LEAFS WOULD BE WISE TO PUT CALL IN ON KARLSSON
New GM Dubas should also consider taking run at pending free-agent centre Tavares
You have to make the phone call, even if it’s just one call.
If you’re Kyle Dubas, you have to at least inquire what it will cost to get Erik Karlsson, whether you have any kind of match for Ottawa, because of who he is, because of who you represent and because of the possibility — remote as it may be — of bringing in one of the very few individual difference makers in all of the National Hockey League. This is all part of the complicated days and weeks ahead for the Maple Leafs new general manager, the busy season with intriguing and confusing possibilities.
There is a draft on Friday and Saturday, followed by the grace period to talk to free agents, followed by free agency, and there are so many moving parts involved, it can be challenging just to keep up on all that is and isn’t attainable.
It’s incumbent upon Dubas to at least come to grips with what the price is for Karlsson, determine what the defenceman’s health may be, play around with your roster on paper, with a Karlsson, without him, what does it look like — just as almost every team in the NHL is doing right now.
People saw how cheap a price Doug Wilson and the San Jose Sharks paid for Mike Hoffman before flipping him to Florida on Tuesday. The question now: what will it take to get Karlsson? And is it worth it?
Dubas has already determined where he stands on John Tavares, should Tavares be available come July 1. My bet is he won’t be, but that can’t stop Dubas and his front office friends with coming up with a plan — including a snazzy ‘Why you should sign with the Leafs’ video.
Just watch the last three Stanley Cup champions to understand how strength down the middle seems requisite for winning championships. Washington had an amazing run with Evgeny Kuznetsov, Nicklas Backstrom and Lars Eller, combing for 73 points in the Capitals’ run to the Cup. The two previous years, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were dominant in the post-season.
The Leafs have Auston Matthews and Nazem Kadri and no one else at centre.
That’s where Tavares fits in so perfectly. He would become by proxy either the first or second line centre, depending on how Matthews progresses. Kadri slots in as the perfect high-end, third line centre. As a second line centre, he’s not quite Backstrom or Malkin.
Centre is a position the Leafs need to upgrade at, even if they have no chance of getting Tavares, who may remain with the New York Islanders now that Lou Lamoriello is in charge. In retrospect, maybe the Leafs would have been wise to put a restriction on Lamoriello departing, the same way there is a restriction on Mark Hunter joining another NHL team. Maybe the Leafs’ hierarchy should have granted permission for Lamoriello to depart — the restriction being he couldn’t take the position under after July 1. All that is hindsight now, but there is the possibility that Karlsson and Tavares, two giant talents, are available to anyone willing to pay the price, Karlsson by trade, Tavares by free agency, should he not be off the market before July 1.
How often are players of this calibre available? By trade or by free agency? In Karlsson, the price comes down to what it will cost to get him, what will it cost to sign him long term, and can all that be manipulated by Leafs assistant GM Brandon Pridham and friends?
In Tavares, if available, if he is interested, it is strictly about money and salary cap down the road. What can you pay? What does he want? How would his deal work in conjunction with the deals you might sign in the future for William Nylander, Matthews and Mitch Marner?
And hopefully, if it comes to the point of being able to talk to Tavares, the Leafs won’t overwhelm him the way they overwhelmed Steven Stamkos two years ago, when their presentation was so ostentatious that Stamkos walked out of the meeting, turned to his agents and announced he was going back to Tampa.
The Leafs, in a move that basically worked in their favour, scared Stamkos out of Toronto. Tavares has historically been nothing but an Islanders loyalist. Which is reason to applaud him and at the same time doubt him. Tavares is in a wonderful position right now. It is his call, no matter what he does or where he goes. He controls the situation and the environment.
If he wants to stay, he stays. If he wants to come home and play, he can do that. If he wants to go to Montreal or Vegas or San Jose or any of the 20 or so teams that want him, he has that choice. Dubas has to be in on Karlsson, in on Tavares, in on the draft, in on the free agents he’s about to lose in a free-agent market without ample comparables. It’s time to get to work — and there’s a lot of work to be done here, mining between dreams and money, possibilities, and the ultimate realities.
How would his deal work in conjunction with the deals you might sign in the future for William Nylander, Matthews and Mitch Marner?