On the Ottawa Senators and Erik Karlsson …
David Satriano of NHL.com: Senators general manager Pierre Dorion on Sunday.
“We don’t really want to talk about roster players, contract negotiations, trades, all these things, but I think we owe it to our fans and we made a promise at the town hall that we would make a contract offer to Erik Karlsson and we’ve done so.”
Larry Brooks: The Senators have granted teams that are interested permission to speak with Erik Karlsson about a potential contract extension. It sounds like he is looking for a deal similar to Drew Doughty – eight years at $11 million per season.
John Shannon: Confirming Brooks reports that the Senators have granted teams permission. The Senators and the team would then need to see if they could figure out a trade.
Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Citizen: Day two of free agency saw increased trade talk surrounding Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson, with four or five teams making a push for him.
The Senators offered Karlsson a contract on Sunday, and yesterday granted teams permission to speak with his reps.
There is some speculation that the San Jose Sharks could step up their efforts after missing out on John Tavares. The Sharks have lots of salary cap space and may still be looking to make a big splash. A league executive did say that the Sharks prospect pool may not have what the Senators want.
Among the teams that are believed to be interested include the Vegas Golden Knights, Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals and New York Rangers.
The Golden Knights are believed to also be willing to take on Bobby Ryan’s $7.5 million per contract. The return obviously decreases if you include Ryan.
It wouldn’t be a surprise if Karlsson wanted more than Doughty’s eight-year, $88 million contract extension.
