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Thoughts On The Karlsson Trade |
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Hello everyone. Over the weekend, Erik Karlsson finally was moved by the Sharks in a three team trade involving the Canadiens but ultimately with the most recent Norris winner going to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Today I am joined by Zak MacMillan and Karine Hains to discuss the deal and who won the trade.
Zak MacMillan
Montreal Gets:
F Nathan Legare - seems things never worked out for him in the Hextall era, when I thought he was close to making the bottom six. Pittsburgh has been great at developing unknown forward prospects into decent careers. Look at Sheary, Rust, Guentzel when they first broke in. Potential can go anywhere.
G Casey DeSmith - the third goalie in Montreal now. Decent career, but isn’t worth the salary on a contending team.
D Jeff Petry (25% salary retained) - the most intriguing piece to Montreal and the main roster today. Back at a discounted rate, is the veteran leader on the defense group.
2025 2nd round draft pick (from Pittsburgh) - the unknown. Better draft class. This will depend on the results in Pitt or if it becomes a pick swap.
San Jose Gets
Mike Hoffman - crazy to see him back here after he did not stick around long the last time he was traded from an Eastern Conference team. Enjoy the tank (the arena, and the standings). Could be a deadline move?
Mikkael Granlund - the one I feel the worst for. He had such a career offensively in Minnesota and early Nashville days. Never had a chance in Pittsburgh with the regime switch. Maybe sometime with Hertl or Couture may revitalize him.
Jan Rutta - the winningest player in the move. Good defensive depth in Pittsburgh will now be elevated in San Jose. Maybe this is his most ice time since Chicago.
2024 conditional 1st round draft pick (from Pittsburgh top 10 protected) - if it becomes a 2025 1st, that might be more desired if Pitt finishes bad. A first was needed for a the type of player they gave up.
Pittsburgh Gets
F Dillon Hamaliuk - coast guy. Maybe does better in Wilkes-Barre?
F Rem Pitlick - didn’t think he would be moved out of Montreal. Found himself some success in Minnesota before being a waiver claim in Montreal. Bottom six guy in the depth of Pittsburgh or could be a deadline move if things fail.
D Erik Karlsson - you get the best player in trade. Ottawa fans are not thrilled with this heel turn. The 3x Norris winner. My worry is age and status. Pittsburgh now has two injury prone RHD in Karlsson and Letang on the roster. This could be a Cup team or a lottery team on the season they have. Two power play quarterbacks? Goalies worst nightmare. Better hope the slow left side of the ice can help out.
Short Term Winner - Pittsburgh. They got the best player in Erik Karlsson.
Long term Winner - Either Montreal or San Jose. They are letting the vets take the ice while the prospects develop. Petry can guide Hudson and Reinbacher on the young elite defense. Granlund and Hoffman can produce while Eklund and Smith find themselves in development. The location of the first in 2024 or 2025 is having me split my pick in the middle. There is not a long term win for Pittsburgh with the aging group.
Karine Hains
ch created a logjam at forwards for the Habs and prevented young players from getting significant ice time in the NHL without offering much in return. With 14 forwards signed to NHL deals, something had to give. By sending Mike Hoffman and Rem Pitlick to Pittsburgh, Hughes made Marty St-Louis’ life much easier and created some space for his young forwards.
Of course, nothing is free in life and the cost of getting rid of Hoffman was taking Jeff Petry back, but at a discounted rate since the Penguins retained part of his $6 million plus price tag. Considering Petry wanted out of Montreal for family reasons last year, it’s highly unlikely that Hughes isn’t already trying to flip the right shot defenseman. The Penguins struggled to trade him as he had a 15-team no trade clause, but thankfully for Pittsburgh, Montreal wasn’t on the list. Hughes probably hopes that Petry at a discounted rate will be easier to trade to the teams that aren’t on his no trade list and Hughes can also retain some salary himself and move him with a $2.3 million price tag. At that price, Petry’s contract is much more digestible, and he could help a contending team.
As for the other parts, Casey DeSmith’s arrival is good news for the Habs who are in all likelihood thinking that they may lose Cayden Primeau on waivers if they have to send him back to Laval after training camp. If they do and he is claimed on waivers, they’ll at least have another experienced NHL goalie in DeSmith (although he’ll have to clear waivers too). Hometown native Nathan Legare will be a good addition for the Laval Rocket and a 2nd round pick is always nice to have.
San Jose Sharks
Just like the Canadiens, the Sharks are in rebuilding mode, and they had no use for an aging defenseman on an $11.5 million contract a year for four more years. That price tag made it quite hard to move Karlsson even though he’s just coming off a 101 points season and is the reigning Norris trophy winner. They had to retain part of his salary, but $1.5 million is a lot better than the full amount.
In return, the Sharks received the Penguins’ first round pick at next draft and considering the Pens missed the playoffs last season, San Jose is probably hoping that they don’t manage to right the ship and they end up with a pick in the top half of the first round.
On the ice, the Sharks picked up three roster players in the deal, Mikael Granlund, Jan Ruuta and Mike Hoffman. Granlund is a 31-year-old center who’ll be on his fourth team with San Jose and has managed 41 points in 79 games last year. He’s got two more years on his $5 million AAV contract. As for Jan Ruuta, he’s a 33-year-old defenseman with a $2.75 million price tag for two more years and while he’s not a big point producer, he’s a good shut down blueliner who can bring some stability to the defense corps. Finally, they also received Mike Hoffman from the Pens, the price to pay to more Karlsson. Once a great weapon on the power play, Hoffman has considerably slowed down and is coming off two less than stellar seasons in Montreal where he picked up 35 and 34 points in 67 games each year. Speaking to the San Jose media, Hoffman said he would like to be a leader for the young Sharks players but after watching him play for two years in Montreal, he’s not exactly the example you want your young players to follow. If his work ethics had been commendable, the Canadiens wouldn’t have been trying that hard to flip him. At least Hoffman will only be on the Sharks’ books for a single season, after this year, him and his $4.5 M AAV will be history.
Pittsburgh Penguins
By acquiring Karlsson, the Penguins add another interesting piece to their big tree. Since the team core’s is not getting any younger, Pittsburgh is in a win now mode, even though they missed the playoffs’ last year. Crosby and Letang are both 36, Malkin is 37 and they all want another chance to win it all before they call it a career.
Adding Karlsson will certainly make their attack and their power play better (27 of Karlsson’s 101 points came on the man advantage), the Pens had a 21.7% success rate on the man advantage last season and were 16th in goal for on the year, but is that really where the improvement is needed? Their goal against (14th) and penalty kill (16th) numbers weren’t exactly flamboyant. There’s no denying that Karlsson is a good player, but you can’t forget about his deficiencies off the puck.
Furthermore, even though the Sharks retained part of his contract, Karlsson will still cost the Penguins $10 million a year for the next four years and that’s not a small commitment and its longer than both Crosby and Malkin are signed for. At least, the last two years include a lot of signing bonus and less base salary, which could make it easier to move, even though Karlsson will have to consent to any trade since he’s got a full no move clause. When this deal happened, I’ll admit I couldn’t help but think that Kyle Dubas hadn’t learnt a thing. Whether it’s Toronto or Pittsburgh, the man isn’t scared of overinflated contracts that make the cap situation hard to handle.
The Pens also add a couple of players to the fold, Rem Pitlick who’s a cheap serviceable forward who felt like there was no room for him in Montreal and Dillon Hamaliuk a 22-year-old forward who was drafted in the second-round by the Sharks in 2019. Hamaliuk has yet to play a single NHL game so the jury is still out on what he can bring to the table. Finally, the Pens also get a 2026 third round pick which will no doubt come in handy since their focus hasn’t really been on drafting in the last few years.
In the end, even though the Penguins got the biggest name involved in this deal, I can’t help but think that both Montreal and San Jose came out on top by getting rid of unwanted goods and gaining some flexibility cap wise.
Sean Maloughney
This is an interesting trade for all parties involved and while at first glance it's easy to pick the Penguins as the clear winner by getting Erik Karlsson, there is certainly a chance this is all going to blow up in their faces. Pittsburgh missed the playoffs for the first time in over a decade last season. New GM Kyle Dubas has come out swinging, adding the likes of Reilly Smith, Ryan Graves, and now Erik Karlsson while getting rid of poor contracts like Mikael Granlund, Rutta, Petry, and DeSmith. That is all good.
The real question of it all is what Karlssson are the Penguins getting? Karlsson struggled heavily in San Jose prior to last season. I'd attribute a big part of those struggles being that he had to play behind another top pairing player in Burns and the Sharks having a group of forwards that could actually move the puck. Last season they had none of those things, paving the way for Karlsson to put the offense on his own back.
In Pittsburgh, Karlsson will be playing behind Kris Letang and a forward core that has Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. You aren't going to see Karlsson streaking up the ice going 200 feet to score a goal like he had to do countless times in San Joses.
I respect the Penguins and Dubas for trying to squeeze every last drop of talent from Crosby and Malkin but at 36 and 37 years old the decline is going to eventually start happening. If it starts this season and the Penguins still miss the playoffs than they have a 10 million dollar anchor for the next four seasons.
For the Sharks, they really didn't get much in terms of value for Karlsson aside from a top 10 protected first rounder. However at the end of the day the Sharks just needed to move on from the contract and focus on rebuilding their core and they did achieve that.
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