In the days approaching the 2018 NHL Deadline, the prevailing school of thought was that the Sharks, having acquired veteran center Eric Fehr, would be content to sit tight and wait for the return of Joe Thornton, which in itself would act like a new acquisition. Then Pierre LeBrun reported that the team was in on the Erik Karlsson sweepstakes and all hell broke loose.
The next 48 hours saw a flurry of trade proposals bandied about (along with the trade of Troy Grosenick and Brandon Bollig for a sixth – yes, none of us knew they were worth that much either), with everyone from Justin Braun to Tomas Hertl tossed around on Twitter in possible packages for Karlsson and Bobby Ryan.