Costly Karlsson may be worth Rangers’ risk
THE Rangers are interested third parties in the Erik Karlsson affair, willing to aid and abet a deal between the Senators and Lightning if Tampa Bay can provide a sweetener more significant than the guarantee of a late first-round draft choice. That has been the extent of general manager Jeff Gorton’s participation in the soapbox derby.
Two reasons: The Senators are asking for far too rich of a package in return for No. 65. And the Rangers are not about to deviate from the rebuilding road on which they embarked a mere five months ago.
But here are one observation and one question:
First, the observation. If a team approaches every transaction from a “We’re not ready to win” perspective, that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Second, the question: At what price would, could or should the Rangers consider trading for the 28-year-old, whose contract, once extended for eight years at an estimated $90 million, would bring Karlsson through his age-36 season?
Let me make this clear. This is a purely a hypothetical exercise. This not a topic of conversation within the front office. So understand that.
Remember, Karlsson is driving the bus. If he will only consider signing an extension with a limited number of teams, the Senators may have to take less than an optimal return. If that is the case, then what if Ottawa at some point simply asks the Rangers for their best offer?
When the Rangers and Bruins were engaged on Rick Nash (and, for a time, Ryan McDonagh) leading up to the deadline, Boston walled off its most highly re- garded prospects. So you would expect Gorton to do the same in any conversation with his Ottawa counterpart, Pierre Dorion.
Walled off: Chris Kreider, Brady Skjei, Filip Chytil, Lias Andersson, Vitali Kravtsov, Libor Hajek, Ryan Lindgren, Brett Howden and Igor Shestyorkin. Henrik Lundqvist and Marc Staal have no-moves; Kevin Shattenkirk has a modified no-trade that could include Ottawa.
Thus, among the available: Mika Zibanejad, Kevin Hayes, Vlad Namestnikov, Pavel Buchnevich, Mats Zuccarello, Jimmy Vesey, Jesper Fast, Boo Nieves, Neal Pionk, Nils Lundkvist, K’Andre Miller, Tony DeAngelo, Yegor Rykov and Alex Georgiev.
Would you give the Senators three of the above plus next year’s first-rounder in exchange for Karlsson, believing that a year from now the Rangers could have a clear shot at adding on by signing prospective free agent winger Artemi Panarin?
Figure the Senators, on the lookout for young and inexpensive, would take Buchnevich, Georgiev and Pionk or Lundkvist plus the first-rounder they don’t have next June.
Would that be too much for the Rangers? Would the cost of the contract and nine-year commitment to a world-class athlete who has dealt with serious foot issues be too much in themselves? Or would Gorton be crazy to pass on this hypothetical deal?
These are questions that represent a mere philosophical exercise. Still, acquiring a singular difference-maker is perhaps the most difficult challenge confronting a GM whose team doesn’t bottom out or hit the lottery.
So what is too much for a rebuilding team to yield in exchange for that kind of player, especially when that player is 28 years old? One day, the question may be more than academic.
The demonization of John Tavares does not reflect well on those doing the demonizing.
We are now supposed to believe that the Islanders’ former captain, who played the past six seasons for the most team-friendly contract in the NHL ($5.5 million per), was somehow selfish and a phony?
If he was in fact some sort of a louse, shouldn’t someone have been able to spot those traits over Tavares’ nine years on the Island, where he instead was lionized up to the very moment he decided to exercise his right to leave?
The Islanders couldn’t seal the deal with No. 91. They couldn’t get him to sign. Shouldn’t that have been a tip-off to ownership? If you’re engaged and your partner refuses to set the date or if your partner insists that he/she loves you, but turns down your multiple proposals because the time is not right, are you really all that shocked when he/she runs off with someone else?
Bobby Ryan, with four years remaining at $7.5 million per, has become a latter-day Wade Redden or Scott Gomez, a once-esteemed player whose out of whack contract has come to define him.
You have to believe that the Devils and GM Ray Shero would have been in on Karlsson had the defenseman expressed his willingness to sign a long-term extension with New Jersey.
By the way, Shero has a year left in which to simply enjoy Taylor Hall before the one-year countdown commences on the Hart winner’s free agency.