The Toronto Maple Leafs Should Trade for Erik Karlsson

The Toronto Maple Leafs should trade for Erik Karlsson.

The San Jose Sharks defenseman is 32, has a horrible contract, and is injury prone.  But the Toronto Maple Leafs should still trade for him.

The risk/reward of such a trade could be so obviously in their favor they’d be stupid not to at least explore the option.  Since we know they aren’t stupid, we can guess with at least some confidence that they will explore this.

And if they explore it, it will be hard to resist doing it.

Erik Karlsson is the best NHL defenseman to play in the league since Nicholas Lidstrom retired. The only reason that is even a controversial statement is because of injury.

But no one, not even Cale Makar (yet at least) has been as good as Karlsson was in his prime.

The Toronto Maple Leafs and Erik Karlsson

Erik Karlsson hasn’t played more than 56 games  in a single season in four years.  While misleading, due to the Pandemic and the two shortened seasons, it’s still not a great way to kick off one of the biggest contracts in the league.

But look what he does on a bad team so far this year:

That is just pure domination.  And it’s nothing new.  If he’s healthy, he hasn’t lost a single step, and has been great, when he dresses,  the entire time he’s been in San Jose, just no one really noticed.

Karlsson is a perfect fit for the Leafs, and its hard to think of a more perfect player for them to acquire.  If you put him on a team with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, it’s going to be wild.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have never had a top-of-the-NHL defenseman before, at least post expansion.  Maybe Borje Salming was once before I was born, but the best I’ve seen in my lifetime are Tomas Kaberle and Morgan Rielly. Great players, but more on the Tavaers/Nylander level than the Matthews/Marner level, if you get my drift.

Erik Karlsson would give them that.  He is the missing piece and he fits perfectly.

Sure, his contract is bonkers, but that’s what makes getting him even a slight possibility.

$11.5 million cap hit for four more seasons after this one.  That takes him to 37, and give how he was between 29 and 32, it’s arguably the worst contract there could possibly be. (capfriendly.com).

But if you can add the best defenseman in the NHL (currently, but more realistically, he’s probably 2nd after Makar) to the NHL’s best roster (at least on paper) then things start to get pretty wild.

The Toronto Maple Leafs would be massive Cup favorites with Karlsson on board, and after several season trying to satisfy traditionalists, Dubas could double down on what he knows in his heart is the correct way to build a hockey team: talent.

What Would EK Cost?

Nothing.

If the Leafs called up the Sharks and said that they would be willing to take the entire contract with no money retained, the Sharks would probably give them, at the very least, a lottery protected first rounder, in addition to Karlsson.

The Leafs might insist on no lottery protection, and the Sharks might still do it. That is how bad the contract is, and how unlikely their making the playoffs is.

But the Leafs can’t afford to do that.

But the Leafs would probably be willing to pay a hefty price if  San Jose retained half the money on the contract.  For the Sharks, they’re dealing with a sunk-cost.  Getting even half the cap relief would be amazing for them, but what they would really like is for the Leafs to pay the remaining $40 million in actual dollars.

So a deal where the Leafs pay all the actual money and the Sharks take half the cap hit (if that is even legal, I don’t pretend to know every single salary cap rule)  would be really beneficial to both teams.

The Leafs would have to give the Sharks Kerfoot and Holl (their salary would match Karlsson’s half-retained total, and the Sharks would flip them to a different team for picks) to make the salaries work, and could then throw in a few draft picks and prospects to make it happen.

The Sharks probably need something really good to make this worthwhile, so I’d expect someone like Robertson, Minten, or Knies, someone they’re really rather not part with, would have to be included.

Whatever.

This probably won’t happen.  But it’s at least a possibility because the chances to add a player like this to your roster, when you’re roster is already a contender, is very, very rare.  That player being the perfect fit for the team in question’s philosophy and playing style is almost too much to pass up.