Shark Bait: Karlsson the biggest riser on TSN's Trade Bait board

There was consideration given at TSN TradeCentre headquarters to not updating the Trade Bait list today for “trade-related reasons.”

But ultimately it was decided that since Timo Meier, Ryan O’Reilly, Ivan Barbashev, Erik Karlsson and Tyler Bertuzzi all played Thursday, the least we could do is show up for work Friday.

So, there is a new list exactly two weeks from the March 3 deadline.

Meanwhile, Trade Bait No. 3 Vladislav Gavrikov was scratched for a second straight game by Columbus Thursday and No. 2 Jakob Chychrun has been sat out three straight games by Arizona.

Both for the nebulous trade-related reasons.

The Blue Jackets and Coyotes are both protecting assets, perhaps with the added benefit of not icing their best lineups – hence increasing the likelihood of losing games in a race to the bottom of the league for No. 1 seed in the Connor Bedard Sweepstakes.

But last-place overall Columbus is now 1-1-0 without Gavrikov and Arizona is on a veritable heater with points in their past seven games (4-0-3), including a 2-0-1 mark without Chychrun.

No. 1-ranked Meier, O’Reilly (No. 4), Barbashev (No. 5), Karlsson (No. 6), Bertuzzi (No. 7), Patrick Kane (No. 8), Jake McCabe (No. 9) and Trade Bait newcomer Dmitry Kulikov (No. 10) fill out the TSN top 10.

Karlsson, sixth overall in NHL scoring with 73 points, is the biggest riser this week, moving up 19 slots from No. 25 in the wake of reports Edmonton has re-engaged with the Sharks in trade talks.

Others making big jumps are St. Louis centre Noel Acciari, from No. 28 to 13, and two defencemen making their debuts: Kulikov at No. 11 and St. Louis’ Colton Parayko at No. 15.

Among the fallers are two Montreal Canadiens, centre Sean Monahan (No. 19 to 27) and defenceman Joel Edmundson (No. 10 to 30), plus Chicago captain Jonathan Toews (No. 8 to 28), all of whom are sidelined right now.

NOTE - 2023-24 indicates player’s status beyond 2022-23: UFA, RFA or number of years under contract