William Karlsson Stats

Games played: 81
Goals: 6
Assists: 19
Points: 25
Time on ice: 13:23
Penalty minutes: 10
Corsi for (even strength): 43%

In his second full season in the NHL, “Wild Bill” had a fantastic campaign for the Blue Jackets – and that’s a problem.

We predicted that Karlsson was going to continue to anchor the fourth line, and put up 10 goals this season. We were wrong on the goals, but a 25 point season is nothing to sneeze at, especially with Karlsson continuing to eat defensive minutes like candy.  (62.5% defensive zone starts in the regular season, with that number jumping to 70% in the playoffs.)

Karlsson has proven he’s a player who can be trusted in tough minutes, he has the speed and hustle to break up plays and create offensive opportunities from those disruptions, and he’ll be going into his RFA season on a very cap friendly $1,000,000 contact.

All of which makes him a prime target for the expansion draft, particularly if the Las Vegas front office is hoping to select players who they can grow into a strong core for their first few seasons on the ice.

I don’t think anyone is upset that Karlsson delivered on so much of his potential, but it will sting a bit if we got to watch him blossom just in time to see him plucked away.

Highlights:

Really, it had to be this one.