Stupid trade idea: Sharks should trade for Erik Karlsson

No, you’re not reading an old post. With a stretch of days and no games to speak of on the Sharks’ schedule, it gives you some time to think and scroll Twitter. It leads to some pretty stupid thoughts and I admit ahead of time that this is a stupid thought. In this particular instance, I was scrolling Twitter and realizing just how far down the standings the Pittsburgh Penguins have fallen. It got me thinking, what if the Sharks took advantage of a team that is once again trying to desperately get Sidney Crosby another Stanley Cup?

Stick with me.

As it stands now, the Penguins aren’t going to find many takers for Karlsson and his now discounted $10 million per season salary. General Manager Kyle Dubas has said the Penguins need to get younger. You would guess to do that, Dubas wouldn’t mind offloading a 33-year-old defenseman with three more years on his deal after this season.

However, selling a 39-point defenseman is a little harder than selling a 101-point Norris Trophy-winning defenseman. It was tough to find takers for him in the summer; imagine what it’s like now.

The point is that the list of teams willing to trade for Karlsson is likely very short, if not non-existent. We know that Karlsson has a no-move clause, and he’s not likely to waive it to get back to San Jose, but let’s imagine for a minute that he misses wearing flip-flops and shorts in March, and he misses being the big fish in a little pond.

Could the Sharks take advantage of a desperate team…again? Take this journey of insanity with me.

Oh, the picks that you’ll get

Let’s start out with the obvious. None of this happens without a big return. That’s the only way this is worth it.

If the Sharks could get a first-round pick out of the deal in addition to the one that it already has from Pittsburgh, that’s a win. What if General Manager Mike Grier could get Dubas to take away the top-ten protection on this year’s first-round draft pick? A first-rounder next season and an unprotected first this season would be worth it, given Pittsburgh’s current standings and its outlook for the next season or two.

Add a prospect into the mix like defenseman Owen Pickering or goaltender Joel Blomqvist and you have the makings of a blockbuster deal that makes taking Karlsson back worth it for the Sharks. Even for a small portion of that and I might make the deal.

Dubas gets to re-sign Jake Guentzel, and he’s happy too.

The money works

When it comes to the dollars in the deal, the Sharks will be okay. San Jose traded Karlsson to free up cap space; however, one year later, you realize that taking Karlsson back won’t make things any worse than they were this season.

The Sharks will save $9.225 million when Mike Hoffman and Kevin Labanc walk in the offseason. Trust me, neither player is likely to be re-signed. That’s nearly all of Karlsson’s $10 million contract right there.

Add to that the fact that the cap is going up by at least a few million, and the Sharks would be in no worse of a cap situation than the team was when he was shipped out in the summer. In fact, the situation might look better.

For the Sharks, Karlsson’s contract isn’t going to hinder any of the team’s plans moving forward. There are no big contracts that need to be signed in the next three seasons. The young prospects that the team wants to add to the roster will be receiving little more than entry-level contracts. The ones that are on expiring deals aren’t due huge raises.

What’s more, the Sharks aren’t going big game hunting this summer or next. Parking Karlsson’s mammoth contract doesn’t hinder the team’s plans for the immediate future.

And when it does become an issue, moving it shouldn’t be a problem. By then, Karlsson will have a year left, and the Sharks can retain 50% if needed.

Would the Sharks get a retention slot back?

Speaking of salary retention. San Jose has two of the team’s three retention slots tied up in Brent Burns and Karlsson. If San Jose took Karlsson’s contract back, would it free up one of those spots?

I can’t be positive about this because I don’t recall it ever happening, but if Pittsburgh traded Karlsson back to the Sharks without retaining any money, it’s hard to see the league saying no to the deal. What’s more, can you really retain the salary of a player whose contract you own? I don’t see how.

The league works in funny ways, so I could be wrong, but let’s assume that the NHL is logical and says that since the Sharks took Karlsson’s full contract back, the team also gets its retention slot back. That’s a huge deal. San Jose could then make a different deal, like trading Marc-Edouard Vlasic for 50% retained or moving out Logan Couture to a contender and still have that extra retention slot just in case.

The Sharks’ defense can’t get much worse

Finally, and this might be the best argument of all, it’s not like the Sharks’ defense could get any worse. San Jose’s defense has been atrocious, which was okay when guys like Burns and Karlsson were outscoring the team’s problems. However, now, there’s no one to outscore the team’s problems, and the defense still stinks.

Bring Karlsson back. Let him run around the ice and score all of the points and get all of the power play time. He can work his way to another 100-plus point season and we can trick another team into trading for him.