Senators’ offer to Erik Karlsson is embarrassing
We have details of the Ottawa Senators’ contract offer to Erik Karlsson, and we can see why this relationship isn’t working out.
The Ottawa Senators tried really hard to keep Erik Karlsson. They don’t want to trade him, they swear. Ottawa even offered him a long-term extension to get him to stay.
The @Senators offered Erik Karlsson an 8 year contract extension for $10M per season. Now they are in serious trade talks with multiple teams highly interested. #NHLNews
— Kathryn Tappen (@KathrynTappen) July 3, 2018
See? They offered him less money than Drew Doughty and John Tavares. How could he possibly turn them down? Don’t blame Ottawa when it ends up trading its captain in the next couple of weeks. It did everything in their power to keep him. He made his decision.
According to CapFriendly, the Senators have $18 million in cap space this offseason. Mark Stone is still in need of a contract, which will likely fall around $5.5 million if it’s a long-term deal. Although based on their offer to Karlsson, it’ll probably be closer to $4.2 million. Assuming they lock up Stone, they’ll have around $35 million in cap space next offseason.
Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel would need new contracts; otherwise, no one of real importance would command a big salary.
Forgetting all of that for a second…THIS IS ERIK KARLSSON! Even if you don’t have cap space, you find a way to make it happen. He’s the face of the franchise, he’s the best puck-moving defenseman in the league and he’s the only reason anyone has paid attention to the team in the last five years.
What makes the offer even more insulting is their incompetence dating back to the Duchene trade and the most recent NHL Draft. The Senators don’t have their first-round pick in 2019. By trading Karlsson, they’d be punting on the 2018-19 season without the reward of a lottery pick.
Not only are they giving up on their current franchise cornerstone, they could be losing out on the next franchise cornerstone. Brady Tkachuk better be twice the player his father was for them to justify keeping their 2018 pick and then trading Karlsson.
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I’m sorry, Senators fans. One year ago, your team had just made the Eastern Conference Final and you thought they were one piece away from being in the Finals. Now, you’re probably secretly ordering your No. 91 Maple Leafs jersey.