Update on Marc-Edouard Vlasic Trade Talk

We reported earlier this week that San Jose Sharks blueliner Marc-Edouard Vlasic was a "no doubt" trade candidate, per Insider Elliotte Friedman. But not only has Vlasic been back in the lineup the past couple of games after a series of healthy scratches, now Sharks beat writer Curtis Pashelka indicates that "it’s unlikely he’ll be traded anytime soon."

The reasons, per Pashelka, are two-fold:

One, his $7M cap hit for another two seasons after this one is a weighty one to bear for any team. And asking the Sharks to retain some salary (which any potentially interested team would undoubtedly need to do) is problematic, as he would be the third player for whom the Sharks would be doing that (Erik Karlsson and Brent Burns the others). NHL rules state that teams can only have three retentions at any one time. That would put serious handcuffs on San Jose for any future deals. 

Secondly, Vlasic owns a modified no-trade clause which allows him to accept a trade to only three teams. 

Clearly, moving the 36-year-old D-man on the decline will be an onerous task.

As for Vlasic, he has no plans to ask for a trade. 

“When you’re not winning, then people start asking, ‘Oh, do you want to go to a winning team?’” Vlasic said earlier this season. “Most players discuss those things in the offseason. My mentality is it’s too early to do that, and it would be wrong for me to think of something else when I’m here present with the team. I would be thinking of myself, which I would do in the offseason and not during the year when we’re trying to get out of it together.

“I’m a part of that and I want to be a part of that, and I love playing here.”

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