The moment has arrived. After almost a week of waiting, Wednesday marks the beginning of defenseman Erik Karlsson's time with the Sharks.
San Jose general manager Doug Wilson has made it clear he wants to lock up the Swedish superstar for a long time, and the Sharks have emerged as one of the league's most intriguing teams after acquiring the two-time Norris Trophy winner.
So what, exactly, is all the hubbub about? Here a four stats and figures that describe just what kind of player he is.
96
Since entering the league in 2009, that's how many more points Karlsson has scored than the next closest defenseman, Florida Panthers blueliner Keith Yandle. In fact, Karlsson's 518 points through his first nine NHL seasons are more than all but 10 defensemen in league history. One of those 10? Doug Wilson.
That's impressive, regardless of context, but it's worth remembering that Karlsson plays in a much different era than those ahead of him. Goaltending is better right now than it's ever been, indicated by the fact that each of Karlsson's nine NHL seasons rank in the top-12 by average save percentage. When you adjust for era, the start of Karlsson's career is even more impressive.
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Among defensemen in their first nine seasons, Karlsson ranks fifth in Hockey Reference's adjusted points (576). He's third in adjusted assists (431), only behind Bobby Orr (593) and Paul Coffey (477). In other words: Karlsson is a generational offensive talent.
114
There is, perhaps, no better number to encapsulate Karlsson's unique combination of vision and playmaking ability. 114 is approximately how many feet this saucer pass traveled off of Karlsson's stick and into the path of a wide-open Mike Hoffman during the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
That was the last time Karlsson and the Senators made the playoffs, finishing a double-overtime goal away from facing the Nashville Predators in the Stanley Cup Final. Playing on an ankle that ultimately required offseason surgery, Karlsson led Ottawa with 18 points in 19 games, 13 of which came at even strength.
After a disastrous season, both Hoffman and Karlsson are no longer in Ottawa. The Sharks briefly acquired Hoffman this summer, and flipped him to the Florida Panthers hours later. The trades came days after the Ottawa Citizen reported that Karlsson's wife, Melinda, filed an order of protection after Hoffman's fiancee allegedly harassed her repeatedly online.
Plus-4.35
243 defenseman have logged 3000, five-on-five minutes since the start of the 2009-10 season. Of that group, only five players have posted a better adjusted corsi-for percentage relative to their teammates than Karlsson's mark of plus-4.35, according to Corsica Hockey.
What does that mean? When Karlsson was on the ice, the Senators attempted 52.05 percent of the shots. When his teammates were on the ice without him, that number fell to 48.7 percent. 4.35, then, is the difference in those percentages, and its positive value means his teammates attempted a smaller share of shots when they weren't playing with him.
The gap was especially stark in Karlsson's last season in the Canadian capital. Last season, Ottawa just about broke even with him on the ice, and attempted 49.68 percent of the shots. Meanwhile, the Senators attempted only 44.9 percent of the shots without him. That latter mark would have been dead-last out of 31 teams in the league last year.
33.98
Sharks defenseman Brent Burns is also a Norris Trophy winner (2017), and since the bearded blueliner moved back to the position in 2014-15, only Karlsson (281) has scored more points (278). This number equals their combined shot attempts per hour of five-on-five play over that span.
Burns ranks first (20.06) by the metric among defenseman (min. 1000 minutes) during that time, while Karlsson (13.86) ranks sixth, per Corsica Hockey. No two defenseman on the same team (as of this writing) eclipse that combined total.
The Sharks, for reference, attempted 58.49 five-on-five shots per hour over the last four seasons. Plugging in Karlsson doesn't mean San Jose will attempt nearly 14 more shots per 60 minutes, but it does mean they'll be able to rely on the two blueliners to put a lot of pucks on net this season.
On Wednesday, be sure to watch Erik Karlsson's first practice with the Sharks at approximately 10:30 a.m., streaming live at facebook.com/nbcsauthentic. At 3 p.m., tune into Karlsson's introductory press conference on NBC Sports California and also streaming live at facebook.com/nbcsauthentic.
