Sorry, Ottawa.
The same goes for you, Montreal. And Detroit and the New York Rangers. And pretty much any of the other teams that already had PowerPoint presentations ready to try and entice Erik Karlsson to sign with them on July 1.
The two-time Norris Trophy-winning defenceman is not going anywhere for a long, long time.
On Monday, TSN’s Bob McKenzie and others had reported that Karlsson had signed an eight-year extension believed to be worth somewhere around $11.5-million annually to remain with the San Jose Sharks, thus passing Drew Doughty as the highest-paid defenceman in the NHL.
While there were rumours that Karlsson’s wife wanted to be closer to her family in Ottawa, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that he’s staying put in northern California.
There’s something about San Jose, something about the Sharks, where once you arrive you don’t want to leave. Just ask Evander Kane, who resigned with the team shortly after being traded a year ago.
Karlsson is a much bigger player, obviously. So his decision to remain with a team that lost to St. Louis in the conference final — and not test the free agency waters, as John Tavares did at this time last year — means it’s on to Plan B for a lot of teams.
And Plan B is really Plan C or D when you think about it.
It now means that Toronto’s Jake Gardiner or Winnipeg’s Tyler Myers are the top unrestricted agent defencemen. Those are not what you’d call franchise-changing players, which is what Karlsson was despite a down year (by his standards) in his first season in San Jose.
Plagued by injuries and no longer the No. 1 option on offence, the 29-year-old had just three goals and 45 points in 53 games with the Sharks. Not including the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season, it was his lowest output in eight years. Even still, there are few in the NHL who can do what Karlsson does on a regular basis.
At his best, he is the second coming of Paul Coffey. At his worst, he is a point per game defenceman and power play specialist.
And now, he’s a Shark — most likely for the rest of his career.
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2019
