1. San Jose Sharks traded:

2023 Norris Trophy Winner Erik Karlsson at 10 million x 4
ECHL Prospect Dillon Hamaliuk
San Jose's 2026 3rd round pick

for

Mike Hoffman
Mikael Granlund
Jan Rutta
Pittsburgh's 2024 1st round pick with Top 10 Protection


This is awful for San Jose




2. Montreal traded:

Mike Hoffman
Rem Pitlick

for

Jeff Petry at 4.6875 million x 2
Casey DeSmith
AHL prospect Nathan Legare
Pittsburgh's 2025 2nd round pick


Montreal did good here.





3. Pittsburgh traded:

Mikael Granlund
Jeff Petry at 4.6875 million 2
Jan Rutta
Casey DeSmith
AHL Prospect Nathan Legare
Pittsburgh's 2024 1st round pick with Top 10 Protection
Pittsburgh's 2025 2nd round pick

for

2023 Norris Trophy Winner Erik Karlsson at 10 million x 4
Rem Pitlick
ECHL Prospect Dillon Hamaliuk
San Jose's 2026 3rd round pick


Pittsburgh did better than San Jose, but worse than Montreal.




In conclusion,

There is way too much value in this trade for Montreal and not enough for San Jose.

And Pittsburgh has about as much to lose in this trade as San Jose did when they acquired Karlsson 5 years ago.




The Montreal Canadiens win the trade.

I love this for Montreal, San Jose meh, Pittsburgh meh

Homer response

This is amazing work by San Jose.

People on a cap site should appreciate what Grier pulled off here.

He got a 1st round pick to dump one of the most difficult contracts in the league, and get almost entirely out of the final two years of it, when his team will be on the upswing. He should not have gotten a 1st round pick here.

Granlund and Rutta are also relatively cheap buyouts next year if they need further cap flexibility at the expense of pushing more cap to the third year.

You also have to frame all of the above with the high probability that Karlsson wanted out. Teams cannot hold on to players forever when that happens. For a rookie GM to pull off what he did is very impressive.

He got fleeced. I'm not saying he should be fired...he hasn't had the job long enough, but EK has 3 Norris trophies...including the reigning winner. YES, he more offensively minded these days, but Grier did a terrible job maximizing return. He took on THREE cap dumps that alone...probably cost as much (if not more) than the conditional 1st. Josh Bailey...2nd. Zaitsev...2nd&4th as examples.

Also, why not retain 50%??? They're not remotely close to contending...so why not maximize value?

This wasn't a good job at all imo.

He got fleeced. I'm not saying he should be fired...he hasn't had the job long enough, but EK has 3 Norris trophies...including the reigning winner. YES, he more offensively minded these days, but Grier did a terrible job maximizing return. He took on THREE cap dumps that alone...probably cost as much (if not more) than the conditional 1st. Josh Bailey...2nd. Zaitsev...2nd&4th as examples.

Also, why not retain 50%??? They're not remotely close to contending...so why not maximize value?

This wasn't a good job at all imo.

Bonkers, absolutely bonkers I tells ya!

Just looking at it from a Habs perspective but if KH moves out Petry and one of either Desmith or Allen, than this is a masterclass. If he's stuck with Petry/Desmith/Allen for any amount of time it starts to not be as good. Im confident one of Allen/Desmith will be moved quite easily and if Habs retain 50% on Petry now, teams should be knocking down the door to get him. 2.6M for a top 4 dman is great value. Even if he had an off year last year.

Can't wait to see what happens next for the Habs but this appears to be Habs get a 2nd rounder+ Legare + (insert value from future Petry/Desmith trades) for approx 3M in dead cap and 1 less retention spot this year and next. Actually the fact that the Habs moved out Hoffman and Pitlick who are pending UFA's means they actually will have not gained any cap overall but rather swapped approx 3M from this year, to next year in the deal.

Its a very convoluted trade just like the Monahan one but when you look at it in the fine details, this is very smart work for Hughes and company.

Interesting trade, not quite sure what Pitt is thinking with the whole retaining thing? They get SJ to retain 1.5M off EK but then turn around and retain 1.5M off Petry for MTL? It’s a complete wash , makes no sense.

Dubas wants so bad to win NOW with Pitt to prove himself.. it’s either going 1 of two ways.. either Pitt wins a cup .. which is probably only a 2 year window left or they miss playoffs again/have major injuries and now they’re stuck with paying two RD 16M for the next 4+ years , not a good look. Dubas will be Axed from the league if this doesn’t work out. His handling of contracts and inability to get Toronto over the top with that talent .. what makes u think he can do it with 4 aging 35+ year old star players ? He better be praying.

EK thrives off being “THE GUY” there’s a reason why he struggled when Burns was still in SJ. You can’t have two OFD with EK, he needs to be out there on every PP playing 26+ minutes a night.

SJ comes away as the winner in this all. In 2 years from now it’ll be even more obvious. They dump EK’s huge contract, get 1st round pick and two proven serviceable 2/3rd liners that are responsible 2 way forwards who can teach SJ’s young guys coming up. If both healthy Granlund and Hoff are 50 point guys . Only thing I would’ve like to see is SJ get a B+ or higher level prospect out of this. They only took Rutta because Pitt needed to dump some cap. SJ is 3-4 years away from being a contender again, this window they’ll be free off all bad contacts, Burns, EK, Vlasic, etc They’ll have some solid prospects coming in and will have a ton of cap space to sign some FA’s.

He got fleeced. I'm not saying he should be fired...he hasn't had the job long enough, but EK has 3 Norris trophies...including the reigning winner. YES, he more offensively minded these days, but Grier did a terrible job maximizing return. He took on THREE cap dumps that alone...probably cost as much (if not more) than the conditional 1st. Josh Bailey...2nd. Zaitsev...2nd&4th as examples.

Also, why not retain 50%??? They're not remotely close to contending...so why not maximize value?

This wasn't a good job at all imo.

mtl - takes back a bad contract, brings in a third backup goalie but gets a second round pick for the trouble

pit - replaces petry in the old man RD slot for $5M AAV more, praying that karlsson’s feet don’t fall off within four years

sjs - eating salaries from terrible contracts that will expire by the time they’re done rebuilding (hypothetically) but get significantly less value than what they initially offered

did everyone lose this trade???

Why would they retain that much for the next 4 years? This gives them alot of moves to make in 24 onwards. either keep getting more prospects or then try to get a good player in the UFA market... That would be impossible with retaining that much salary

Why would they retain that much for the next 4 years? This gives them alot of moves to make in 24 onwards. either keep getting more prospects or then try to get a good player in the UFA market... That would be impossible with retaining that much salary

Because they're just starting the tank...or at least should be. They just traded their best player. What UFA thinks the Sharks are more attractive now than before this trade? AND they weren't attractive before the trade. They can't possibly think they'll win the Stanley cup in 4 years. Why is MTL even in this trade? Just take Petry and the 2nd! That's better for the Sharks than Hoffman. Heck, you coulda probably forced PIT to keep Rutta then. The more you think about this trade...the worse it gets for Grier and the Sharks.

So Pitt traded their bad players for a good player.

I like Petry. I still think there is value there. Montreal can trade him again if they want. If he stays healthy, he's valuable.