Team

Betting

CanucksArmy has no direct affiliation to the Vancouver Canucks, Canucks Sports & Entertainment, NHL, or NHLPA

Trade Trees: Long before he joined Canucks, Linus Karlsson was once swapped for Lou Lamoriello

Photo credit: © Bob Frid-Imagn Images

By Jeff Paterson

Jul 28, 2026, 15:00 EDTUpdated: Jul 28, 2026, 13:07 EDT

Comments

The trade that brought Linus Karlsson to the Vancouver Canucks is pretty straightforward and has proven to be a solid transaction for the hockey club. In February 2019, the Canucks acquired the now 26-year-old right-winger from San Jose in a one-for-one swap for Jonathan Dahlen.

Now, Dahlen was supposed to be a prized piece acquired from Ottawa in exchange for noted dragon slayer Alex Burrows. But after just one season in AHL Utica, Dahlen became disgruntled with his role and the Canucks elected to move on from him. So he was sent to San Jose in a deal that didn’t garner many headlines at the time.

Looking back now, the Canucks clearly won that trade with Karlsson playing 106 NHL games in Vancouver so far as well as taking a leading role in Abbotsford’s run to the 2025 Calder Cup. He scored 15 goals last season and received a rookie of the year vote. The Sharks, meanwhile, got one season out of Dahlen before he bolted for Sweden, where he has spent the past four years playing a frontline role for Timra IK.

So that’s the extent of the Karlsson-for-Dahlen trade tree. The fascinating part of the Karlsson trade history is what happened long before he arrived in Vancouver.

More than a decade ago, the Toronto Maple Leafs were required to transfer a third round draft pick to New Jersey as compensation for the club hiring Lou Lamoriello to be their new general manager. At the time, it was merely a 2018 draft pick with no player attached to it. Yet.

The Devils took the pick and packaged it with a second rounder and sent them both to Washington for veteran forward Marcus Johansson. However, before the Capitals could use the draft capital, they shipped the third rounder to Chicago for defenceman Michal Kempny.

So now the third rounder that originally belonged to the Maple Leafs had been moved to New Jersey, Washington, and Chicago. But its journey was far from over.

On draft day in 2018, the Hawks paid Arizona a fifth-round pick to swap third-round selections. But the original pick didn’t remain with the Coyotes for long, because they turned around and dealt it to the Sharks in exchange for fourth and fifth round selections in that draft.

And that’s how Linus Karlsson became a San Jose Shark. San Jose used the pick – 87th overall – to take Karlsson from Karlskrona of the Swedish Junior league.

Eight years on, Karlsson has proven to be a solid pick from that position in the draft. Only seven players selected in the third round that year have played more NHL games than he has. A pair of Minnesota selections – Jack McBain and Conor Dewar – have each logged 316 NHL games to lead the way. Ty Emberson (178), Lukas Dostal (177), Jordan Harris (172), Oskar Back (145) and Jakub Lauko (139) are the others who have appeared in more NHL contests than Karlsson to this point.

The Canucks used their own third rounder that year to select Tyler Madden who was subsequently dealt to Los Angeles to acquire Tyler Toffoli. Madden has never played an NHL game and spent last season with Straubing in the German Elite League.

Not every player can say they were once traded for a general manager, but Linus Karlsson can. Sort of. And he’s outlasted Lou Lamoriello and Jonathan Dahlen and the hope for the Canucks is that his best is still yet to come.