Karlsson is a salary dump, I can guarantee they don’t want to pay him almost 40M to make them slightly better at a time when they’d probably rather be as bad as possible. Not to mention what his attitude is going to be like. They have limited trade options and getting out of 26-28M in salary commitment is a win, anything of value is just a cherry.
From the Oilers perspective though I just don’t see how you make Karlsson work, even in the summer, you’re limiting yourself in other parts of the roster in the short term
and banking on the cap rising significantly over the next few years.
If you could get rid of Kulak, Foegele, Yam without giving anything up or taking salary back and get Karlsson at 8.5 for a 1st. Then you’d have to decide which one of Ceci or Bouchard to keep and try to trade Campbell retained or buy him out. Then you’d probably be able to fit Karlsson and still round out the roster.