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Can the Maple Leafs make an Erik Karlsson deal work?<\/p>\n
The Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> are committed to adding offense to their team. After trading Mitch Marner to the Vegas Golden Knights<\/a>, GM Brad Treliving has been grinding away at adding forwards to increase their goal-scoring potential<\/a>.<\/p>\n Heavy.com proposed a trade idea that would land the Maple Leafs a superstar defenseman, namely, Erik Karlsson<\/a>. This deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> would be a blockbuster, and they would pay a handsome price to acquire the talented blueliner.<\/p>\n Maple Leafs Acquire:<\/p>\n Erik Karlsson ($3 million retained, $7 million)<\/p>\n Penguins Acquire:<\/p>\n This proposal would be nothing short of a blockbuster. Karlsson is the most offensively gifted defender available in trade discussions, who would plug into the Maple Leafs\u2019 top-four immediately. The Penguins would acquire several forwards with expiring or near-expiring deals.<\/p>\n Karlsson would immediately upgrade the offensive firepower of the Maple Leafs\u2019 backend. The 35-year-old, 6-foot, 186 lb right-handed defender<\/a> is a three-time Norris Trophy winner for the NHL\u2019s best defenseman. He was initially drafted 15th overall in 2008 by the Ottawa Senators<\/a>. This past season, he recorded 53 points in 82 games.<\/p>\n The Penguins would add two useful forwards in David Kampf and Calle Jarnkrok. Penguins GM Kyle Dubas is familiar with both players from his time as Maple Leafs GM. Kampf recorded 13 points in 59 regular season games<\/a> this past season. Conversely, Jarnkrok added seven points in 19 games.<\/a><\/p>\n This proposal sees them acquire Jake McCabe to bring a veteran presence to the Penguins\u2019 blueline. McCabe is a 31-year-old left-handed defender<\/a>. The 6-foot-1, 212 lb defender was drafted 44th overall by the Buffalo Sabres<\/a> in 2012. McCabe averaged 21:31 of ice time in 66 games this year.<\/p>\n Erik Karlsson on the Maple Leafs Radar<\/p>\n Earlier in July, a report came out linking the Maple Leafs with the Norris-winning<\/a> blueliner.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s more than just hearsay when it comes to the Leafs and Erik Karlsson right now,\u201d James Murphy of RG wrote<\/a>. \u201cThere\u2019s probably going to be salary retained\u2026this is a business, and if there\u2019s enough interest from both teams and they figure out the cap hit and money, then that\u2019s all that matters.\u201d<\/p>\n Murphy\u2019s report also explained that Karlsson has drawn interest from multiple NHL organizations.<\/p>\n \u201cThere have been numerous reports that the Detroit Red Wings have expressed interest in Karlsson on the NHL trade market,\u201d Murphy also wrote. \u201cThe aforementioned NHL source told RG that recent NHL trade chatter also has the Anaheim Ducks<\/a>, Utah Mammoth, and Dallas Stars also interested in Karlsson.\u201d<\/p>\n Murphy also explained that the departure of Marner and the offense he brought to the table as the driving force behind a Karlsson acquisition.<\/p>\n \u201cThey need that offense from the backend; they need that guy on the powerplay\u2026and the Leafs gotta make up that offense with Marner gone.\u201d<\/p>\n Maple Leafs Open up Cap Space For Additional Moves<\/p>\n Previous reports<\/a> from David Pagnotta have listed Kampf and Jarnkrok as players the Maple Leafs have dangled to move out salary.\u00a0If the above trade proposal happened, the Maple Leafs would free up<\/a> a shade over $2 million in cap space and be one Karlsson richer. This would give them $4.94 million in cap space.<\/p>\n The Maple Leafs would have the flexibility to add the last free agent on their checklist, Jack Roslovic.<\/a><\/p>\n Elliotte Friedman reports<\/a> that Roslovic and the Maple Leafs have mutual interest, but that Roslovic\u2019s camp was waiting. The Maple Leafs had indicated that they needed to create space to sign him.<\/p>\n This kind of deal might be precisely what both teams need.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tCaleb Kerney<\/a> Caleb covers the NHL for Heavy.com. He has covered professional hockey since 2022, including bylines at Dobber Prospects, The Hockey Writers, and The Hockey News. More about Caleb Kerney<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Maple Leafs\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Can the Maple Leafs make an Erik Karlsson deal work? The Toronto Maple Leafs are committed to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-41140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}