Report: Canucks kicking tires on Erik Karlsson

It’s late August, so take everything with a grain of salt but Elliotte Friedman from Sportsnet dropped a bomb this morning:

We don’t know how far the talks have gone between Ottawa and Vancouver but the Canucks being specifically named does cause alarm bells to go off.

The organization has spoken many times about wanting a powerplay quarterback and their previous desire in acquiring P.K. Subban reinforces that thought process. In a sense, if you are going to get one, you might as well go for the best.

With that out of the way, it’s hard to see any fit without someone like Quintin Hughes, or Elias Pettersson, or Adam Gaudette and or the 2019 1st round pick being a part of the package and that should be a hard no from the Canucks. They are not in a position to trade any of those assets, let alone one of them plus other pieces to get the deal done.

Erik Karlsson is set to become an unrestricted free agent at the conclusion of the 2018-19 season, so it’s entirely possible that is a one and done deal for wherever he ends up acquiring him. He does also possess a limited no-trade clause that allows him to prevent a trade to 10 teams.

There is little debate about the quality of player that Erik Karlsson is and that he would improve the 2018-19 Canucks but it would come at the cost of the future and really put them up against it in terms of ‘everything having to work out’. If they make that deal, all of their prospects that weren’t moved to acquire him would have to make it, push their ceiling, and do it quickly. Otherwise, you run the risk of just spinning your tires for the foreseeable future.

Even if they acquire Karlsson and then hope to flip him at the deadline, there is little chance that they would recover the assets given up to acquire him. Adding Bobby Ryan’s salary to lower the price might help but that is a heavy contract burden to take on. Even if the Canucks are seeing if they can take on the Ryan contract for assets, it would have to be a good package.

Give the organization credit for leaving no stone unturned but it’s hard to see how there is a match here.

Have to love those August rumours.