Welcome to the 2018-2019 NHL season, where the Philadelphia Flyers have announced their new, frightening mascot and, more importantly, the San Jose Sharks have made the biggest steal of the season.
That steal, of course, was the team’s Sept.13 trade for Ottawa Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson. What did the Senators get in return for trading away their star defenseman? The answer is pocket change, or at least, that’s what it seems like when compared to a player of Karlsson’s stature.
The Senators received defenseman Dylan DeMelo, forward Chris Tierney, forward prospects Rudolfs Balcers and Josh Norris, a first round draft pick, a second round draft pick and two conditional draft picks.
While the fact that the Senators now have the chance to draft three additional first round picks (not all in the same draft) gives some hope for the potential to draft the next greatest player in hockey, I do not think trading Karlsson for that potential was the smartest move for the team.
The draft is always a gamble. There is never a guarantee that the player or players a team drafts in the first round are going to be the stars they believe them to be. Whether a player ends up underperforming or becomes plagued with injury, you cannot put the future of a team into the hands of a few draft picks, especially when you have one of the best Senators players ever on the team.
Let’s take a look at the team’s overall numbers. Since the team was added in 1992, it has only made it to the Stanley Cup Finals once, in 2007. Since then, the team has only made it past the quarterfinals twice, a less-than-stellar number given that 11 years have passed. For comparison, since the end of the 2006-2007 season, the Sharks have made it past the quarterfinals six times, making it to the conference finals three times and the Stanley Cup Finals once.
It is also important to discuss the role Eugene Melnyk has played in this trade. On Sept. 11, he released an open letter stating that the Senators were “horrible” last season and needed to rebuild. The letter states that that the team “will do everything in our power to make this a reality: invest in the future, make bold decisions and compete — every single day.”
The Senators also released a video in which defenseman Mark Borowiecki interviews Melnyk (who, interestingly enough, is wearing one of the team’s old Reebok jerseys instead of a current Adidas jersey) on the state of the team and what the plan is for the future. In the interview, Melnyk harped on the idea that a few players cannot do the job of an entire team and that the team needed “leadership, and then you build under that.”
Having young players is an important part of building a team that can consistently have successful regular and postseason runs, and while yes, the team did have an upsettingly underwhelming 2017-2018 season, placing seventh in the Atlantic division and second-to-last in the league, this drastic rebuild Melnyk is setting in motion just seems counterproductive. The Senators should have opted to keep a strong core — with Karlsson as one of these core players — and then added in the young talent. Instead, Karlsson is gone, forward Jean-Gabriel Pageau is out in order to repair his Achilles and forward Zack Smith was just placed on waivers.
It looks like that leadership is a little scarce with a number of team leaders being shown the door or injured. How can you expect to rebuild a team under an existing leadership if many of the current leaders are gone? Sure, the Senators do still have players to choose from, including forwards like Mark Stone and Matt Duchene, but removing the team’s key defensive player takes away a vital part of its overall leadership.
Karlsson’s average time on ice ticks close to the 30 minute mark, which means the Senators will be tasked with the difficulty of replacing such a dominant on-ice presence.
As if there wasn’t enough reason to keep an eye on the West, thanks to Ottawa, the Sharks have become that much more threatening in the Western conference. Combining Karlsson with Norris Trophy-winner Brent Burns and Marc-Edouard Vlasic to round out the Sharks’ defensive corps with consistent offensive production will further strengthen a dangerous defense that should be hard to permeate this season.
