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CJ WittWhen Erik Karlsson was first traded to the San Jose Sharks it was supposed to make this team a contender for years to come. Instead, in the three seasons that Karlsson has been a Shark the team has missed the playoffs in two of the three seasons. San Jose made the conference finals in 2019 and has yet to return to the postseason.
After that season Karlsson re-signed with the Sharks for 8 years for a whopping $92 million. That makes his cap hit $11.5m a season. I don't have to remind Sharks fans of that. Karlsson has underperformed that contract since it was signed. It also arguably cost the team the ability to sign then captain Joe Pavelski. He has since gone on to Dallas and does what he does. For Sharks fans, he was a fan favorite, he was also possibly the heart and sole of this franchise. That is beside the point however. What matters is the here, and the now. Right now, Karlsson is a Shark. One of the biggest problems with his tenure in San Jose so far, seems to be luck. Karlsson was traded to San Jose on the first day of training camp in 2018. The trade took place on September 13th, yet he was unable to practice with his new team for several days. His first practice came on the 18th. From the beginning Karlsson was playing catch up. That happens, whatever. I can't imagine it's ever easy to be traded or go to a new team and learn a new system, learn a new way of doing things, and at the same time, move to a new city in a new country. That doesn't sound fun. Of course, all of that and people expecting you to play hockey or a sport at an incredibly high level. Doesn't sound fair does it? The point I'm trying to make is simply this. If Karlsson had his way, I'm sure that trade would have come at least a week or two earlier to make the transition tad easier. You could tell he was not quite settled when the season started that year. Defensively he was not great and he wasn't scoring that much either. In October of that year he just scored 7 points, all assists, in 12 games. The team was struggling as well. In the first two months of the season the Sharks were 12-9-5. That's not exactly lighting the world on fire after a major offseason move. Then December hit and Karlsson and the Sharks started to take off again. From November to January Karlsson scored 36 points in 35 games. He also made a little bit of history in that time as well. In December and January the team went 17-7-2. During that time, every seemed to start clicking. Then starts the bad luck again. In mid January Karlsson injured his groin. That injury seemed to stick with him for a long time, even into the next season. He missed all but the final game of the 2018-19 season. He played in all but one game in the 2019 playoffs, that was the game San Jose got eliminated by the St. Louis Blues in game 6 of the conference final. Again, that groin injury seemed to affect him the next season as well. Making the conference final obviously means the recovery time isn't as long. Maybe he didn't fully recover in the offseason. I'm in no position to make that call. All I know is he didn't look right during the 2019-20 season. He also broke his thumb late in 2020, not long before the COVID stoppage and he would miss the remainder of the Sharks season. Then to make things even worse, the Sharks would not play another game until January thanks to the pandemic. That's plenty of time to recover from injuries, but playing during a pandemic is not the most ideal situation ever. Karlsson and the Sharks wouldn't even play a home game in San Jose until a month after the season started due to local laws prohibiting contact sports in Santa Clara county. In an incredibly difficult season, starting the year on a month long road trip, that can't be the most fun thing any one has ever done. The Sharks would miss the playoffs again that season. Now we move on to this season. seemingly almost a clean slate. The moral around the team seemed good to start the season. Some "problems" may have been removed from the team, at least in the early going. Young guys came into the team looking ready to contribute. And, oh yeah, of course, the team jumps out to a 4-0-0 start. On top of all that, Karlsson looks pretty good again. Has he looked like the Norris winning Karlsson of the mid 2010's? No, but that is probably unrealistic expectations anyways. He's looked pretty good and he is putting up some points. He scored just 22 points in 52 games in the shortened 2021 season. To start this season he had scored 6 points in 7 games. The team was looking good. Karlsson was looking like he was going to have some kind of a rebound season. Then enter the bad luck...once again. As we speak, the Sharks are dealing with a COVID outbreak in their team. Karlsson is one of the players who has tested positive and will miss at least two games thanks to that. To make matters worse, it has been reported that some of the Sharks who have tested positive actually have symptoms of COVID. It doesn't matter who it is. Whoever has it, we can only hope they get better quickly and don't have any long term effects. But just add this to the list of things that Erik Karlsson has had to deal with in his relatively short time as a San Jose Shark. Every professional athlete has to deal with things. On and off of their respective playing surfaces. Most of the stuff they deal with we don't even know or have any business knowing. However, when talking about Erik Karlsson, we know what he's had to deal with. Both not long before becoming a San Jose Shark and since becoming a part of "team teal". Since joining San Jose, he has had to deal with joining a team mid training camp. He to adjust quickly with massive expectations. He got injured, affecting his play for months and months. Got another injury the next season. Had a season stopped due to a pandemic. Played the next season during a pandemic, spending a month on the road during said pandemic. Now when everything seems to be going back to normal, at least somewhat, his team is hit with a COVID outbreak and he tests positive. Again, I'm not hoping anyone has it in particular. Being sick at all sucks. But for Karlsson, who has already had to deal with a ton in his life since 2017 or 2018, as a human, you have to hope he doesn't get sick with COVID. Because knowing his luck, right when things start to look good again, something will happen knocking him back down.
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