Rob Rossi of The Athletic wrote a column today with regard to the Erik Karlsson trade saga. While many of the updates offered were hardly surprising, there were a few pieces of information that gave some insights into how the Pittsburgh Penguins became involved in the trade talks. Pittsburgh always seemed like a team that couldn’t squeeze a player with Karlsson’s cap number into their lineup, but based on the recent reporting it appears that they are the front-runner.
Rossi begins the article by dropping the news that Kyle Dubas reportedly identified Erik Karlsson as a trade target while he was in the interview process with Penguins ownership. Now, aside from the Tristan Jarry extension to this point much of Dubas’ work has been to tinker around the edges of the Penguins lineup. But it does appear that he’s built up the club’s depth in the bottom six and their defense core for the possibility that some players could be shipped out very soon.
Another newer piece of information that Rossi mentions is that Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang have reportedly endorsed the potential Karlsson acquisition and in Letang’s case, he’s even agreed to make changes to his own role within the Penguins lineup. If a potential trade were to go through, Letang would remain as Pittsburgh’s number one defenseman, however, Letang would change his powerplay role to allow Karlsson to quarterback the Penguin’s powerplay.
San Jose was also reportedly interested in defenseman Marcus Pettersson being part of a potential blockbuster, however, Dubas has squashed that notion thus far as head coach Mike Sullivan sees Pettersson and newly acquired defender Ryan Graves as the top two options for the left side of Pittsburgh’s defensive group. Pettersson was terrific for Pittsburgh last season after seeing his name all over trade rumors boards for much of the summer of 2022.
Lastly, Dubas apparently wants to put top-5 protection on any first-round pick he trades in a Karlsson deal and has reportedly floated the idea of putting other conditions such as home-ice advantage on lower-round draft picks that could be involved in the deal.
While it appears that the Penguins are still the front-runner to land the reigning Norris Trophy winner, it doesn’t appear that a trade is imminent anytime soon. Pittsburgh would have to navigate an awful lot of moving parts to push the trade through, however, as we’ve seen in the past these trades can come together quickly when teams are motivated to make the move happen. Regardless of the outcome, it does look like Dubas has plans to continue his makeover of the Penguins roster before the start of the 2023-24 season.
Karlsson is 35, Injury prone, And can’t play defense, He’s getting far to much attention.
He’s 33, not 35. He’s also played on two terrible teams that haven’t provided much of a supporting cast. Saying he can’t play defense is silly.
Karlsson is horrible on defense with any team he plays for. Only time his defense is any good is when he’s on offense
Well they do say the best defence is a good offence, so I guess that makes him a pretty good defender!
Interesting, considering his advanced D stats are actually quite good. Perhaps you should watch him play sometime.
As a leafs fan I have seen tons of Karlsson. He’s terrible in his own zone. He’s great at a lot of things, but own zone defense no.
Have no idea where you are getting these “good defensive stats” from.
I’d really like to find out what you are smoking… Karlsson’s defensive metrics are terrible…
Can’t even get basic facts correct. Nice parody account Wilf.
Facts have never mattered to Wilf. Rambling, off base, yapping, uninformed bad guesses are his forté.
Disagree a ton on what you said wilf for various reasons
I’m trying to see a path towards making the money work, and I just don’t see one. There must be a LOT of moving pieces to bring Karlsson in, give San Jose the assets they are looking for, move enough money out to get back under the cap, and end up with a better team than they have now. Let alone a cup contending team. There may be a path to that. But I can’t see it.
Last month the sticking point seemed to be how much of Karlsson’s contract San Jose was willing to eat to get a deal done. They seemed willing to eat about $3 million per year for that last four years (which is terrible as is) but it sounded like Dubas & Pitt wanted them to eat more (closer to $5 million) which would make Mike Grier look pretty bad.
Even if San Jose retains half the Pens need to clear $8million without hurting the team. I don’t know how that happens.
You don’t need Petry as your 3rd RHD and granlund is replaceable.
As may be, but that would mean that Pittsburgh would have to MOVE Petry and Granlund. And that’s “moving the 35 year old with two years left on a NTC” and “moving the 31 year old making $5 MM and who just had a mediocre season.” Pittsburgh is going to have to pay the Sharks a hefty price for Karlsson, and they just don’t have the draft or prospect capital to waste to bribe someone to take Petry AND eat a buyout on Granlund as well.
And does Karlsson bring so very much to the table to offset all of that, when they already HAVE Letang and Petry? Nope. Not at all. I get that the yinzers are all over “Ooooh shiny new toy,” but this is a really expensive toy in an area where the Pens are not precisely hurting.
Besides inconsistent goaltending, the thing that killed the Pens last year was our D couldn’t move the puck to the forwards on the fly and because of that we’d get pinned in our zone for too long and not generate enough offense off the rush.
Karlsson is the best possible addition in that regard.
And here is the thing everyone forgets, when we got Phil Kessel no one was saying “Oh, he’s the final piece, this is now a Cup favorite” they were saying “well, at least they’ll be fun to watch again” and ooops we won two Cups.
And Karlsson isn’t going to cost much to acquire. The Sharks will be happy to move his contract and get something back. The main cost of the deal will be moving Petry. Paying to clear that cap space is what will be costly.
And if he proves nothing more than a shiny new toy…still better than the “kids we sold off all your nice toys, here’s some stuff we found in an old box upstairs” rebuild people want to waste the final years of multiple HOF careers in order to get some 9th overall picks instead of letting it all burn into a pile of top 3 picks.
Shiny new future Hall of Fame REIGNING Norris Trophy winner toy, please.
Karlsson will help you move the puck out of the zone, but there will be so many other issues in your own zone when he’s on the ice, guys walk around him like he’s not even there. The fact he won a Norris shows how truly meaningless that award has become, because he’s a terrible defender.
I agree Pitt should go for it, and Karlsson is a good addition, but there will be other issues with having him, but hey Pitt won with Coffey, so it definitely can be done. I would love to see Pitt go on a run, but get shut down by my leafs :)
I agree with past comments that I have seen that have stated Karlsson is a winger playing defense.
The Pens will wait until after Drew O’Connor’s arb hearing for the buyout window to open up and jettison Granlund’s contract. Then Petry will be part of the deal, either to SJ or to a third team. Then the Sharks eat the rest. That’s how the money will work.
I’d like to see Dubas try to top 8 or top 10 protect the pick, though.
Other than that, let’s do it.
Buying out Granlund saves $2.5million. But who takes his spot in the roster? What’s the sweetener to get someone to take Petry’s contract? What are they giving the Sharks for Karlsson? After all those questions are answered I don’t see how you get to a team that looks like a cup contender.
Karlsson isn’t really going to cost anything crazy. Sharks want out of the contract and he wants out of San Jose. It would be Karlsson with 4.5 retained for either Ty Smith or PO, Poulin, 2024 1st, 2025 2nd that can become a 1st. Petry and a pick should be enough for a team to take him.
I was thinking more along the lines of one high cap hit and a second going to SJ to be honest… Karlsson wont fetch all of that.
If the trade happens I hope they pair Letang and Karlsson on defense. I won’t go to the bathroom when those 2 are on the ice, because there’s bound to be a puck in the net either in front of or behind them more shifts than not.
Hoping the pen signs him cause it’ll ruin the franchise. Gary’s little darling.
Exactly.
Gary Bettman LOVES a city he likely never set foot in until his 40’s and the 32nd biggest media market in the US so very very much.
I can’t see a Karlsson deal getting done without a 3rd team. The Sharks aren’t going to eat the amount of the contract that the Penguins want & the Penguins might now have the assets the Sharks want in return. The Sharks aren’t taking a deal with Petry & Granlund in it. Having a third team eat more of the contract for an asset or two can help alleviate the cap hits. There was a rumor with Carolina’s interest in Karlsson that had Pesce going to Nashville along with a draft pick in exchange for the Preds eating part of Karlsson’s contract. Fabbro was heading to San Jose as part of the deal along with assets from Carolina. The Pens might need to look at a similar route in order to get a deal done.
Guentzel Crosby Rust/Rakell Graves Letang
Smith Malkin Rakell/Rust Pettersson Karlsson
Those are two very strong five man units.
Would/will be fun to watch, if nothing else.
Let me show my stupidity about NHL finances and contracts. In the NFL, you often hear about players who’ll restructure their contracts, either to make room for a specific player his team is looking to add or to generally free up space so his team can add players
Am I mistaken in saying this does not take place in the NHL?
No it doesn’t happen in the nhl.