Reeling in a Giant Shark

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Created by: KrakenTheCode

Team: 2023-24 Seattle Kraken

Initial Creation Date: Jun. 20, 2023

Published: Jun. 23, 2023

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Description

In this third installment of a four part series, I will examine yet another major addition the Kraken could make to their roster via trade ahead of next season.

Trade Target: Erik Karlsson, RD, San Jose Sharks

Fit with Seattle: Seattle had a strong second season, but their special teams left something to be desired. The penalty kill improved, but the power play was a struggle all year. There's almost no better way to fix that than by adding an elite offensive defenseman like Karlsson. He would be a boon to not only the power play but the team's offensive output as well. In terms of roster fit, he would need to be paired with a strong defender on the left side, so he's probably stapled to Oleksiak. Karlsson would also supplant Schultz as both a RHD and power play quarterback. Some combination of Cale Fleury and Jaycob Megna would fill the Kraken's vacancy at LD on the bottom pair until Ryker Evans is ready. Of the four trade options I'm covering, Karlsson is by far the biggest risk, due to his age, contract term and cap hit, all coupled with an extensive injury history. Whether Seattle ultimately considers a trade for him will depend on whether they feel the potential rewards outweigh those risks.

Making the money work: Karlsson has a mammoth $11.5M cap hit, so fitting him on the roster wouldn't be easy. However there did turn out to be a surprisingly straightforward path for making the math work. Schultz would likely be traded in the event of a Karlsson trade due to positional overlap, and Driedger and Sprong were included in the San Jose deal. Driedger was shipped out mainly to make the money work, but Sprong still has some upside and could thrive in a scoring role higher up in the lineup. I also had San Jose retain $2.5M of Karlsson's cap hit to get it down to $9M. This is in the ballpark of the 18% retention the Sharks were willing to do previously, and at that number they wouldn't be hindered too much as they rebuild. Between the retention and those three departures, the Kraken could fit Karlsson onto the team.

Let me know your thoughts, as always helpful feedback is appreciated. Cheers!

Free Agent Signings

RFA	YEARS	CAP HIT
Borgen, William	4	$2,750,000
Dunn, Vince	8	$7,000,000
Geekie, Morgan	2	$1,750,000
Fleury, Cale	2	$850,000
Lind, Kole	2	$850,000

UFA		YEARS	CAP HIT
Daccord, Joey		2	$1,100,000
Hayden, John		1	$775,000

Trades

SEA

Karlsson, Erik ($2,500,000 retained)

SJS

Driedger, Chris
Sprong, Daniel [RFA Rights]
2024 1st round pick (SEA)
2024 2nd round pick (SEA)

Additional Details:

2024 1st round pick is top-10 protected; if it falls within the top-10, San Jose will receive Seattle's 2025 1st round pick instead.

Driedger is there mainly to make the money work, but he would have the opportunity to re-establish himself as a starter and shore up the Sharks' goaltending. Sprong wouldn't be able to make a deserved move up the lineup in Seattle due to their forward depth, but he could in San Jose. If the Sharks don't want Sprong Seattle could replace him with another draft pick. The Kraken have prospects, but their pool is pretty shallow on account of their franchise only being two years old, so the meat of this return is draft pick based, which fits Francis's MO for trades anyway.

SEA

2024 3rd round pick (NJD)
2025 4th round pick (NJD)

NJD

Schultz, Justin

Additional Details:

Schultz would be supplanted by Karlsson upon his arrival, but still has trade value. I figured New Jersey could use someone like him to replace Severson, help develop Luke Hughes, and hold down the fort until Nemec is ready. However, this could really be any team looking for a solid RHD who can provide some offense.

Draft	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7
2023
2024
2025

ROSTER

LONG-TERM OUTLOOK

EMBED

TEXT-EMBED

ROSTER SIZE	SALARY CAP	CAP HIT	OVERAGES	BONUSES	CAP SPACE
23	$83,500,000	$78,990,743	$129,910	$1,907,500	$4,509,257

Left Wing	Centre	Right Wing
McCann, Jared $5,000,000$5,000,000 C, LW M-NTC UFA - 4	Beniers, Matthew $897,500$897,500 ($1,850,000$2M) C RFA - 1	Eberle, Jordan $5,500,000$5,500,000 RW M-NTC UFA - 1
Schwartz, Jaden $5,500,000$5,500,000 LW NMC UFA - 3	Wennberg, Alexander $2,250,000$2,250,000 C M-NTC UFA - 1	Burakovsky, André $5,500,000$5,500,000 RW, LW M-NTC UFA - 4
Tolvanen, Eeli $1,450,000$1,450,000 LW, RW RFA - 1	Gourde, Yanni $5,166,666$5,166,666 C, LW, RW M-NTC UFA - 2	Bjorkstrand, Oliver $5,400,000$5,400,000 RW, LW M-NTC UFA - 3
Kartye, Tye $859,167$859,167 ($57,500$58K) LW, C RFA - 2	Geekie, Morgan $1,750,000$1,750,000 C, RW RFA - 2	Tanev, Brandon $3,500,000$3,500,000 LW, RW M-NTC UFA - 2

Left Defense	Right Defense	Goaltender
Dunn, Vince $7,000,000$7,000,000 LD/RD UFA - 4	Larsson, Adam $4,000,000$4,000,000 RD M-NTC UFA - 2	Grubauer, Philipp $5,900,000$5,900,000 G NTC UFA - 4
Oleksiak, Jamie $4,600,000$4,600,000 LD/RD NTC UFA - 3	Karlsson, Erik $7,500,000$7,500,000 RD NMC UFA - 4	Daccord, Joey $1,100,000$1,100,000 G UFA - 2
Fleury, Cale $850,000$850,000 RD RFA - 2	Borgen, William $2,750,000$2,750,000 RD UFA - 2

Scratches	Injured Reserve (IR)	Long Term IR (LTIR)
Megna, Jaycob $762,500$762,500 LD UFA - 1
Lind, Kole $850,000$850,000 RW UFA - 1
Hayden, John $775,000$775,000 C, LW, RW UFA - 1

Taxi Squad
Wright, Shane $918,333$918,333 ($0$0$0$0) ($3,062,500$3M) C RFA - 3
Evans, Ryker $897,500$897,500 ($0$0$0$0) LD RFA - 2

Jun. 23, 2023 at 3:25 p.m.

NJDevils1317

Joined: Aug. 2021

Posts: 4,381

Likes: 2,242

Devils need someone for the PK, not so much of a use for a offensive Dman with Hamilton and Luke.

Jun. 23, 2023 at 4:00 p.m.

pretzelcoatl

n.1 Topias Vilen fan

Joined: Jul. 2021

Posts: 5,924

Likes: 2,577

Quoting: NJDevils1317

Devils need someone for the PK, not so much of a use for a offensive Dman with Hamilton and Luke.

Actually I don't mind Schultz at 3RD. Hughes got some PK time in the playoffs iirc and looked pretty good. Siegenthaler-Marino and Bahl-Hughes can be the PK pairs.

Tintin liked this.

Jun. 23, 2023 at 4:36 p.m.

Brian_O_Blivion

Moo-kama-doo-lin

Joined: Jun. 2023

Posts: 937

Likes: 347

The Karlsson trade is going to be far more complex than this. Look how many pieces the Timo trade had, look for more of the same with Karlsson plus a 3rd team.

Jun. 23, 2023 at 5:05 p.m.

goodfella

Grierless Sharks Fan

Joined: Dec. 2017

Posts: 2,962

Likes: 927

This isn't very attractive to me as a Sharks fan, but I don't think we'll be happy with however the Karlsson trade ends up.

matthias893 liked this.

Jun. 23, 2023 at 5:54 p.m.

NJDevils1317

Joined: Aug. 2021

Posts: 4,381

Likes: 2,242

Quoting: pretzelcoatl

Actually I don't mind Schultz at 3RD. Hughes got some PK time in the playoffs iirc and looked pretty good. Siegenthaler-Marino and Bahl-Hughes can be the PK pairs.

But it's not as if Luke is known for his D...I'd rather put the focus on the PP as I'd rather Luke be on the PP than Schultz, no?

Jun. 23, 2023 at 6:21 p.m.

pretzelcoatl

n.1 Topias Vilen fan

Joined: Jul. 2021

Posts: 5,924

Likes: 2,577

Quoting: NJDevils1317

But it's not as if Luke is known for his D...I'd rather put the focus on the PP as I'd rather Luke be on the PP than Schultz, no?

Can't Luke play both PK2 and PP?

Jun. 23, 2023 at 10:58 p.m.

NJDevils1317

Joined: Aug. 2021

Posts: 4,381

Likes: 2,242

Quoting: pretzelcoatl

Can't Luke play both PK2 and PP?

The choice isn't Schultz or nothing....I am saying it is better to get a PK guy so you don't burn out a 20 year old defenseman in his rookie year....too much to ask??

Jun. 23, 2023 at 11:15 p.m.

pretzelcoatl

n.1 Topias Vilen fan

Joined: Jul. 2021

Posts: 5,924

Likes: 2,577

Quoting: NJDevils1317

The choice isn't Schultz or nothing....I am saying it is better to get a PK guy so you don't burn out a 20 year old defenseman in his rookie year....too much to ask??

Sure we could get someone else instead, but I don't think Schultz would necessarily be a bad move, especially with the weak UFA market

Jun. 24, 2023 at 12:38 a.m.

NJDevils1317

Joined: Aug. 2021

Posts: 4,381

Likes: 2,242

Quoting: pretzelcoatl

Sure we could get someone else instead, but I don't think Schultz would necessarily be a bad move, especially with the weak UFA market

I'm looking at it as a last option, not something I would jump at

Jun. 27, 2023 at 4:52 a.m.

#10

ittookten

Krakhead

Joined: Mar. 2022

Posts: 36

Likes: 5

I appreciate what you've managed to do here in getting Karlsson in the roster without breaking up the team, and still getting the major RFAs under contract too.
However, that 4x$9M is going to cause some issues next Summer when Beniers and Tolvanen need new deals and Ebs and Wenny expire. I think it's still a bit rich and a huge risk if he reverts to the seasons he was having of late before the 100pt campaign. Francis has been big on having cap space being one of the advantages of being an expansion team in this period and I don't see him throwing it away now to handcuff himself the next couple of seasons.
And money issues aside there's a whiff of locker room trouble about Karlsson and bringing such a big ego and paycheck into a very tight squad could upset some of what made the magic in Seattle this last season.
All things considered I'd pass on Karlsson.

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