Metro Notes: Karlsson, Flyers, Romanov

11/11/2024 08:59 PM

In a hard-hitting piece for The Athletic, Josh Yohe highlights internal frustrations within the Pittsburgh Penguins regarding Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Erik Karlsson. Yohe unabashedly describes Karlsson’s poor defensive play and the Swede’s public praise of his own game is drawing discontentment from the Penguins’ coaching staff.

Karlsson’s offensive play throughout his career has typically masked most of his defensive drawbacks but they’re becoming too consistent to overcome. The three-time Norris Trophy winner typically produces a positive Expected +/-, thanks to the number of goals he creates but this season is only one of three that has him in the red of that category.

His 87.3% on-ice save percentage at 5-on-5 is nearly two points lower than his previous career-worst suffered in back-to-back years with the Ottawa Senators and San Jose Sharks in 2017-2019. Karlsson’s defensive play at this point in the regular season has him headed toward a reality of only being trusted with powerplay minutes which is a major disappointment for a defenseman $10MM for the next three years.

Other Metro notes:

• There haven’t been many trade rumblings outside Rasmus Ristolainen for a 29th-ranked Philadelphia Flyers team. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period added two more names to that list this afternoon — Scott Laughton and Nicolas Deslauriers. Both players have relatively low cap hits at $3MM and $1.75MM, respectively, but have another year on their deals after this season. Pagnotta argues that with two out of three retention slots available, the Flyers could get creative with salary retention to maximize any return offers.
• Defenseman Alexander Romanov has missed seven of the last eight games for the New York Islanders with an upper-body injury. Ethan Sears of the New York Post reported Romanov took part in the team’s practice today albeit in a non-contact jersey. It’s an encouraging sign for Romanov who recently skated in 24 minutes of the team’s game against the Buffalo Sabres in a winning effort. It’s unclear if Romanov reaggravated his injury in that game or if simply wasn’t healthy enough to return originally.