Daily Faceoff Live: Could the Toronto Maple Leafs make an Erik Karlsson trade work?

Erik Karlsson is having a spectacular season reminiscent of his prime days with the Ottawa Senators, and has somehow miraculously made his $11.5 million cap hit look salvageable for the San Jose Sharks, something we didn’t think could happen at this point. It will still be a tough sell, but it no longer seems impossible.

Meanwhile, the Toronto Maple Leafs may need to bring in a defenseman with the current state of their blueline, with Morgan Rielly out for the next month at least, Jake Muzzin’s career likely over, and T.J. Brodie also hurt.

Could there be a possible fit for Karlsson in Toronto? Frank Seravalli and Colby Cohen admit that it’s a bit insane, but it might make more sense than you think.

Frank Seravalli: “[The Toronto Maple Leafs] are in a spot where they’ve got some big decisions to make, whether it’s short term stop gap solution or trading for a bigger piece, and as much as I tried to downplay this idea that made my brain explode, I’ve taken a step back to think about it here in the last 12-18 hours saying ‘Well hold on a second, is there any chance that this makes any sense?’ And you might look at it and say ‘Well from a pure future perspective, the Leafs with three guys already having eight figure contracts in Tavares and Marner and Matthews, they need an Erik Karlsson like they need a hole in their head.’

But if you consider some of the other pieces that we’ve talked about earlier in the week on this show, a John Klingberg for instance as a pickup from Anaheim or someone else that you might have to trade for, Jakob Chychrun or whoever it might be, Matt Roy in L.A., they’re all going to have acquisition cost where you need to give up a first round pick and prospects in order to make something like that happen.

So, if you’re the Leafs and you don’t have to trade really much from your roster in order to take on this contract to make the math work, there’s a way to do it and take on the whole deal, could you actually make the argument that it makes more sense for the Leafs’ future to be able to play a first round pick and prospects on entry level contracts at a certain point, and trade for Karlsson? Am I really even asking this question?”

Colby Cohen: “As beautiful as a monologue as that just was, I’m going to go ahead and just shove that down quickly, because this does not make sense. I mean you look at the money that is distributed amongst that blueline, even though we don’t know what the future holds for a couple of their players that are injured, it’s just too much money, $11.5 million. Does he really get you over the edge come playoff hockey?

I’ve watched San Jose this year, probably more times than I normally would because David Quinn, a former coach of mine, is their head coach, Mike Grier, a former workout partner of mine, is their GM, so I want to watch them, I want to support them. There’s a lot of holes in Erik Karlsson’s defensive game, and I’m not questioning the offense, he’s been incredible offensively, he’s just on a run like we haven’t seen, scoring goals at a clip. But, does his style of play get the Leafs where they want to go in the playoffs? I’m not sure. You play against the Bruins in the first round with all that firepower up front, is he stopping one of those? I just don’t see it.

It’s too much money. I’d rather see them give an acquisition cost as you said to go secure a guy, a couple of those defensemen that you mentioned, and I think Kyle Dubas is GMing for today, and tomorrow, I don’t think he’s thinking five years down the road right now, they’ve got a window, they’ve got players contracts that are starting to come up and be expiring, it just doesn’t make sense to me.”

You can watch the full episode here…