Holy Shit It's Finally Happening. Erik Karlsson Has Been Traded To The San Jose Sharks
I don’t want to make this completely about me but this is a monumental day in my life. Every step of the way, I’ve been there to cover the latest on Erik Karlsson. These are just the blogs since July 2nd of this summer.
That’s 13 Erik Karlsson blogs. Some people may say it’s an obsession. Others may say I’m like the Brian Windhorst of Erik Karlsson coverage. But after months of blog after blog after blog, Erik Karlsson has finally been released from Hockey Hell (read: Ottawa) and is on his way to San Jose.
Yes, you read that correctly. Erik Karlsson and Brent Burns on the same blueline. That is now two super teams in the Bay Area. Did the Golden State Warriors ruin the NHL? You tell me.
Brent Burns won the Norris Trophy as the league’s top defenseman in the 2016-17 season. Karlsson first won the trophy in 2011-12 and then won it again in 2014-15. Sure, he’s had a few recurring foot injuries over the past few seasons that may have slowed him down a bit from like a 100 rating to a 95. But the San Jose Sharks now have 3 of the last 7 Norris Trophies on their blueline. And just fucking imagine these two working together on the powerplay. Goddamn.
Evander Kane. Logan Couture. Joe Pavelski. Brent Burns. Erik Karlsson. This team is absolutely stacked with talent and now they have to be considered the favorites to make it out of the West. Anything less than a few Stanley Cup Final appearances from that core and it’s a bust. It’s pretty self-explanatory but this is the ultimate “All In” move for Doug Wilson and the San Jose Sharks. A group of guys in their late-20’s/early-30’s. They’ve been all-stars. They’ve been Olympians. They’ve been Norris Trophy winners. In today’s NHL, it’s damn near impossible to load up a roster with that much top end talent. But the Sharks were able to get it done.
Now obviously there are a ton of other details that we need to figure out. Like how much is Erik Karlsson going to sign for when he gets his extension. You have to figure that if he’s getting ~$11M, that this is likely the final season of Joe Thornton’s career or at least in San Jose. They’re going to need his $5M cap hit next season once Karlsson’s new contract kicks in. We also have to figure out what package will be going back to Ottawa in return and I’ll update the blog as soon as we find that out.
Actually, while I was finishing up the blog the details just came out.
What is crazy is that Ottawa obviously needs a 2019 1st round pick after they traded theirs away to Colorado for Matt Duchene. San Jose doesn’t have a pick in the 2019 draft already so I guess the Sens are just loading the fuck up for the 2020 draft. As a reminder, Eugene Melnyk said in that video earlier in the week that Ottawa had a ton of picks built up over the course of the next 4-5 years. I guess this is a start to building up that arsenal. But even though this package is massive (4 players and 4 picks), I still think it’s an absolute steal for Erik Karlsson.
P.S. – If I were the Sharks, I probably would have thrown Melker Karlsson into the package as well just to avoid any confusion.