The San Jose Sharks have been talking about a potential Erik Karlsson trade for weeks now, but nothing has happened. The Carolina Hurricanes and Pittsburgh Penguins are the two teams currently vying for the services of the star defenseman, who also spoken with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Seattle Kraken.
But for now, he remains a Shark. Insider Frank Seravalli revealed what’s going wrong with the current trade talks on Monday’s edition of the DFO Rundown with Jason Gregor:
“The Sharks are still looking for a significant return for Erik Karlsson, and they haven’t found one team that’s willing to give them anywhere close to that, and so those teams have all essentially sat back and said, ‘Hey, call us in August. You let us know when you want to talk and we can pick this up again, but we’re not giving you anything significant.’ And that’s problematic for the Sharks, because they think this is a player that you have to get a return for, and more than that, they don’t really want to get nothing and retain 20 percent on this player just to get him off their books. So, I think the hang-up has been a little bit along the same lines that we heard back at the trade deadline, which is, the Sharks are looking for a significant deal and they’re not properly valuing the cap space, the freedom, the flexibility from getting off of an $11.5 million player. And that’s really what’s holding this back.”
There is it. That’s what’s happening on the phones as GM Mike Grier wants the best deal for his star blue liner, who is coming off a career-best 101-point performance. Karlsson is under contract for the next four seasons at an $11.5 million cap hit. The deal includes a full no-movement clause and of that big $39.5 million chunk left to be put in his pockets, $13 million has to come in the form of signing bonuses.
The Sharks might get more teams circling back in August or closer to the opening of training camps, because as of now, it sounds like rival clubs are not prepared to part with much…
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