CRUNCH TIME FOR KARLSSON AND SENATORS
As free agent season looms, Ottawa under pressure to make decision on defenceman
This could be a really long weekend for Ottawa hockey fans.
It has become a waiting game for Erik Karlsson and the Senators and the other shoe could drop at any time.
With NHL free agency set to open Sunday at noon, all was quiet on the Karlsson front Friday, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t a lot going on behind the scenes that could decide the future of the Senators captain.
The 28-year-old Karlsson, who could become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2019, can officially receive a contract extension offer from the Senators Sunday, but it’s not clear the two sides would even get to that stage before Karlsson is potentially traded.
General manager Pierre Dorion spent Friday at his Canadian Tire Centre office, working with Senators hockey operations staffers to assess the market for Karlsson while also kicking tires during the allowed period for talking to pending free agents.
There are options if the Senators want to make a deal involving Karlsson, but only so many teams have the cap space to take on his salary and they would likely want an opportunity to talk about an extension with him before completing a trade.
It’s believed talks between Dorion and Vegas Golden Knights general manager George McPhee resumed this week. Indications so far are that if this deal is completed, it may also include Senators forward Bobby Ryan, who has four years remaining on his contract with a whopping cap hit of $7.25 million per year.
The Knights aren’t the only team involved, but they’ve been in pursuit of Karlsson since before the trade deadline in February and they can afford to sign a long-term extension with him because they have nearly $30 million in cap space. And, yes, the Knights can also afford to take Ryan.
Among a group of other teams interested are the Tampa Bay Lightning, although that may have cooled, and the Washington Capitals. The San Jose Sharks were also included, but that may depend on the outcome involving a pitch for free-agent forward John Tavares.
It’s likely several teams are involved in these discussions overall because the opportunity to deal for a franchise blue-liner doesn’t come along often and Karlsson, twice a Norris Trophy winner as the NHL’s top defenceman, has a year left on his contract at $6.5 million.
Teams involved in the Karlsson discussions want to know what’s happening by Sunday before free agency begins because it may affect what they do elsewhere.
The Senators also need to know if they’re getting a defenceman back in any trade for Karlsson, who has played valuable minutes for them.
None of this means the Senators won’t try to sign Karlsson to an extension first, but they’ve likely already had exploratory discussions and there’s a good chance the team may already know if he has any intention of signing an extension to remain in Ottawa.
However, if the Senators table a meaningful, fair-market offer, the ball is then in Karlsson’s court. Dorion said during townhall meetings with season-ticket holders in April that Karlsson would be offered a long-term extension on Sunday.
It’s true the NHL collective agreement means teams can only discuss parameters now and not contract specifics, yet the Los Angeles Kings announced Friday evening that Drew Doughty had agreed to an eight-year extension worth $11 million per season.
That has to have some kind of effect on Karlsson, doesn’t it?
At this point, it feels like a trade is the most likely scenario for Karlsson and the Senators. They listened to offers for him in February and in the end didn’t believe any of them were right.
They don’t need to be in a rush to make a deal now, either, because Karlsson remains a year away from unrestricted free agency, but the market is unpredictable and this may be the time to strike.
The issue is the Senators cannot win this deal because they would be giving up the best player and it’s doubtful they would get anything like that kind of talent back, but they’re going to need to get a substantial return because a deal like this won’t go over well with fans.
The clock is ticking.