In a hard-hitting piece for The Athletic, Josh Yohe highlights internal frustrations within the Pittsburgh Penguins regarding Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Erik Karlsson. Yohe unabashedly describes Karlsson’s poor defensive play, and the Swede’s public praise of his own game is drawing discontentment from the Penguins’ coaching staff.
Karlsson’s offensive play throughout his career has typically masked most of his defensive drawbacks, but they’re becoming too consistent to overcome. The three-time Norris Trophy winner normally produces a positive Expected +/-, thanks to the number of goals he creates, but this season is only one of three that has him in the red of that category.
His 87.3% on-ice save percentage at 5-on-5 is nearly two points lower than his previous career-worst suffered in back-to-back years with the Ottawa Senators and San Jose Sharks in 2017-2019. Karlsson’s defensive play at this point in the regular season has him headed toward a reality of only being trusted with powerplay minutes, which is a major disappointment for a defenseman $10MM for the next three years.
Other Metro notes:
- There haven’t been many trade rumblings outside Rasmus Ristolainen for a 29th-ranked Philadelphia Flyers team. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period added two more names to that list this afternoon — Scott Laughton and Nicolas Deslauriers. Both players have relatively low cap hits at $3MM and $1.75MM, respectively, but have another year on their deals after this season. Pagnotta argues that with two out of three retention slots available, the Flyers could get creative with salary retention to maximize any return offers.
- Defenseman Alexander Romanov has missed seven of the last eight games for the New York Islanders with an upper-body injury. Ethan Sears of the New York Post reported Romanov took part in the team’s practice today albeit in a non-contact jersey. It’s an encouraging sign for Romanov who recently skated in 24 minutes of the team’s game against the Buffalo Sabres in a winning effort. It’s unclear if Romanov reaggravated his injury in that game or if simply wasn’t healthy enough to return originally.
Flyers are retaining on Kevin Hayes still I think. They have 2 slots.
Good catch!
Yep, $3.5 MM.
Shock of shocks: an oft-injured defenseman in his mid-30s, whose only real value was on offense, is mortal just like everyone else, and is in decline. (Not that his offensive production, barring the freak outlier of 2023 — which everyone admitted *was* a freak season, and that Karlsson would regress — is much different from the previous seven years.) Pittsburgh, which already HAD a reliable #1 D-man, is just paying the tax on stupid now.
Agreed. Adding another injury prone old guy on a massive contract was not a good idea. At the time I was happy Dubas ditched some terrible contracts, but now they are no better off with this albatross contract. Karlsson is on the ice for nearly every goal-against highlight clip I see.
Who actually thought Karlsson could play defence? His entire game is playing power play quarterback. He is a 4th forward that thrives at the point. That’s entirely his game, and always has been. That’s why he needs to be paired with an elite defensive defender.
Either Pittsburgh’s coaching staff are dumb, or the journalist is talking BS.
I think the problem is his tone deaf “I’m playing pretty well” quotes when he’s been a pylon, like after the Carolina loss.
The kind of stuff that made Elvis Merzlikins so endearing to his teammates in Columbus.
Try him on the wing with Crosby or Malkin 5 on 5 and on the point during the PP.
I think Karlsson actually has been deployed as a forward in certain scenarios. He thrives as a quarterback, but can play forward in a pinch.
Also worth noting that Karlsson was a +/- 0 during Pittsburgh’s total dismantling by Dallas, while Kris Letang was a -4…
How did Dubas even get hired in Pittsburgh after his pedestrian track record Tarana?
track record in Tarana?
You’re confusing yourself. You forgot to log into your other account to reply to yourself.
We pronounce it “tcher-on-oh”. Which, interesting, actually matches the indigenous word for the city, “Tkaronto” – a Mohawk word.
If Sullivan can’t get ANY of these D men to play like they care, then he needs to sit them (obviously there’s a logjam, but…).
If he won’t sit them, then it’s time for someone else to make that decision.
The effort level is, by far, the worst I’ve ever seen from this team, ever.
Has EK even missed a shift? Graves acts like he’s at a public skate. Same with Grezclykelkek.
Go back and watch any recent game and it’s not hard to see the problem. The other team skates while we glide. The other team digs while we wave our stick. We have 30 to 60 % passengers on any given night.