They did very poorly

The Sharks retained only $1.5M and received a 2024 1st plus potential bounce back candidates in Hoffman and Granlund.

That's a win in my book.

I'll bet anything SJ ownership said they wanted out of the contract with as little financial pain as possible. Which is something no one would know. The return was paltry but the ownership is saving tens of millions. Karlsson was still owed $39m.

The 1st round pick they got was for the bad contracts. They got nothing for EK

That’s how I looked at it too. And it’s top 10 protected.

Like most trades, this trades “winner” can only be decided in years to come. If EK65 does great and is still at his norris caliber for 2-4 more years and the pens win another cup then absolutely this deal is a total loss for the sharks. but if he and they don’t perform well and we get positive value out of what they gave us and it helps turn the ship, then i’m all for it.

I will say that clause was a bit of a stinger, top3 or top5 would have been preferred.

As much as I loved EK65 since the moment he got here. He unfortunately had to go. By the time we would have been competitive he would have been old and way over paid. At least now we got stuff back. Could definitely flip Hoffman and Granlund at the deadline. like i said, it’s impossible to really say who’s the winner, who’s the loser on a deal that just got announced.

Absolutely awful for SJS.
Grier is screwing this franchise.

Also, does anyone know if it's a 2025 1st if the condition is met?

How are Hoffman or Granlund going to have any value on this team? Look at the roster.

Except, they've taken on 21mil in real dollar commitments (Granlund: 6mil then 5mil, Hoffman: 5mil, Rutta: 2.5mil then 2.5mil) alongside what they've retained (approx. 5mil) which is more than the 19.5mil they would've owed Karlsson if they retained the full 50% of the contract. Alongside the substantially reduced return that could've been possible from a Karlsson @ 5.75mil, they're not really saving anything as the 3 spots the acquired players will occupy could've easily been filled with league minimum players or rookies.

Sure, they might be able to flip Hoffman, Granlund, and Rutta at some point but when? What would they get? How much will they have to retain? What will the opportunity cost be for using the retention slots on them as opposed to other players? The more I look at the trade, the worse it looks.

It wasn't until this last year that Karlsson's deal wasn't looked at as one of the roughest in hockey, because he couldn't stay healthy for an entire season and looked like a shell of his former self. How do you move that kind of money in the flat cap world?

Retain half. At least guarantee that you're saving 19.5mil while also opening up far more trade options. Karlsson at 5.75mil would've had at least 4 or 5 competitive teams able to bid for him and you can't convince me they wouldn't have been able to get notably more than a 1st and whatever spare part picks they get for the filler players.

Need to get ownership to buy off on that, and that's tough for a small market team.

And yet they're committing to 26mil in salary expenditures (barring trade) this way. Of course, that's not a guaranteed amount as trades could occur. If we assume each gets traded on the deadline of the final year of their contract, they're likely going to exceed 19.5mil, anyway.

Trade Deadline. Both are gonna get prime minutes on this team. If they bounce back you can get great returns. not a guarantee but they are also not the focus of this deal. they are simply a byproduct of making it happen.

I have a hard time seeing them produce well on this team. Not enough to get any value. We'll see though!

Let's just say they are able to squeeze a 3rd for Hoffman at TDL and a 2nd from Granlund at next TDL (assuming he plays much better than he has been), you may also get a 4th for Rutta. That's still only a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th as net assets for retaining on a player who just got 100 points.... Jeannot was traded for more and he is dogwater