Last week Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson confirmed to a Swedish media outlet that he had spoken to a handful of teams, including the Leafs. It was also rumoured that the two front runners are Carolina and Pittsburgh, however, the other teams, including the Leafs, could now find themselves back in the Karlsson sweepstakes thanks to the emergence of a third team who may be interested in helping to broker a deal.
According to reports, the Chicago Blackhawks have emerged as a team willing to retain part of Karlsson's contract in order to help a deal get done. That helps every team looking to land the Norris winner as San Jose said they were not willing to retain more than 20% on the final four years of Karlsson's deal. Karlsson carries a cap hit of $11.5M the next four years and without having a third team retain salary it would be impossible for any contending team to land the defenseman.
Having Chicago retain salary on Karlsson to bring his AAV down to around $6M per season makes fitting him under the cap much easier. For the Leafs, they would still have to move out a roster player or two like T.J. Brodie, as they are currently only cap compliant with a 20-man roster. However, adding Karlsson at a little over half his $11.5M AAV is much more manageable, especially with the cap rising significantly in the coming seasons, than having to acquire him at the full cap hit.
