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Although there were rumors that Erik Karlsson asked San Jose Sharks to trade him, it seems that those rumors are false. Karlsson confirmed this in an interview with NHL.com "No, I committed here a long time ago,"- he said.
"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."
Karlsson on the young players
Karlsson also commented on the club's transfer policy. Young players did not have enough chance to show their full potential.
"If you look at the last few years, we've had a problem filling out the lineup with quality players. 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." Injuries have been an integral part of his career, and it's not easy to play after all those injuries.
Karlsson thinks he needs to be more careful. "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 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 to not miss a lot of time at the end of the year."