There is no doubt the Toronto Maple Leafs biggest hole during the 2024-25 NHL season has been the lack of offence from the back end, specifically from the powerplay.
With recent reports that the Pittsburgh Penguins are ready to dismantle their roster, can the Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving take advantage.
TSN's Marco D'Amico reported early on Monday morning that a source has revealed to him that Kyle Dubas is ready to make everyone outside of a handful of players available and included in that group is both Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson.
Karlsson is a three-time Norris Trophy winner and recorded 100-points just two seasons ago which was only the 15th time in league history that-that had happened. He would create an immediate upgrade on the backend, but there would be a lot of obstacles to jump through to make such a deal happen.
Penguins Supposedly Dismantling Roster, Maple Leafs Should Trade for Karlsson
One of the first moves that Dubas accomplished when he took over the Penguins was acquiring the defending Norris Trophy winner. In the deal, he moved a first round pick, middle six center Mikael Granlund and depth defenseman Jan Rutta, while getting out from under the contracts of Mike Hoffman ($4.5M) so you'd expect he'd want close to the same return.
Dubas was able to get the Sharks to retain $1.5 Million of the salary, meaning Karlsson's current cap hit would be $10 million and has two seasons remaining once this year ends.
The biggest component to get the deal done is finding the cap space to fit Karlsson into the line-up and the easiest solution as James Tanner states is to include Max Domi and his $3.75 Million into the deal. Unfortunately, Domi would likely not be part of any deal, the Penguins GM has never had any interest in the second generation Maple Leaf who always wanted to come to Toronto but Dubas continually declined the offer.
The best case scenario is that the Penguins retain half of Karlsson's contract, but prepared the cost would be a ransom. By allowing the Maple Leafs to get Karlsson for three playoff runs at $5-$6 Million salary cap the cost would likely be astronomical, but then again, how many teams would actually be in competition for Karlsson in the first place?
The price would depend heavily on the demand. The Leafs should, at the very least, be kicking the tires here to find out what it would really cost.