This is such a mess ..,

Montreal ACGMs are always extra ridiculous. Montreal move up in the draft, but also they get a Norris-caliber defenseman, and lose a bad contract? Come on.

Sharks scoff at that. Another absurdist Montreal acgm. Get real.

Just speaking to the cap dump portion, that is definitely preferable to SJ than retaining salary on Karlsson I think. It's more than half his cap hit, but its the same term and we actually get a player out of it (who knows, might improve with change of scenery). The big difference though is that the Sharks would have the power to buy Gallagher out if needed, whereas we'd lose control of that option if we were retaining on Karlsson. A buyout of the last two years of Gallagher's contract wouldn't be all that bad with the total cap spread unevenly over 6 years being comparable to having retained 50% on EK65 for the next 4. The big difference is that most of the cap comes in the first two years when the sharks don't need it.

At age 33 why would Karlsson waive his NMC for Montreal who is in the middle of rebuilding?

He probably wouldn't, which is why I only commented on the cap dump part I thought was interesting.

The only situation where it *could* be possible is if there aren't any real contender trade options and Karlsson believes Montreal will have a significantly faster turn around than San Jose. They will almost certainly be back in the playoffs before SJ, but I kind of doubt that's enough to get Karlsson to waive.

Edmundson is not worth more than Mantha. Caps easily decline