Red Wings Should Be Interested in Timo Meier, Not Erik Karlsson

In recent days, there has been a lot of chatter about the Detroit Red Wings potentially being a suitor for Erik Karlsson of the San Jose Sharks. It started when Mike Johnson of TSN mentioned Detroit as a possible landing spot for the veteran defenseman, and that idea has since spawned all sorts of thoughts and opinions on social media and sites like this one.

Mike Johnson on TSN talking about possible trade destinations for Erik Karlsson if he decided he wanted to leave San Jose: “Maybe Detroit, they’re trying to get better, they have cap space, they have pending UFAs”.

It’s not the craziest idea out there. Sharks general manager Mike Grier recently confirmed that he is listening to offers for the Swedish defenseman to a contending team, and the Red Wings have a legitimate need on the right side of their blue line. It also helps that Karlsson has started this season looking like Bobby Orr; he has 28 points in 19 games this season, which places him in a tie for second in the league behind only Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers.

That being said, when looking at the Red Wings’ roster and considering how GM Steve Yzerman has built this team since he took over in the Spring of 2019, it’s clear that Karlsson doesn’t fit the direction Yzerman is taking this team. However, don’t write off the possibility of Detroit and San Jose completing a trade just yet. There’s another player on the Sharks’ roster that could fill a legitimate need for the Red Wings, and he would provide a boost to their lineup for years to come.

That player is Timo Meier.

Meier Brings Skill & Physicality

Since being drafted ninth overall in the 2015 draft, Meier has slowly developed into a bit of a wrecking ball for the Sharks. He struggled to stay afloat in his first season, registering just three goals and six points in 34 games, but he started to take off the following season. By the end of his third season in the NHL, he was a 30-goal scorer, and he added an additional 36 assists for 66 points in 78 games that season.

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He mostly hovered around that range until last season when he truly broke out. In 77 games, he recorded 35 goals and 76 points, just under a point per-game pace while playing with a team that finished with a 32-37-13 record. That point total led the Sharks, with 12 points separating him from the player with the second-most points, Tomas Hertl. 12 goals and 18 of his points came on the power play; if the Sharks were producing offense,…