Erik Karlsson said he hasn’t asked the San Jose Sharks to trade him amid their major changes this offseason.
“No, I committed here a long time ago,” the defenseman told The Athletic in comments published Wednesday. “It didn’t work out the way we wanted it to early on. There’s a lot of things that probably played into that. I’m not going to get into details about that, but I am excited for the future here now. I hope we can move in the direction to be successful again. Is that going to be this year? I mean, who knows? But I do think something good can come out of here.”
The 32-year-old, who is entering the fourth season of an eight-year contract he signed on June 17, 2019, had 35 points (10 goals, 25 assists) in 50 games last season, missing two months due to surgery. repair a muscle tear in his left forearm.
San Jose (32-37-13) finished sixth in the Pacific Division and missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the third straight season.
As a result, the Sharks hired Mike Grier as general manager and David Quinn as coach this offseason. They also traded defenders Brent Burnswho played 11 seasons in San Jose, to the Carolina Hurricanes, but they acquired center Luke Kunin in a trade with the Nashville Predators and signed free agent forwards Oskar Lindblom and Nico Sturmand defensemen Matt Benning and Markus Nutivaara.
“If you look at the last few years, we’ve had a problem filling out the lineup with quality players,” Karlsson said. “I think we do have a lot of good, top-end guys, but it’s been tough for some of the younger guys who had to come in and play a game where they’re not really familiar with or have the experience to do so. I think that [Grier] brought in that stability with guys that have been in the League for a while but also haven’t maybe reached the potential that they could.”
Karlsson went on to say that he feels healthy entering this season but that he wants to be more proactive when it comes to avoiding prolonged injury absences. The two-time Norris Trophy winner voted as the best defenseman in the NHL (2012, 2015) has 142 points (27 goals, 115 assists) in 211 regular-season games with the Sharks, but he has missed 79 games since they acquired him. in a trade with the Ottawa Senators on Sept. 13, 2018.
“I think the injuries that I’ve had since I got here … some of them probably could have been prevented a little bit and some of them were just like, things happen,” Karlsson said. “I broke my thumb when I blocked a shot. I mean, what are you going to do? That’s part of the game. I had some wear and tear where, if we were in a different position where you can take some time off and maybe look after it a little bit different, maybe it doesn’t get to the point where you have to have surgery. It is all circumstantial. I think now maybe I should be a little bit more cautious about when things come on, even if it means missing a little bit of time here and there in order not to miss a lot of time at the end of the year.”
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