Vegas Golden Knights Inaugural Season Final Grades: William Karlsson
William Karlsson played out of his mind in his first season with the Vegas Golden Knights.
Lots of fans and media set their expectations extremely low for the Vegas Golden Knights going into the 2017-18 season. However, the team and coaching staff had different ideas and turned the tables on the entire NHL. The Golden Knights went out and proved everyone wrong in their very first campaign.
Let’s face it, almost every player on this team played above and beyond expectations. Not one player disappointed during this historic run. And starting today, we will go over every single player during the Golden Knights and give them letter grades on their performance.
Today we start with the seventh player award winner, William Karlsson. Karlsson embraced his role and what it means to be a Golden Knight. Let’s take a look at the year the Marsta, Sweden native had in the Golden Knights inaugural season.
Karlsson started 2017-18 in Gerard Gallant’s bottom six forward group. He worked his way up to a top-six role when injuries plagued Erik Haula and Jonathan Marchessault early in the year. He never looked back and became the Golden Knights number one center.
His name will also forever be in the Golden Knights history books. Karlsson scored the first-ever hat trick in franchise history when he tallied three goals in a game for the first time in his NHL career, and that came against the Toronto Maple Leafs on New Year’s Eve. From that point on, Karlsson went on a torrid run finishing third in the NHL in goals with 43.
To go along with his insane goal total, Karlsson added 35 assists and 78 points with a +49 rating. There’s no doubt that playing with Marchessault and Reilly Smith made him a better player. Although, the one thing that overlooked is the coaching of Gerard Gallant.
Gallant made Karlsson to an even better two-way player. We all knew he could be a responsible center that could be relied on during a big penalty kill. But Gallant clearly saw something in his offensive game that allowed him to be used in a top line role.
Furthermore, to keep things short and sweet, whatever Gallant touched, turned to gold.
Karlsson took another huge step as he put together a tremendous postseason. Karlsson notched seven goals, eight assists and 15 points in 20 Stanley Cup Playoff games. If we told you those stats before the beginning of the season, you would laugh directly in our faces. But this is actually a reality.
His performance shot up so much; now he is looked at as an NHL star. Imagining putting William Karlsson in the same talk as s Sean Couturier, Patrice Bergeron, and Anze Kopitar. And those three players that I just mentioned are three of the Selke Trophy finalists.
When I saw Karlsson picked in the expansion draft back in June of 2017, I expected maybe ten goals from the 25-year old. Now we’re talking about arranging a contract for him over six million dollars on a long-term deal. It’s crazy how things work out.
Grade: A+
Next: Vegas Golden Knights Resign Colin Miller
All in all, William Karlsson deserves an A+ for his production, class, character, and his two-way ability. The Vegas Golden Knights have themselves a keeper in Karlsson. Now its just the matter of showing him the money that he rightfully deserves.