Karlsson wants winning team
Having greatest season for defenseman in team history as an individual
Erik Karlsson is about to complete the greatest individual season ever for a San Jose Sharks defenseman. He’s on the verge of scoring 100 points, a number no NHL defenseman has reached in 31 years, and he seems like a lock to win his third Norris Trophy as the league’s best blueliner.
And his final home game in a Sharks uniform might come this weekend.
The Sharks host the Colorado Avalanche tonight and the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday, then finish the season with a three-game road trip that ends next Thursday in Edmonton. Then, who knows? Karlsson, who turns 33 at the end of May, has said multiple times this season that he wants to be on a winning team, and the Sharks, who are out of the playoff picture for a fourth straight season, appear to be years away from becoming a Stanley Cup contender once again.
“I think we all understand the situation and it’s not something that I try and think about right now,” Karlsson told this news organization when asked about the potential of having Saturday’s game be his last at home with the Sharks.
“I think once the season is over and done with, we’ll sit down and evaluate, and move on from there. But right now, I don’t try and focus too much on what’s going to happen in the future. I’m going to try and close out these last five as well as possible to try and cap off the season the right way.”
Entering Thursday, Karlsson had 238 points in 288 regular season games with the Sharks since he was acquired from the Ottawa Senators before the start of the 2018-19 season. In his lone playoff appearance with
the team in 2019, Karlsson had 16 points in 19 games as the Sharks advanced to the Western Conference Final.
But that was two head coaches and one full-time general manager ago, and the Sharks haven’t sniffed a spot in the postseason since.
Karlsson said he hasn’t had any recent conversations about his future with first-year GM Mike Grier, who said late last fall that he’d be open to listening to trade offers for most of his players.
There were numerous reports earlier this year that the Sharks and Oilers had discussions about Karlsson, but Grier said after the trade deadline that nothing came close to fruition. Not close enough, anyway, to bring to Karlsson, who has a full no-movement clause in his contract.
The trade deadline also limited the number of teams that might have serious interest in Karlsson, given most contenders’ salary cap constraints.
But the list of potential suitors for Karlsson could grow in the offseason, especially if the cap rises by more than $1 million. Right now, the cap for next season is projected at $83.5 million, and Karlsson’s contract carries an $11.5 million cap hit for the next four seasons after this one.
The Sharks would likely need to retain some of Karlsson’s salary to help facilitate a trade, and the amount of money they keep on their books could play a role in what type of return they receive. The more salary they keep — potentially up to the maximum of 50% — the greater the package in return.
“I think it would be easier to do where you can kind of get your ducks in a row, and figure out how to make the money work, it’s probably easier in the offseason,” Grier said on Feb. 26 of a potential Karlsson deal after he traded Timo Meier to the New Jersey Devils.
“But at the same time, like I’ve been saying from the beginning, I’ve enjoyed being around Erik and watching Erik. He’ll have a say in this and what he wants to do moving forward.”
Karlsson said there had not been many discussions with Grier, even before the deadline, about the offseason.
“I’m sure we’ll get to that once the season is over here,” Karlsson said.
Karlsson entered Thursday’s game with 96 points, and his 71 even-strength points ranked second in the NHL, only behind Oilers superstar Connor McDavid’s 72.
The last defenseman to reach 100 points was former New York Rangers star Brian Leetch, who had 102 points in 1991-1992.
“It seems like that’s what everybody wants to talk about,” Karlsson said of reaching 100 points. “I haven’t really had a normal conversation with anyone in a while, it seems to be only about that. But that kind of comes with the territory, and it’s because people are happy for you and they care about you and they’re watching you, which is a nice thing.
“But it gets a little annoying sometimes to where that’s all you have to talk about. People are asking and speculating. We’ll see where we are at the end of the season, we still have five more games and I’m going to try and play those out as well as we possibly can.”
Sharks coach David Quinn met with Karlsson last summer after he was hired and explained what he foresaw for the season.
“I didn’t have a number in my head about what he was capable of doing,” Quinn said. “But after watching him up close the way I have over the last eight months, this guy’s special in so many ways.
Watching him, it doesn’t surprise me that he’s close to 100 points.”
Karlsson, before Thursday, had scored or assisted on a staggering 42.5 percent of the Sharks’ goals this season. That’s what makes any Karlsson trade something of a doubleedged sword for the Sharks.
On one hand, the Sharks would create some salary cap space and, presumably, acquire some needed draft picks and/or prospects in any potential deal. On the other, not having Karlsson would create a massive offensive void that would be nearly impossible for any one player to replace, especially in the short term.
In any case, if Karlsson wins another Norris Trophy, he would become just the ninth defenseman in NHL history to win the award, which has been around since the 1953-1954 season, at least three times. The others are Chris Chelios, Bobby Orr, Doug Harvey, Denis Potvin, Nicklas Lidström, Pierre Pilote, Paul Coffey and Ray Bourque.
“I’m trying to just take it day by day and game by game and like I said, we have five more,” Karlsson said. “Going to play those out and hopefully the same way as the rest of the season and by the end of it, we’ll pause and evaluate and move on.”