Elliotte Friedman names 2 potential destinations for Erik Karlsson.

In one of the biggest surprises to hit the rumor mill in some time, news broke this week that the San Jose Sharks were willing to explore the possibility of trading superstar defenseman Erik Karlsson. The news was a surprise due in part to the fact that Karlsson is in the midst of an unbelievable season with 11 goals and 17 assists for a whopping 28 points over just 20 games played for the Sharks this season, but also due to the fact that he has an iron clad no-movement clause in his contract.

In spite of the shock factor it would appear that the talk of a potential Karlsson trade is legitimate, and this week National Hockey League insider Elliotte Friedman shared his thoughts on two teams he believes could be the potential landing spot for the talented Swede.

"This is my opinion but the team I wonder about is Florida," said Friedman on the 32 Thoughts Podcast.

There were two major reasons behind the mention of Florida from Friedman, with the first being their cap situation. Friedman pointed to the fact that the Panthers will be one of the few teams capable of making such a move due to how much cap space they have coming off the books.

Players like Patric Hornqvist ($5.3 million), Eric Staal ($750,000), Radko Gudas ($2.5 million) and Marc Staal ($750,000) will all be coming off the books and the Panthers will also shed dead cap space from Scott Wedgewood ($1.183 million) and see the current dead cap space from defenseman Keith Yandle drop from $5.291 million currently to just $1.241 million next season.

He also mentioned that he feels Karlsson would simply be a good fit for the talented offense of the Florida Panthers.

"Florida is a really skilled offensive team.... he fits with them," added the insider.

Friedman also mentioned another potential destination for similar reasons.

"The other one, and again this is purely my opinion, how many defensemen does Washington have signed after this year," asked the insider rhetorically. "So those are the two teams I look at. I think Florida is gonna have a bit more flexibility and I think Washington is going to have a lot more flexibility on defense."

Erik Karlsson won't be easy to move though with a massive cap hit of $11.5 million per season for this season and 4 more after that. Not to mention that with a full no movement clause, Karlsson will effectively get to dictate whether or not he wants to accept a trade to a certain team in the NHL.