Breaking: Sens insider believes Karlsson is lying!

This report came out earlier today: Erik Karlsson revealed to Michael Traikos of the Toronto Sun that the last time he sat down and talked with owner Eugene Melnyk or general manager Pierre Dorion was 10 months ago.

“I haven’t spoken to any of them really since November of last year when they asked for my no-trade list,” Karlsson told Postmedia News in a one-on-one interview on Thursday. “That’s the way it is, I guess. That’s the only situation I know that’s been like this. It was what it was. I was there to play hockey and I did that to the best of my ability with what we had. That’s all that I worried about.

“Everything else around it is above my pay grade. That’s not my question to ask.”

Last week, Karlsson, along with prospect Francis Perron, were traded to the San Jose Sharks in return for forward Chris Tierney, defenseman Dylan DeMelo, prospects Josh Norris and Rudolfs Balcers, a 2020 first-round pick, a 2019 second-round pick, and two conditional picks. When he faced media in Ottawa following the monster trade, Karlsson maintained that he was shocked, hoping to stay in the city he now calls home. 

However, after he made the allegations that he did not talk with the front office since last November, the Senators did not respond to his claims. Later that night, when the Senators were facing the Chicago Blackhawks in Ottawa, insider Bruce Garrioch claimed that he believes Karlsson could be lying about this, and that both side should just walk away and move on. He explained what he knew about the situation in the first intermission of the game on TSN.

"Both sides were ready to move on when the deal was made," maintains Garrioch. 

"I am not sure if there were direct conversations with Erik Karlsson on contract talks, but there were contract discussions between the Senators and Karlsson's camp on July 1. I believe it was eight years and $88 million. And there were essentially no answer from Karlsson at all. I think there was an attempt by the Senators to reach out to Karlsson themselves, but I'm not sure there was any response whatsoever.

"I think that both sides have to step back now, and step away from this. Both sides need to move and I think that's why we haven't seen any response from the Senators today."

We guess we should move on as well...