Why, And Why Not, Senators Might Trade For Former Captain Karlsson

The Ottawa Senators were expected to take a pretty big step forward this season. So far, they haven’t had the returns they were expecting in Canada’s capital.

Injuries to key players, such as top-line center Josh Norris and top defensemen Thomas Chabot, have left the Senators with a 5-9-1 record.

At the NHL general manager meetings, Ottawa general manager Pierre Dorion said the team was “very active” in looking to acquire a potential replacement blue liner, potentially on the trade market.

Interestingly on the opposite coast, San Jose Sharks general manager Mike Grier said he was open to trade talks involving Erik Karlsson. Could a reunion between the captain and his former team be possible?

The Senators need help, and Erik Karlsson might be available.

Karlsson is having a renaissance season and currently leads all NHL defensemen in scoring with 10 goals and 24 points. After injury-riddled seasons, Karlsson said he had to change his game to be more efficient and durable this past offseason.

We speculated about what that might mean, but whatever Karlsson is doing, it’s definitely working.

Unfortunately, Karlsson is the byproduct of former Sharks management who thought they could avoid a true rebuild by signing players such as Evander Kane and Karlsson while the rest of their roster was aging or ineffective.

Eventually, San Jose gave in to the rebuild. That did leave them with the league’s most expensive patchwork job.

Karlsson has a no-trade clause, which is a pretty big roadblock to overcome if San Jose wants to move him as part of their rebuild.

Buried deep in the NHl.com article about a potential Karlsson trade was the little fact that the San Jose head coach visited Karlsson in Ottawa over the off season. Not only is Karlsson still beloved by Ottawa fans, but he still calls the city home.

The former captain left Ottawa when the team was filled with turmoil and a lot of drama. There was the ever going Eugene Melnyk saga, added with an inevitable rebuild, the taxi dash cam scandal, not to mention whatever personal vendetta was going on between Mike Hoffman’s girlfriend and Karlsson’s wife.

Brighter days have seemingly come to the Senators which could lead to a happy reunion.

Yes, at age 32 Karlsson is a bit older than most of the players on the young Ottawa squad, which is very different than the one he was traded from.

Adding older players does not seem to necessarily be a deterrent for Ottawa. After all, they did sign 34-year-old Claude Giroux to a three-year contract this offseason.

Before you get too excited, here’s why it’s not going to happen. CapFriendly predicts the Senators could have somewhere between $4 million to $14 million in cap space come the deadline.

Meanwhile, Karlsson currently carries (try saying that five times really fast) an $11.50 million cap hit. In any potential deal, there is no question San Jose is going to have to retain salary.

For a Cup contender who thinks they are one Karlsson away, they can justify the price tag. Ottawa, while improving, is still respectively far away.

San Jose wishes it could find a trade partner for Karlsson. Everything about his contract, from the cap hit to the no-trade clause, complicates things. Still, we’re sure there are some Ottawa fans who would love to see a homecoming.