The San Jose Sharks have had a slow start to the season, to say the least. They are currently sitting with a record of 6-10-3, which puts them in sixth out of eight spots in the Pacific Division and 26 out of 32 spots in the NHL standings. The team has had one bright spot this season and that bright spot is the performance of defenseman, Erik Karlsson.

Karlsson has been off to an incredible start so far this season. Through the Sharks’ first 19 games Karlsson has been lighting it up by scoring 11 goals and getting 17 assists for a total of 28 points, which leads all defensemen in the league and ties him with Leon Draisaitl for second overall in the league. He even scored his first NHL hat trick on November 1st, in a 6-5 shootout loss to the Anaheim Ducks. He may be currently point per game but the player with the second most points on the team only has 16 points.

The Sharks are a team that is still very much so in a rebuilding phase and it is likely that a stellar performance from your best defenseman is not going to change that. San Jose’s front office recognizes that as evidenced by the team’s general manager, Mike Grier, who announced that the team will listen to trade offers for Erik Karlsson.

The 32-year-old Swedish native was drafted by the Ottawa Senators with the 15th overall pick in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft. Karlsson was a fan favorite and a key part of Ottawa’s team for several years, winning the James Norris Trophy as the NHL’s best defenseman in 2012 and was named Ottawa’s ninth captain in team history in October 2014. He went on to win his second Norris trophy in that same year. He helped lead the Senators to the 2017 Eastern Conference Final where they lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in seven games. He was traded to the San Jose Sharks on September 13, 2018, and on June 17, 2019, he signed a new eight-year contract with the Sharks worth $92 million and an annual value of $11.5 million. The contract made him the highest-paid defenseman in NHL history and came with a no-trade clause.

The no-trade clause in his contract makes this situation a lot more interesting as that means that he will get a say in what happens. San Jose will listen to the offers but if Karlsson does not want to go then he won’t, and the team’s GM said that he knows that he is happy playing in San Jose. It will be interesting to see how this situation develops as he is happy there, but the team is not in a position to win, and they would get a hefty return for him.