Excuse me if I'm ignorant on this, but if we did get Karlsson, why couldn't we sign him to an 8 year deal to bring down the cap hit? Wouldn't we be re-signing him in this scenario?
I brought up the 7 years because I believe if it’s a sign and trade type deal in the summer, he wouldn’t qualify for the 8th year with Vegas since he never actually played for them yet.
If he’s traded for before 11 pacific tomorrow, I do think he qualifies for that extra year in the summer since he’s actual Vegas property.
I am very far from a CBA expert, so someone more knowledgeable than me can chime in here.
Maybe if Ottawa technically puts the ink on the contract this summer pending a trade, he might qualify? I really don’t know.
I really would prefer a move in the summer for contract assurance / chemistry reasons, but adding Karlsson injured or not for this coming run would do nothing but improve this team.
He was technically more injured last playoffs, and he almost singlehandedly dragged Ottawa to a cup finals. I think in the playoffs we would see a version of Erik we haven’t seen this year so far.
It’s still a huge risk to trade a ton of Vegas’s long term future away, but when a franchise player is in his prime and available, you just have to go for it sometimes. I’d rather take a run at the Cup the next two years over having a lot of question marks + Theodore (assuming its a futures package)