2023 Off-Season: Breaking Down the EK65 Trade

(Photo Credits: NHL.com)

Hello ladies and gentlemen, I know I've been gone for a while, but I am glad to be back, and just in time apparently as I am going to break down the Erik Karlsson trade. The trade that happened today shook the NHL and brought the raining Norris Trophy-winning defenseman to the Pittsburgh Penguins, and I couldn't be more thrilled to watch him this season. I will break down the details of this below:

TO PITTSBURGH:

- Defenseman Erik Karlsson

- Forward Rem Pitlick

- Forward Dillion Hamaliuk

- 2026 3rd Round Draft Pick

TO SAN JOSE:

- 2024 1st Round Draft Pick

- Forward Mikael Granlund

- Defenseman Jan Rutta

- Forward Mike Hoffman

TO MONTREAL:

- 2025 2nd Round Draft Pick

- Defenseman Jeff Petry

- Goaltender Casey DeSmith

- Prospect Forward Nathan Legare

To begin the analysis from a Pittsburgh perspective, it appears the Penguins did a great job. When I look at the player they received, he's a 7x all-star defenseman and a 3x Norris Winner (the league-best defender as voted by the players), and they managed to get rid of the contracts of Jan Rutta, Jeff Petry, and Mikael Granlund which were costing the team an awful lot of money (about $13 Million). Kyle Dubas just began his tenure as the Penguins' GM last week, and he's already made the biggest trade in franchise history with 11 different assets on the move. The team will have to determine where EK65 will slot in on the PowerPlay and defensive pairings, but as of now, it looks like a team that is ready to make one last cup run with a core four of EK65, Kris Letang, Sidney Crosby, and Evgeni Malkin.

Now from the Montreal Perspective, the team really needed to add some players and draft picks to continue to move forward in their rebuild. The Habs have been moving toward being contenders again with a core of Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and Harbour Ejacki. Each one of those players is young, fast, and has fantastic hands. This will help the Canadians be a more competitive team with the additions of middle-six forward Nathan Legare (a minor league prospect) and the return of Defenseman Jeff Petry. I think the Habs did just fine in building up the team for where they are at in their franchise positionally.

Finally, for the San Jose Sharks, they were the losers of this trade. The Sharks acquired the contracts that former Penguins GM Ron Hextall acquired and spent way too much, and also decided to give the Penguins 25% of EK's salary retained. The only part of the trade they managed to sort of win was a 1st round draft pick in next year's draft, which they can use to begin the rebuild they are inevitably in after dealing Karlsson.

In conclusion to the trade, it was a major trade that had a lot of splash throughout the NHL and ultimately made the Pittsburgh Penguins and Montreal Canadians better.