Featured
Sharks Take Criticism While Misreading Trade Market for Karlsson
The fact that the San Jose Sharks have remained firm in their trade ask for Erik Karlsson has started to draw criticism.
There’s been a lot of talk but no action when it comes to the situation surrounding Erik Karlsson of the San Jose Sharks. Since the NHL Trade Deadline last season, Karlsson has been a name of interest as he looks to move to a team that will be competitive and the Sharks try to get value for a Norris Trophy-Winning defenseman who has an $11.5 million cap hit.
Back at the deadline, the Sharks weren’t willing to eat much of his salary in a deal, which is why he was ultimately never moved. Trying again this off-season, the Sharks are said to be firm in their resolve to get something for the player, even though it’s clear the market isn’t there unless Karlsson becomes a $7 – $9 million player.
This process has taken so long, the Sharks are starting to find that teams are backing off and drawing a line in the sand that will only, eventually, lower the return the Sharks get for Karlsson.
Related: Big Three-Team Trade Proposal Surfaces Involving Erik Karlsson
As per Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff: “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 we can pick this up again, but we’re not giving you anything significant.” He adds that’s problematic for the Sharks because they believe this is a player the organization needs to get a return for and they don’t want to retain a little as 20% just to get them off their books.
Seravalli says the bit critique coming out of the market is that the Sharks are not properly valuing the cap space that gets freed up for them by moving this player. No one wants to take on Karlsson’s big contract, despite how good he is and the Sharks are failing to realize that moving $8 or $9 million off of their cap is a huge win when it comes to their rebuild, even if they get little to nothing back.
That the Sharks have placed no value on moving an $11.5 million contract and not appreciated the fact that teams are even open to taking on a big chunk of Karlsson’s deal for the next number of years has irked teams who are no longer willing to talk trade unless the Sharks start to appreciate the predicament they are in.
The Sharks Are Making a Mistake Here
All the while, the Sharks maintain that they are OK with keeping Karlsson, while the player himself has publicly stated he’s not alright with playing out the rest of his contract in San Jose.
Something has to give here and until the Sharks budge, it sounds like a deal isn’t happening. Another team tried to do last year what the Sharks are doing now, and that’s the Arizona Coyotes. They held firm onto their ask for Jakob Chychrun and when a deal finally got done, many saw it as an underwhelming return. The Senators ended up getting Chychrun for much less than the rumored ask and it was due to the Coyotes waiting too long and narrowing the marketplace down to a point where only one team was really a contender.
Next: Tarasenko Missed Out On Much Bigger, First Offer From Senators
Pingback: Sharks and Karlsson Could Consider Mutual Contract Termination