The Erik "Kid" Karlsson appreciation thread

Big Ev wrote:

LeKid wrote:How many people would trade this small punk for Doughty today?

The Sens would.

Probably not. Last year they probably would have... now? Not so sure. Karlsson, in 3 or 4 years could be the best D man in the NHL. Even if he isn't he will be the best offensive D man by a mile.

Big Ev wrote:

LeKid wrote:How many people would trade this small punk for Doughty today?

The Sens would.

On the ice? Debatable. Off the ice I don't think Management would. He's become the face of the franchise.
Leading the ASG in votes on the team is pretty big.

Michallica wrote:

LeKid wrote:How many people would trade this small punk for Doughty today?

Not appropriate for this thread. How about how many ppl still wanna trade Karlsson for Parise?

I can't believe ppl wanted to give up on this guy for a sexy trade.

I revisited that thread and I'm pretty sure a few people still said they would trade him for Parise (if signed).

He will never be the best d-man in the league, as he will need to be elite defensively for that to be the case. I do think he is currently the best offensive d-man in the league. I also don't think he is terrible defensively. He has handled things well in his own end this year, aside from games here and there. He just will never be able to be a truly elite d-man all=around. And that's not dissing him at all, it's just physically impossible for him. It's great that a) he isn't soft and b) he does work hard to improve his game. You can tell by watching him this year.

And of course the Sens wouldn't trade him. I was being facetious.

I see he's still at -2, hasn't moved since my post over 4 weeks ago.

Dash wrote:

Michallica wrote:

LeKid wrote:How many people would trade this small punk for Doughty today?

Not appropriate for this thread. How about how many ppl still wanna trade Karlsson for Parise?

I can't believe ppl wanted to give up on this guy for a sexy trade.

I revisited that thread and I'm pretty sure a few people still said they would trade him for Parise (if signed).

Exactly. Notice how several of those ppl ignored my post....what a surprise.

Big Ev wrote:He will never be the best d-man in the league, as he will need to be elite defensively for that to be the case. I do think he is currently the best offensive d-man in the league. I also don't think he is terrible defensively. He has handled things well in his own end this year, aside from games here and there. He just will never be able to be a truly elite d-man all=around. And that's not dissing him at all, it's just physically impossible for him. It's great that a) he isn't soft and b) he does work hard to improve his game. You can tell by watching him this year.

And of course the Sens wouldn't trade him. I was being facetious.

If he can get around 190 lbs in say, 3 years, he could play like Letang which is damn fine defensively.
Then again, with him on the ice we will have the puck a lot of times so he won't be exposed that much, + being paired with Cowen, so at the end of the day not that big of a deal.

The TGOR guys were completely ripping him the other morning for his game against Winnipeg. Have they not seen any games before that? so he has a bad game, big deal. Steve Warne said they should play him at forward if they are out of the playoff race by the end of the year.

Big Ev wrote:The TGOR guys were completely ripping him the other morning for his game against Winnipeg. Have they not seen any games before that? so he has a bad game, big deal. Steve Warne said they should play him at forward if they are out of the playoff race by the end of the year.

Pretty pathetic.

Big Ev wrote:The TGOR guys were completely ripping him the other morning for his game against Winnipeg. Have they not seen any games before that? so he has a bad game, big deal. Steve Warne said they should play him at forward if they are out of the playoff race by the end of the year.

Just wait until the Leafs fall a bit more and the boys will fill their need to dump on someone/something with their Blue Team Elimination Watch. The kid (21 is young for a defenseman) is leading the league in assists, all defensemen in scoring, and is a -2 on a team with sub-.900 goaltending. He was -8 early in the season when the goaltending was pretty pathetic and has been even for a month. He wasn't the only one with a bad game against Winnipeg -- Cowen was pretty bad (on the ice for all five 5-on-5 goals against, I think).

Big Ev wrote:He will never be the best d-man in the league, as he will need to be elite defensively for that to be the case. I do think he is currently the best offensive d-man in the league. I also don't think he is terrible defensively. He has handled things well in his own end this year, aside from games here and there. He just will never be able to be a truly elite d-man all=around. And that's not dissing him at all, it's just physically impossible for him. It's great that a) he isn't soft and b) he does work hard to improve his game. You can tell by watching him this year.

And of course the Sens wouldn't trade him. I was being facetious.

That logic makes no sense. By all accounts, he could actually be the best player in the NHL but by your definition he couldn't be the best defenseman. Pretty easy to be good defensivly when you have the puck the entire game.

All hail Karlsson.

NEELY wrote:

Big Ev wrote:He will never be the best d-man in the league, as he will need to be elite defensively for that to be the case. I do think he is currently the best offensive d-man in the league. I also don't think he is terrible defensively. He has handled things well in his own end this year, aside from games here and there. He just will never be able to be a truly elite d-man all=around. And that's not dissing him at all, it's just physically impossible for him. It's great that a) he isn't soft and b) he does work hard to improve his game. You can tell by watching him this year.

And of course the Sens wouldn't trade him. I was being facetious.

That logic makes no sense. By all accounts, he could actually be the best player in the NHL but by your definition he couldn't be the best defenseman. Pretty easy to be good defensivly when you have the puck the entire game.

No, that logic makes no sense. I really don't know how my post made no sense.

In Soviet Russia, the sense makes your logic.

Big Ev wrote:

NEELY wrote:

Big Ev wrote:He will never be the best d-man in the league, as he will need to be elite defensively for that to be the case. I do think he is currently the best offensive d-man in the league. I also don't think he is terrible defensively. He has handled things well in his own end this year, aside from games here and there. He just will never be able to be a truly elite d-man all=around. And that's not dissing him at all, it's just physically impossible for him. It's great that a) he isn't soft and b) he does work hard to improve his game. You can tell by watching him this year.

And of course the Sens wouldn't trade him. I was being facetious.

That logic makes no sense. By all accounts, he could actually be the best player in the NHL but by your definition he couldn't be the best defenseman. Pretty easy to be good defensivly when you have the puck the entire game.

No, that logic makes no sense. I really don't know how my post made no sense.

Because he is "average" defensivly means he isn't the best defenseman. So why isn't the Norris given out to guys like Phillips every year? It's the defenseman that has the biggest impact in the NHL basically. The guy the beats teams because he is on the ice, the guy that logs 25-30 mins a night.

Karlsson having the puck the entire game means he doesn't need to throw hits, play the percentages, have a good stick, so on. There is way more to be said for a guy that controls the game vs the guy who needs to adjust becuase of the game. Karlsson controls it from the drop of the puck.

Yikes, careful about using Phillips as the epitome of defensive defenceman.

NEELY wrote:

Big Ev wrote:

NEELY wrote:

Big Ev wrote:He will never be the best d-man in the league, as he will need to be elite defensively for that to be the case. I do think he is currently the best offensive d-man in the league. I also don't think he is terrible defensively. He has handled things well in his own end this year, aside from games here and there. He just will never be able to be a truly elite d-man all=around. And that's not dissing him at all, it's just physically impossible for him. It's great that a) he isn't soft and b) he does work hard to improve his game. You can tell by watching him this year.

And of course the Sens wouldn't trade him. I was being facetious.

That logic makes no sense. By all accounts, he could actually be the best player in the NHL but by your definition he couldn't be the best defenseman. Pretty easy to be good defensivly when you have the puck the entire game.

No, that logic makes no sense. I really don't know how my post made no sense.

Because he is "average" defensivly means he isn't the best defenseman. So why isn't the Norris given out to guys like Phillips every year? It's the defenseman that has the biggest impact in the NHL basically. The guy the beats teams because he is on the ice, the guy that logs 25-30 mins a night.

Karlsson having the puck the entire game means he doesn't need to throw hits, play the percentages, have a good stick, so on. There is way more to be said for a guy that controls the game vs the guy who needs to adjust becuase of the game. Karlsson controls it from the drop of the puck.

You know I didn't mean it that way. Phillips is one-dimensional. Pure shut-down guys are one-dimensional. We're talking all-around here. Fact is Green was the best defenseman offensively in hockey 2-3 years ago but he didn't win the Norris. A guy like Kris Letang is who Karlsson should thrive to become. He's a bit bigger and older but he is the perfect mix of sick offense and defense. Karlsson is already there offensively though. If Karlsson improves his defensive game just a tad, we might look at him as one of the best all-around guys one day. He doesn't need to be a Marc Staal or anything like that though.

But like I said even if he doesn't, his offense more than makes up for it and we have and will have some good partners to play with him to take care of the defensive duties more often than not.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=605018

Erik Karlsson, just 21, has taken the Ottawa Senators by storm, blossoming into an offensive powerhouse, a veteran defenseman and a leader among his peers this season.

THe Murray quote is funny: "I expected everything"