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Everyone’s a Winner in a 3-way: Karlsson Goes to Pittsburgh

Aug 6, 2023

As was mentioned right here at Crier, the Pittsburgh Penguins were in the Erik Karlsson sweepstakes. In the end, the current Norris Trophy winner joins the Penguins as they look to extend their championship window.  

 

 

Not all three-way’s give everyone a happy ending, but this one does seem to have done just that. The Penguins add a premier offensive defenseman. The San Jose Sharks rid themselves of a massive contract and add something of value. The Montreal Canadiens somehow turned Mike Hoffman into a tidy return. 

 

Pittsburgh 

 

Kyle Dubas’ first move as GM after he hired himself for the job was a doozy!

The addition of Karlsson makes the Penguins a clear winner in this deal. They add the three-time Norris Trophy winner for a bargain, and get the Sharks to retain 13% of his salary. That means that Pittsburgh only pay the 33-year-old coming off of a 100-point season $10 million for the remaining 4 years of his contract. This may seem like a lot for an aging star, but Kyle Dubas is trying to give his aging core of Sidney Crosby, Evgeny Malkin and Kris Letang at least one more chance at winning the Stanley Cup. 

 

It may seem a lot to have both Letang and Karlsson, but this means that anyone playing the Pens have to contend with a Norris winner on the ice almost for the entire game. One of, if not both of them will be out there feeding pucks to two of the most accomplished centers in the NHL. Adding Karlsson should help the NHL’s 16th ranked offense as the Pens only scored 261 goals last season in all situations.  

 

 

The one area that should help that offensive total is the power play (PP). Last season, they had a 21.7% PP, Karlsson’s exceptional offensive skills, vision, and playmaking abilities would add another dimension to the team’s attack, creating additional scoring opportunities for the forwards in the regular season. Karlsson’s biggest strength lies in his ability to quarterback the (PP), a role he will need to share with Letang. Added to this deal, the Pens add some help for their AHL affiliate as they add Dillon Hamaliuk, a 6’4’’ checking line winger. Oh, and they save over #3 million on the cap which helps them to address other needs.
 

San Jose 

The Sharks added centerman Mikeal Granlund. He is coming off of a 41-point season where he played 79 games. He arrives on the west coast to be penciled in as the Sharks third line center, to provide a playmaker for the newly acquired Filip Zadina who arrives with a chip on his shoulder with something to prove. 

 

 

Mike Hoffman is part of this 3-way, adding a shooter for their PP and someone capable of filling in on their top six. San Jose is beginning a rebuild so they can live with his defensive liabilities as he is playing out the final season of his deal paying him $4.5 million, heck, if he does a passable job, a contender may offer a mid-round pick to Mike Grier at the trade deadline in March. 

Jan Rutta is a big, veteran third pairing shutdown defender. He can be relied upon to play on the penalty kill and give 17 to 18 mins per night on a bottom pair.  

The major piece Grier gets in return for Karlsson is Pittsburgh’s 2024 first-round pick. This gives San Jose four picks in the top two rounds in 2024, something a rebuilding team can base their future plans on. 

 

Montreal  

 

Kent Hughes ended his summer vacation with a bang hitting a home run in this deal even though he played the intermediary to make the cap fit for the two main teams in this deal. 

 

He drops Hoffman, a forward that’s been on the trade block for 18 months with no takers. Now that he is off the roster, there is an immediate impact. A shooter’s position on the PP opens up, giving Cole Caufield the top unit role, and allows for Martin St. Louis to try different young players on the second unit. One such player is Jesse Ylonen. He was called up to Montreal last season and proved he belonged in the NHL. Also, he has an excellent one-timer that could be a good weapon on the PP as that is a role he filled in the AHL with aplomb. 

 

 

There is still no clear-cut path for a starting goaltender in the system, and adding Casey De Smith, who was Team USA’s starting goalie at the World Championships should give Hughes some options at least at training camp in case Cayden Primeau can’t earn an NHL job. De Smith put up some impressive stats in that tournament, going 5-2 with a .918 sv% and a 1.95 GAA. This could add some competition between him and Jake Allen at camp allowing Hughes to be able to dangle one of them on the trade market. 

The biggest surprise in this whole trade is the return of Jeff Petry to Montreal, but this time with 25% of his cap retained, meaning he only has a $4.6 million cap hit for the last two seasons of his contract. This makes him a lot more attractive in a future trade, and it is highly possible that he will be moved. First, because he is at a stage in his career that he has value to a contender, not a rebuilding team like the Habs, and secondly, because the last time he was in Montreal, he demanded a trade, which sent him to Pittsburgh. 

Added in this deal is a local kid in Nathan Legare, a big winger who will add some veteran grit to an AHL lineup that needs just that, as well as a 2025 second-round pick, which could become excellent trade capital, especially for a franchise that should have returned to being a playoff team, and possibly more by the Summer of 2025. All of this for only 888K more on the cap, which isn’t an issue for a team about to gain $10.5 million when Carey Price is placed on LTIR. 

 

All in all, this is a win-win-win of a trade. All three teams address areas of need, add assets they coveted and can finally focus on the next items on their to do list, all with another month to go before training camps are set to open.

 

Blain Potvin

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