According to a complex scheme, the best NHL defender Erik Karlsson moved to Pittsburgh

The main deal of the current off-season in the NHL was carried out for the first time in more than a decade and a half by the Pittsburgh Penguins, who did not make it to the playoffs. He traded for San Jose Sharks underdog Erik Karlsson, who had just won the league’s best defenseman award. first of all, for the phenomenal scorer achievements in the past regular season. A whole group of hockey players and three clubs were involved in the trade: in addition to Pittsburgh and San Jose, there was also the Montreal Canadiens. Meanwhile, signing the 33-year-old Karlsson may seem like a risky move for his new club. It makes Pittsburgh’s roster, still dependent on veterans Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, the oldest in the league, even older.

held in the NHL deal, which, apparently, is doomed to remain the main one in the current off-season. Several factors make it so, including scale.

In this multi-layered exchange, Erik Karlsson was the central character. Karlsson is a famous Swedish hockey player who became famous at the beginning of the last decade when he played for the Ottawa Senators. As a player for the club, he won the Norris Trophy twice, in 2012 and 2015, the league’s best defenseman. Karlsson, 33, who has been with the San Jose Sharks since 2018, experienced an unexpected career renaissance last season.

San Jose was again among the outsiders of the regular season, but Karlsson managed to score 101 points in it. This is phenomenal by today’s standards.

The 100-point mark has not been broken by any defenseman since 1992, when Brian Leach of the New York Rangers overcame it. The breakthrough gave Erik Karlsson the status of the most valuable asset on the market, despite the fact that he did not become a free agent. His next contract is for another four years, and the average salary of the Swede for the season during this period will be a huge $ 11.5 million. Such amounts, as a rule, scare off potential buyers. Nevertheless, North American hockey experts had no doubt that a serious struggle would unfold for Karlsson, who dreams of fighting for the Stanley Cup, which needs a radical restructuring of San Jose in the near future.

The fact that it was the Pittsburgh Penguins who succeeded in it is the merit, first of all, of its new president of hockey operations and general manager, Kyle Dubas. Pittsburgh’s long 16-season run in the playoffs ended this spring. And the owner of the club, Fenway Sports Group, lured Dubas away from the Toronto Maple Leafs in order to rectify the situation. And he was immediately able to figure out how to lure Karlsson away by inventing a scheme that was furious in complexity.

It features three clubs, a whole group of hockey players and draft picks (that is, the right to choose newcomers in the next draft). The San Jose and Montreal Canadiens got four famous Pittsburgh players – forward Mikael Granlund, goaltender Casey Desmith and defensemen Jeff Petri with Ian Rutta. Granlund and Rutta went to California with 2024 first-round pick, Desmith and Petrie went to Canada with 2025 second-round pick and so-called prospect Nathan Lehar. Pittsburgh, along with Karlsson, took midfielder Rem Pitlik, prospect Dillon Hamaluk, and a 2026 third-round pick from San Jose. In addition, Montreal sent Mike Hoffman, who until recently was considered a good sniper, to the California team.

In addition, San Jose agreed to compensate Erik Karlsson for approximately $1.5 million annually before the expiration of Erik Karlsson’s contract.

But Pittsburgh will also compensate Montreal for the same amount of Jeff Petrie’s salary. But Petri’s contract, which is almost three times the size of Karlsson’s contract, expires in two seasons.

The meaning of the deal for its main participants is quite obvious. San Jose, having cleared a spot under the $83.5 million salary cap next season with the departure of Erik Karlsson, is looking to freshen up the roster with young players while continuing personnel reforms with an eye to the future. Pittsburgh, having got rid of players who were not very productive and stable, with the help of Karlsson hopes to immediately sharply strengthen the game, and it is clear that not so much in defense. For example, in the list of weaknesses of the club in the last championship was the implementation of the majority, the effectiveness of which was 21.7%. This is a rather pale number. The role of the dispatcher when drawing too much is the Swede’s strong point.

At the same time, in the trade, no matter how successful it may seem, for Pittsburgh there is a huge amount of risk.

The fact is that, unlike San Jose, he no longer has room for financial maneuvering: a fresh acquisition has deprived the club of a gap under the ceiling. Consequently, he will have to rely on the footage already at hand.

Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh squad has one specific feature. He was the oldest player in the league the previous season. Moreover, the colossal dependence of the team on three players that has not just reached veteran age, but to the age when most hockey players say goodbye to sports, was striking. Defenseman Chris Letang is 36 years old. Outstanding Canadian striker Sidney Crosby turned that age on Monday. Another living legend, Russian center forward Evgeni Malkin, is a year older than the Canadian. The arrival of Erik Karlsson does not add youth and prospects to Pittsburgh. And the fact that, having incredible attacking skills, the Swede, strictly speaking, is by no means ideal when performing “profile” duties for his role, can turn into a headache for his coaching team.

Alexey Dospekhov