Friedman: Oilers and Sharks discussed Erik Karlsson

[GoldenSeal]

The actual Dman the Oil might be looking for lives somewhere in the desert.

 

[Pinkfloyd]

Stauffer works for the Oilers. He has connections in the office. He isn't always right, sometimes he just needs something to talk about, but I believe that people in the Oilers office feed him things to talk about every now and then too. Back in the day he was talking about trading Hall for weeks before it actually happened, probably intentionally to condition the fans to not lose their minds when it did happen.

Maybe but we shouldn't take what he says at face value for the same reason you wouldn't take Grier's denial of the story at face value either. Both are heavily incentivized to not be truthful about this particular situation because it affects the teams they work for.

 

[Stimpythecat]

Honestly, I don't see the Sharks retaining on Karlsson. It's not just the dead cap, it's also the years of it when they already have retention on Burns.

With Burns, this would tie up 2 of the 3 permitted retention slots for years. 4 for more for Karlsson and 2 more for Burns after this season. For a rebuilding team, having only 1 retention slot left is huge. It handicaps their ability to be a trade facilitator for years. It would require a sizable haul to do that in my estimation.

this trade is not that haul.