Long-Time Front Office Exec Santos Weighs Risk-Reward of Sharks Keeping Karlsson

Michael Santos joins the San Jose Hockey Now Podcast to talk about Erik Karlsson!

Santos (27:00) brings 17 years of NHL front office experience to the discussion, and brings that perspective to these questions: What are the positives and negatives of Karlsson starting the season with the San Jose Sharks?

Before we get to Santos, Keegan McNally and Sheng Peng chat about the Andy Strickland report that the Sharks offered Vladimir Tarasenko $6 million (2:55).

Why does Keegan want to retain as little as possible on Karlsson (7:15)?

Sheng and Keegan talked about the risk-reward of bringing Karlsson back (10:00). What do the San Jose Sharks owe Karlsson (10:55)? What about the injury risk (15:55)? Sheng talks to multiple league sources about the less obvious risks (17:45).

There is an upside to keeping Karlsson — Sheng offered a couple historical examples of this (21:38).

Now, Michael Santos (27:00)!

What is Santos hearing about a Karlsson trade (28:28)? He believes the Sharks should hold out for a premium for Karlsson.

Santos shares his career path — from 1997 to 2014, he worked in the New York Islanders, Florida Panthers, and Nashville Predators front offices (29:20). He then gives background about the formation of independent professional scouting service, Team 33 (35:45), and what makes his hockey operations management program stand out.

Santos then explains the Team 33 Value Score (44:20), and shares Erik Karlsson, Logan Couture, Danil Gushchin, Thomas Bordeleau, and William Eklund’s scores.

Santos shares why he wouldn’t be concerned about the San Jose Sharks bringing Karlsson back next season (59:20). Is he concerned about the player buy-in when he doesn’t want to be around (1:05:00)? Santos shared his experience being on the other side of a player wanting out: He was an Assistant GM with the Islanders when they acquired a disgruntled Alexei Yashin from the Ottawa Senators.

Santos talks about the possible upside of GM Mike Grier sticking to his guns with Karlsson (1:08:00).

Santos also shares his opinion about this wild scenario: The San Jose Sharks and Karlsson agree to a contract termination, so Karlsson can sign where he wants (1:12:10).

Santos predicts that the San Jose Sharks will trade Karlsson before training camp (1:17:45).

Finally, Santos dives into some of his brushes with Sharks history: He reveals the Islanders wanted to trade up for No. 2 in the 1997 Draft (1:19:12). He recalls being in the Dallas Stars pressbox in Nov. 2005 when the Sharks traded for Joe Thornton (1:22:05).

He also recollects the day when the Islanders traded for Yashin and Michael Peca (1:24:20).

Santos shares plans about how fans can subscribe to Team 33 (1:33:45).

Listen to the San Jose Hockey Now Podcast — it’s a new link — on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and Google Podcasts.

Subscribe to the San Jose Hockey Now Podcast YouTube channel, we’re trying to get over 1K subscribers!