Hodge
Registered User
- Apr 27, 2021
- 6,765
- 8,027
Zaitsev’s NTC is irrelevant. If San Jose is on it the Sharks and Sens can have a handshake agreement as part of the deal that the Sharks are required to claim him off waivers from Ottawa. This is how Todd Marchant wound up in Anaheim back in the day.I don't see Ottawa as being a fit unless Zub walks and Zaitsev doesn't have San Jose on his no-trade list. I don't find the odds of both those things being true to be very good but Grier would be doing the right thing to listen and see what Ottawa would want to do if they have interest in acquiring Karlsson regardless. I can't imagine that 50% retention is on the table but if it is, it will cost something that Ottawa won't want to part with. I honestly think Montreal makes more sense in trying to acquire Karlsson because they have more flexibility in terms of cap space and players to return to that help the cap dollars balance out. Issue is that Montreal probably doesn't have interest in adding to compete for a playoff spot at this stage.
A lot of this also depends on how Karlsson feels about the situation in San Jose. I bet it sucks for him but it doesn't seem like he'd take the first opportunity literally anywhere else in the league at this stage so it's going to have to be a place that interests him. If he only wants to go back to Ottawa and won't accept anything else similar to how Marleau only wanted to go back to San Jose when Toronto was through with him, it could make for a very dicey situation if Ottawa isn't willing to play ball on the return (which is their right given the leverage involved there).