Karlsson may not longer be the player he once was, but at 33, he's coming off his third career Norris Trophy win after putting up an astounding 101 points in 82 games for an awful San Jose Sharks team last season.
Karlsson's $11.5M salary remains a challenge for teams to take on, especially with Sharks GM Mike Grier refusing to retain 50% of his contract. Rumours suggest that Grier is only willing to retain a maximum of 20% of Karlsson's deal, which still leaves him with a $9.2M cap hit. Fitting him in will be no easy feat for Kyle Dubas, but if his top players are pushing him to acquire the elite offensive defenseman, we may yet see him pull the trigger.