug Wilson over my bed and kiss it every night before I go to sleep until the day I die, I can promise you that.

So there’s my reasoning over why Erik Karlsson on the Sharks simply doesn’t make sense, nor improves our chances of winning the Stanley Cup in the future. The Sharks would have to give up valuable assets that they don’t have in abundance and it would stop them from addressing the roster issues that should be focused on. But lets not get ahead of ourselves. We need to remember that any trade with the Senators is highly unlikely in the future, considering what Doug Wilson did with Mike Hoffman.

Emil