How the Maple Leafs failed to acquire Erik Karlsson!

Kyle Dubas pulled it off. On Sunday, the Pittsburgh Penguins general manager acquired defenseman Erik Karlsson from the San Jose Sharks in a three-team deal with the Montreal Canadiens. For weeks, Karlsson had been linked to the Penguins, but we soon come to find out that he was, in fact, especially on Dubas’ radar for much longer.

In a press conference on Monday to discuss the monster acquisition, Dubas admitted that he had been interested in acquiring the defenseman while he was GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

“It was a fairly lengthy process that goes back to my previous employment,” Dubas admitted. “Even though he’s in his early thirties, he continues to be one of the top skaters in the NHL and obviously his offense is quite prolific.”

You can only imagine that if Dubas had stayed with the Maple Leafs, Karlsson would now be in Toronto. However, you know the story, Dubas joined the Penguins on June 1 after he was fired as general manager of the Maple Leafs on May 19. Toronto then hired Brad Treliving to replace Dubas and the new GM instead went with defenseman John Klingberg, whom he signed to a one-year, $4.15 million deal as a free agent.

Karlsson will join Kris Letang on the Penguins’ back end for a final push to the Stanley Cup before it gets too late for them and captain Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

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