Erik Karlsson has been the center of NHL trade rumors this summer. The question doesn’t seem to be will he be traded, but to whom and for how much? Let’s look at the contenders.
It goes without saying how valuable Ottawa Senators captain Erik Karlsson is. In today’s NHL, where puck-moving, offensive defensemen are the most important piece of any team, adding the fact that he shoots right-handed, plays almost half the game nightly, and puts up the numbers he does, his value is at an all-time high.
Karlsson just turned 28, which is usually around the prime of his career. He is also up for free agency after next season, where he’s projected to make as much money as he wants.
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This all said he’s currently stuck on a Senators team that just had their bottom fall out over the course of one season. A fire sale and rebuild were started much earlier than anyone expected. Ottawa can’t afford to lose Karlsson for nothing, and he’s about as unlikely to sign with Ottawa as it is to open your window and see a pig flying toward a blue moon.
The Sens offered Karlsson an eight-year deal worth about $10 million per season. However, that seems like a low-ball offer, as if to say, “We tried, oh well”. With that offer that we’ll call a formality, the Senators allowed teams to negotiate with Karlsson to see if he’d sign an extension with that team. Seems to go without saying that if a team wants to acquire a player like him, it would be for more than one year.
Since the beginning of July, things seemingly have gone radio silent, until the other day, Elliotte Friedman woke up the hockey world by tweeting that trade talks were renewing. Since that tweet, speculation has gone wild, and we here are no different.
There are a few teams who have been involved in one way or another over the course of negotiations: Lightning, Canucks, Stars, Golden Knights, to name the most prominent rumors. Whomever it is who wants to acquire Karlsson must be willing to part with players, picks, prospects, and cap space in order to land the generational talent.
Here’s what we project Karlsson would cost the teams involved (purely speculative).