Vegas Golden Knights: Karlsson quietly carving out impressive year

William Karlsson is one of the faces of the franchise for the Vegas Golden Knights but it is fair to suggest that his efforts are going unnoticed this year.

A revelation since being acquired in the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft by the Vegas Golden Knights, Karlsson has consistently produced the goods in both zones.

He has totalled 157 points (75 goals, 82 assists) in 189 regular season games for the Knights, while he has received votes for the Selke Trophy in each of the past two years.

So, by this point, we all know what Karlsson is capable of and shouldn’t really be surprised by how good a hockey player he is.

However, when doing some digging into stats earlier, it dawned on me that the center isn’t really getting the credit he deserves this season.

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Because, while the Golden Knights at 11-10-4 aren’t having the most stellar of years, Karlsson is quietly doing what he does best for Vegas.

He leads the team in points with 23 (eight goals, 15 assists) and is also the team leader in plus/minus with +6.

Karlsson has the most shorthanded points on the team with four, and he’s on pace to reach the 75 point plateau which would put him within touching distance of the career-high he set in his inaugural year in Vegas in 2017-18.

Not only is Karlsson exploding offensively this year but he’s also continuing to do a good job in the defensive zone, too.

He has 11 blocked shots, 19 hits, 19 takeaways and just 13 giveaways through 25 games, while he has won 55.2 percent of his faceoffs which isn’t bad at all.

Karlsson is averaging 19:06 minutes of ice time per night and both his CF% (51.9) and oZS% (57.0) are impressive.

The center also ranks high in a number of other metrics and he passes the eye test, too, in the sense that you know exactly what you are going to get with Karlsson.

He’s going to leave it all out on the ice every single shift and he just has the ability to make small plays here and there that make a huge impact during the course of the game.

He helps drive the play for Vegas, he helps with their possession game and you just know he’s good for at least one shorthanded chance every time he comes on the ice to kill off a penalty.

His blistering speed and ability to break up a play makes him a valuable asset, and you could argue that Karlsson along with Mark Stone is the most important forward on the Vegas roster.

Overall, with the Vegas Golden Knights dipping way below their expected peak right now, the attention is being diverted away from William Karlsson who is quietly putting together a potential career-year.

And it is about time we start paying attention to Wild Bill and the impressive season he’s having.