Screen Shots: Toronto Maple Leafs, Olympics, Mike Hammond

Welcome to Screen Shots, THN.com’s ongoing feature where we take a few different hockey topics and analyze them in a few paragraphs. Regular readers know we don’t take much time writing a lengthy lead-in for the column, so let’s get straight to it.

Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson confirmed rumors he wants out of San Jose, telling Swedish-language publication Expressen he has engaged in trade talks with a number of teams, including the Pittsburgh Penguins, Carolina Hurricanes, Seattle Kraken and Toronto Maple Leafs.

From this writer’s perspective, the Penguins and Kraken have the fewest attractive assets to land Karlsson in a trade. Pittsburgh’s prospect pool is shallow, and Seattle doesn’t have much that would interest Sharks GM Mike Grier. The same can’t be said for Toronto and Carolina. The Hurricanes could send veteran blueliner Brett Pesce to San Jose, and perhaps Grier could flip Pesce to a different playoff contender for younger NHL-ready players and prospects.

But the Leafs have the most high-end players to lure San Jose into dealing Karlsson to Toronto. If a package included high-scoring winger William Nylander as well as young winger Nick Robertson, wouldn’t the Sharks have to jump at that offer? 

Both Nylander and Robertson can be part of the long-term solution for San Jose, and the trade-off in salary between Nylander (and his $6.9-million cap hit next season) and Karlsson would make the deal palatable next season and beyond. Of course, Leafs GM Brad Treliving would need the Sharks to retain a significant portion of Karlsson’s salary, but that’s why you’d have to include Robertson – who has tumbled down Toronto’s depth chart – in the trade.

Some might see that trade as too pricey for the Leafs, but you’re talking about acquiring the reigning Norris Trophy winner, a right-shot D-man whose masterful play on offense would offset the departure of Nylander. It will take a pretty package to land Karlsson, but Treliving would be making his biggest move yet in Toronto by completing this blockbuster deal. All GMs know trades are a gamble, but this would be a gamble worth taking.

The NHL and NHL Players’ Association are rumored to be collaborating on a plan to include NHLers at the 2026 Winter Olympics. It is well-known players highly value the opportunity to represent their country on a worldwide stage, but labor battles and the COVID-19 pandemic have prevented NHLers from participating in the 2018 and 2022 Games. There also was an opportunity for a best-on-best tournament in the form of the World Cup of Hockey, but plans to stage that event in 2024 were derailed by the absence of Russian players whose country invaded Ukraine.

That said, if Russia continues to be at war with Ukraine, that shouldn’t stop the NHL and NHLPA from staging another World Cup, as well as participating in the next Olympic Games. Both events will be less competitive to a degree without Russia, but other sports continue to operate without Russian athlete participation. Sports can’t control politics, but they can adjust to remain active and put out an engaging product. It’s unfair to Russian athletes, but there are real-world consequences to war, and this is one of them.

Finally, our condolences to the family and friends of Mike Hammond, a professional hockey player who was killed on Vancouver Island Wednesday. The 33-year-old, who skated for the United Kingdom’s Elite Hockey League this past season, died in a single-car accident. He is the most recent pro player to die tragically in the off-season, joining an unfortunate list of notable names, including Luc Bourdon, Ray Emery, Matiss Kivlenieks and Dmitri Tertyshny.

Hockey players are no different than other professionals in that they can sadly pass away suddenly. Bourdon died in a motorcycle accident, Emery drowned after vacationing on a boat, Kivlenieks was killed by a fireworks accident, and Tertyshny died in a boating accident. You can see why teams want their players to live as risk-free as possible in the summer, but the terrible truth is that terrible things happen to good people all the time, and there’s little, if anything, that can be done to prevent it. Here’s hoping Hammond’s loved ones take some solace in knowing he was an accomplished athlete.