# Is Erik Karlsson The Best Player in the NHL? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [February 21, 2012, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-erik-karlsson-the-best-player-in-the-nhl/613550 "2012-02-21T19:00:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-erik-karlsson-the-best-player-in-the-nhl/613550/1 "2012-02-21T19:00:29Z")
I barely knew who this guy was a few years ago but oh my God. 1. Karlsson leads all NHL defencemen with 57 points. That’s one thing, but bear in mind he leads my a margin of 17. Nobody else has more than 40 (Brian Campbell.) 2. Is he just piling up power play points? Nope; he has 10 more even strength points than any other defenceman. 3. Karlsson is +14 on a team that’s +4, making him 10 goals better than his own team (a rough measure, I know, but it’s telling) which is extremely high; I can’t offhand find any other defenceman on the scoring leaders with a delta like that. (There may be a few; I can’t do a decent search.) 4. Just watching him, he’s sensational. He does everything well. The Senators with him on the ice are a dangerous team that moves the puck quickly and attacks with gusto; when he’s sitting, they don’t look good at all. ---
**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-erik-karlsson-the-best-player-in-the-nhl/613550/2 "2012-02-21T19:22:10Z")
I love the Sens and he’s amazing, but I won’t say the best in the NHL. He’s up there, though. He’s curbed his HUGE defensive gaffes from last year (he must have had one of the worst +/- in the NHL last year), but you still see them crop up from time to time, particularly when the Sens fortunes go dry, as they have for a few stretches this year. If he plays out the rest of the season like it is now, I think he should win the Norris, hands down, though. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-erik-karlsson-the-best-player-in-the-nhl/613550/3 "2012-02-21T20:49:15Z")
> [@antonio107](#): > > I love the Sens and he’s amazing, but I won’t say the best in the NHL. He’s up there, though. He’s curbed his HUGE defensive gaffes from last year (he must have had one of the worst +/- in the NHL last year), He was -30, which is very bad, third worst in the NHL, but his TEAM was -58, so it’s not as bad as it first appears; he was a bit worse than his team but not by as much as you might think. The worst in the NHL last year? His teammate, Chris Phillips, was -35. By way of comparison, last year Todd Bertuzzi was a -7. In context, that’s just as bad as Karlsson and maybe worse, because Bertuzzi was playing on a team that was collectively +20. ---
**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2012, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-erik-karlsson-the-best-player-in-the-nhl/613550/4 "2012-02-23T16:18:46Z")
Jeeze. Way to prove me wrong last night. I guess Paul MacLean knows how to turn a Swede into Nick Lidstrom, eh? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2012, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-erik-karlsson-the-best-player-in-the-nhl/613550/5 "2012-02-23T22:46:21Z")
> [@antonio107](#): > > Jeeze. Way to prove me wrong last night. > > I guess Paul MacLean knows how to turn a Swede into Nick Lidstrom, eh? That pass on the Michalek goal had my jaw hanging open. That was one of the best plays I’ve seen all year.