Erik Karlsson to Pittsburgh [TRADE]

[Invictus]

D: San Jose. Hoffman and Granlund going to roadblock the kids (Eklund, Bordeleau)... and the team has no puck-moving D and the only asset they get is a 1st rounder that'll be 25th-32th overall. Yeesh.

That 1st rounder is top 10 protected (not that this discredits anything you said)

[Daydream Nation]

This is along the lines of what I thought the trade would look like.

"I think a 1st, another late pick, and some minor prospect gets the deal done assuming SJ doesn't retain that much. Grier is probably holding out for 2 main pieces which is the sticking point right now. Petry and Granlund make a combined 11.25 M. I'd be surprised if this deal doesn't get done."

It's easy to say Karlsson should have returned more but no other team was willing to beat Pittsburgh's offer AND was a team Karlsson was willing to go to. Don't we see this all the time with our own leagues? You can say what a player should return but if no one is willing to pay the price, they player is not worth that asking price. Does anyone think SJ turned down a better offer? Should Grier have waited longer? Should he have waited till the trade deadline? Karlsson has been injury-prone and he's 33. And if SJ kept him for more than 2/3 of the season, how many games does he help SJ win?

[random-d]

I think Montreal deserves a tip of the hat for showing everyone that they could have waited for Michkov.

[Belexus75]

Selfishly, best part of this trade for me is fact Thad Nedelkovic just became Pit’s backup

[forsbergfan]

Grier was stuck between a rock and a hard place. He had to get this deal done this off-season. Karlsson's value will probably never be higher. He just had a historic season but the major injury concerns haven't gone away. One more major injury and his value goes down the tubes. And there was basically one team interested at this point. Seattle, if they ever that serious, signed Vince dunn long term which probably ended their karlsson interest. Toronto, I think ghe conversation went like this: so you're gonna eat half the salary, right? And once Carolina signed DeAngelo they were out on karlsson. So just pittsburgh was left. Almost impossible to trade such a massive, long term contract. If anything, grier's mistake was not getting this done earlier when Carolina was still interested.
This deal is similar to my thoughts had the oilers trade for karlson at the trade deadline. It's not the team need, but it'll be such great hockey. Karlsson on the same PP as sid, geno and guentzel, that's awesome. I think it'll take some time to mesh, especially with guentzel injured and Malkin a band aid boy , but I see them turning it on in the second half and just making the playoffs. And they wouldn't be a fun team to play in the first round.

[kovalchuk17]

Sharks for fleeced but it is what it is. Much bigger liability if EK doesnt get moved now.

Good for Pittsburgh this is fun. Will now try to sell EK high if someone is willing to pay

[Axeman33]

Grier not retaining anything close to 50% is a big win for him. People are saying he didn't get a good return but it's all about the cap. If everyone wanted to see big names headed to SJ, Grier would have been jammed into retaining $5.75M per year x 4yrs. He said he wasn't doing that and he stuck to his guns.

The cap space gained by Grier makes this a good trade for SJ, not a bad trade.

I loom at Montreal and scratch my head. The took back Petry, who wanted out of Montreal a year or so ago, so I'm sure he's real excited about headed back there. DeSmith doesn't make sense. They are set in the NHL for goalies in Allen and Montembeault. Sending DeSmith to the AHL does nothing for Primeau's development, so what's going in there. Getting rid of Hoffman is the only real win for Montreal.

[berni67]

Grier not retaining anything close to 50% is a big win for him. People are saying he didn't get a good return but it's all about the cap. If everyone wanted to see big names headed to SJ, Grier would have been jammed into retaining $5.75M per year x 4yrs. He said he wasn't doing that and he stuck to his guns.

The cap space gained by Grier makes this a good trade for SJ, not a bad trade.

I loom at Montreal and scratch my head. The took back Petry, who wanted out of Montreal a year or so ago, so I'm sure he's real excited about headed back there. DeSmith doesn't make sense. They are set in the NHL for goalies in Allen and Montembeault. Sending DeSmith to the AHL does nothing for Primeau's development, so what's going in there. Getting rid of Hoffman is the only real win for Montreal.

And a 2nd round pick is not too bad either

[jhonny]

So what is everyone thinking Karlsson puts up if he can play 70+ games? I have him at 65 in 70. Max 70 in 80. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Letang has a small fire lit that causes a little Burns/Karlsson issue for Karlsson owners.

[Axeman33]

And a 2nd round pick is not too bad either

Who was the last 2nd round pick Montreal drafted that played significant time for them? PK Subban? The pick looks good on paper but useless if they don't turn it into anything viable.

[tweetdrivr]

Re Montreals goalies: they actually have 2 goalies at the NHL level they don’t need. Primeau is no longer waivers exempt and so would be exposed were he sent down. I guess they could just stick him in the AHL with no hope of a call up but I also thinks that means he can’t attend camp. They need to trade Petry again and two goalies.

[Axeman33]

Re Montreals goalies: they actually have 2 goalies at the NHL level they don’t need. Primeau is no longer waivers exempt and so would be exposed were he sent down. I guess they could just stick him in the AHL with no hope of a call up but I also thinks that means he can’t attend camp. They need to trade Petry again and two goalies.

No one is giving up assets for the goalies in Montreal that they would expose. Primeau hasn't proven anything yet and DeSmith is a below average backup at best.

[tweetdrivr]

No one’s in need of a backup and a young guy with potential? Perhaps they’d be better off capitalizing on Montembleaut’s World Cup performance. There are definitely options there. I’d be fine going into the seasons with DeSmith and Primeau. They aren’t making the playoffs. Go for another good pick.

[GinFizz]

Grier not retaining anything close to 50% is a big win for him. People are saying he didn't get a good return but it's all about the cap. If everyone wanted to see big names headed to SJ, Grier would have been jammed into retaining $5.75M per year x 4yrs. He said he wasn't doing that and he stuck to his guns.

The cap space gained by Grier makes this a good trade for SJ, not a bad trade.

.

This is my thoughts as well.

[rataylor22]

Yeah, odd piece to the deal in my opinion. Interesting news for Pittsburgh fans. Only problem is Karlsson and his big salary cap, Pitt already had a great puck moving d-man, and this doesn't address any of their weaknesses.

The NHL really has pulled one on fans when so many think “scoring more goals” is bad when the point of the game is to score more goals than the other team.