The Canucks have signed winger/center Linus Karlsson to a one-year, one-way extension carrying the league-minimum $775K salary, per a team announcement. He was set to be a Group VI unrestricted free agent if not re-signed by July 1.
A third-round pick by the Sharks in the 2018 draft, the Canucks picked up his signing rights the following year in exchange for Jonathan Dahlén. The 6’1″ forward was in the Karlskrona HK organization in his native Sweden at the time, and after slowly climbing up the European ladder to top-flight minutes with the SHL’s Skellefteå AIK in 2021-22, he inked his entry-level deal with Vancouver the following summer and arrived in North America for the 2022-23 campaign.
While Karlsson was a decent top-six AHL piece in his first season for Vancouver’s affiliate in Abbotsford, he’s exploded for over a point per game since the beginning of 2023-24. After posting 23-37–60 in 60 AHL contests last year, he’s topped that pace with 19-13–32 in 28 showings this year. Injuries have limited his availability at the minor-league level, but so have a few NHL call-ups. He’s skated in nine games for Vancouver in the regular season, scoring his first NHL goal in the process back on Jan. 29 against the Predators.
That remains his only career NHL point across 13 regular-season games dating back to his debut last season, also going without a point in two postseason appearances for the Canucks last year. The one-way structure of his extension is intriguing – perhaps signaling the Canucks plan on the 25-year-old cracking the opening night roster next fall. That would make sense, considering he’s in his last season of waiver-exempt status and would need to clear them on his way down to the minors in 2025-26.
If Karlsson doesn’t reach the 80-game mark for his career by the end of 2025-26, he’ll be eligible for Group VI UFA status again. If not, the Canucks will retain team control for one more summer before he’s eligible for standard UFA status in 2027. Vancouver still has just 27 of 50 contract slots filled for next season, per PuckPedia.