RUMOUR: Erik Karlsson an Oiler?

The Hurricanes just signed the man in the picture, Dmitry Orlov, in free agency for $7.75 million a year for two years. Would GM Don Waddell have done that if he didn’t want Orlov playing a role in the ‘Canes top four D for the next two years?  I doubt it. No GM is stupid enough to sign a guy to that AAV and go into the season with the intention of playing him on the third pairing. It would be a terrible use of cap space and probably get him fired.

This has now rendered Brett Pesce redundant, which is why he is one of the biggest trade chips this offseason.

Since San Jose is rebuilding and will have high first round picks for the next few years, I highly doubt they’d want to part with their first round pick, but IMO they would definitely part with their second and third round picks if it meant they could finally unload Erik Karlsson to a better team and fulfill his wish.

With the Oilers chipping in Brett Kulak to the ‘Canes, they get a player who although he is not the same player type and won’t put up as much offence, I believe the ‘Canes have the luxury of swapping a puck mover for a stay at home guy because Kulak will be playing next to Brady Skjei, a guy who broke out in a big way for the ‘Canes as he scored 18 goals for them this year and 38 points in 81 games. In other words, they have their puck mover on the second pairing.

In Brett Kulak, they get a guy who’s too expensive in Edmonton for where he’s playing now, but won’t be in Carolina where he’ll be playing in the top four as he likely would’ve been in Edmonton had they not traded for Mattias Ekholm at the last trade deadline. It’s better for the player too because he gets to play a bigger role and more minutes in the top four, something he won’t get in Edmonton because he’s blocked on both the left and right side on the second pairing. Not to mention they save $1.275 million against the cap in Kulak vs. Pesce and Kulak is signed for another two seasons past the next one whereas Pesce’s contract is up after this season.

The draft capital from San Jose certainly doesn’t hurt, either – and those picks will be higher picks in the second and third rounds which will be great for them, not to mention having the Oiler’s third round pick in exchange for keeping 25% of the Erik Karlsson cap hit. This would effectively give Carolina three second picks in the next draft – they have their own and Philadelphia’s (Tony Deangelo trade) and now they’ll have San Jose’s too. In 2025 they’ll have three picks in the third round – their own, San Jose’s, and Edmonton’s. That’s a nice haul of draft picks.