2019 Free Agents the Anaheim Ducks Should Avoid: Erik Karlsson

Free Agency in the NHL Opens July 1st, the Anaheim Ducks have a bit of cap room and some holes on their roster. Some free agents will potentially be pique Bob Murray’s interest, but they shouldn’t.

Every NHL Off-Season has a few different levels of free agents on July 1st. There’s the big fish that fans salivate over the idea of coming to their team, the under the radar players who are pleasant surprises, the players fans get excited about only to be let down over the course of the contract, and then there are the players that should be avoided, due to their age, their drop-off in play or other unappealing traits. Today we’re going to continue our 3 part series by looking at the 2nd of 3 free agents the Anaheim Ducks should not consider signing in free agency.

Erik Karlsson- Defenseman- San Jose Sharks

We started this series with a player who was once an elite player but has hit a wall and regressed massively. Today, we’re going to look at an elite player who has had a worrying season that makes me wary of giving him the huge contract he’s likely to command, even if when he’s healthy and he absolutely deserves it.

Erik Karlsson is a consensus top 3 defender in the NHL, when he’s healthy. He’s one of the most dominant, and dynamic players the league has seen in a long time, and watching the things he can do with the puck is awe-inducing. Those players rarely ever become available on the open market, but Karlsson finds himself in a situation that a lot of players have been in during the recent past as a rental to a team looking to put them over the top. That team, the San Jose Sharks, fell short and it seems unlikely that they will be able to retain his services.

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Karlsson has been dealing with a nagging groin injury since around mid-way through last season. This injury saw him limited to 53 games this season and it is an injury that likely should have kept him out of the playoffs given the labored play that he showed throughout the Sharks run. Overall, Karlsson is one of the best players in the league and if he can overcome his nagging lower-body injuries he could be the missing piece to a lot of team’s puzzles.

Why not the Anaheim Ducks?

Well, the Ducks are in a re-tool, signing a player who is likely to command north of $8M a year (on the conservative side) could prove catastrophic for a team that is a budget team. We’re feeling the effects of Ryan Kesler not being able to overcome his lower body injury, and going through that again could really harm this team moving forward.

As as a re-tooling team, it doesn’t make sense to spend big dollars to bring in a player who is going to be 29 years old when he’s not addressing the biggest need on the team. Karlsson will undoubtedly make whichever team he ends up on better, but he’s not the difference between the Ducks and a Cup, and by the time the Ducks are likely able to make the claim they are “1 piece away”, Karlsson will likely be well into his 30’s.

What do you think? Should the Ducks make a pitch for one of the best defenders in the game even if it’s one of the most high-risk moves they could make?

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