Top Insider Provides Some Clarity on the Erik Karlsson to the Leafs Rumours
Photo credit: Talia Sprague-Imagn Images
NHL Insider Chris Johnston has provided some clarity on the Erik Karlsson to the Maple Leafs rumours that are currently circulating and has addressed how feasible the trade actually is.
There's no question that the Toronto Maple Leafs are probably scrambling a bit right now, trying to figure out how they're going to replace the lost offense following the departure of Mitch Marner, who was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights.
The early reports suggest that they'll do so by committee, but the additions of Matias Maccelli, Nicolas Roy, Dakota Joshua and Michael Pezzetta may not be enough.
Enter the Erik Karlsson rumours.
Recently, it was suggested that the Leafs are one of several frontrunners for Karlsson's services, as the Pittsburgh Penguins look to move on from the former Norris Trophy winner. However, it's unclear at this point if there's any truth to the rumours.
Top NHL Insider Chris Johnston Not Sold on Erik Karlsson Heading to the Maple Leafs
This past week, the SDPN crew had TSN's Chris Johnston on their podcast, and during the appearance, Johnston revealed that he's not feeling too confident about that. At the 10:20 mark in the clip shared below, Johnston went so far as to call the move "a stretch."
"The Karlsson thing -- it's a stretch for me. He makes $10M against the cap right now, and I can tell you for certain Pittsburgh is not just giving him away. They're not of a mind of 'we've got to get him off the team'. They're not going to retain half of that for anybody... if you were ever removing Morgan Rielly, maybe I could see the argument to replace him with Karlsson and maybe you can make the money work, but that's two significant trades -- two guys who have no movement clauses. That's very much sitting around in mid-July like 'hey, wouldn't this be kind of cool?', and I'm not sure how much reality is in there."
Karlsson would undoubtedly solve a lot of the problems that the Leafs have with their scoring from the back end. The Swedish superstar has scored 200 goals in his NHL career and has 10 seasons with double digits in the goals column. However, as Johnston stated this week, it seems like a long shot.
Karlsson has two years remaining on his current deal at $10M per season. The Pens may be willing to eat some salary, but nowhere near the amount that the Leafs would need them to retain for this deal to make sense from a financial standpoint.
| POLL | ||
JUILLET 20 | 2814 ANSWERS Top Insider Provides Some Clarity on the Erik Karlsson to the Leafs Rumours When all is said and done, will Erik Karlsson be a Maple Leaf next season? | ||
| Yes | 375 | 13.3 % |
| No | 2439 | 86.7 % |
| List of polls | ||
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