The Erik Karlsson trade tree is looking pretty one-sided right about now
Trade trees are a fun way of gauging winners and losers of trades long after the fact. Some trade trees can be fairly complicated and last generations, while others can be relatively quick to end.
One intriguing trade tree dropped today involving an Atlantic Division rival, the Ottawa Senators, and the San Jose Sharks. This one was a particularly big one and, at first, it looked fairly underwhelming. I am, of course, talking about the infamous Erik Karlsson deal.
The deal occurred four years ago on September 13th. Karlsson was sent to the Sharks in exchange for Chris Tierney, Dylan DeMelo and forward prospects Josh Norris and Rudolfs Balcers. In addition, a first-round draft pick (2019 or 2020) and a second-round pick in 2019 were a part of the deal. The condition for the first round pick was if the Sharks miss the playoffs in 2018-19, that first-rounder will be in 2019; otherwise, it's a 2020 first-round pick that will go to Ottawa. In the end, Ottawa ended up with the 2020 pick.
With Tierney and DeMelo having since moved on, here's how the current trade tree looks:
Karlsson still has 5 years remaining on his current deal at $11.5M. The 32-year-old Swede seems far removed from his prime and has struggled to remain healthy over the past four seasons. Last season, Karlsson posted 35 points in 50 games, which is still respectable. But it's also a far cry from the 82 points in 82 games that the slick-skating blueliner put up in 2015-16.
While Karlsson's deal is expected to continue to trend in the wrong direction, Josh Norris and Tim Stutzle are just now blossoming into star players for the Sens, with 2019 2nd rounder Mads Sogaard playing well for the Belleville Senators, 2021 2nd rounder Zack Ostapchuk just winning World Juniors gold with Canada in the 2022 tournament and 20-year-old Leevi Merilainen, a 2020 3rd round pick, cooking in the Finnish SM-Liiga. A pretty nice haul for the Sens to say the least.
I think it's pretty safe to say that the Sens got the best of the Sharks on this one.
| POLL | ||
AOUT 27 | 1072 ANSWERS The Erik Karlsson trade tree is looking pretty one-sided right about now Who won the Erik Karlsson deal? | ||
| Sens | 988 | 92.2 % |
| Sharks | 84 | 7.8 % |
| List of polls | ||
