Fantasy Hockey: Penguins Acquire Erik Karlsson
Erik Karlsson has been traded to the Penguins, but what does it actually mean for fantasy hockey? I’m not sure if my take will shock you. However, I hope my track record in fantasy hockey has given you a reason to trust me. Let’s have a chat about what the Karlsson trade means for fantasy hockey now that he’s landed in Pittsburgh.
In terms of defenseman, I feel pretty good about taking Karlsson fairly high. Outside of Cale Makar, I’m not sure who I’m rushing to go get instead. Karlsson just put up over 100 points on a terrible Sharks team. Look, it’s going to be really hard to replicate that number but his supporting cast this year is going to be way better.
The cheat code in Fantasy is finding players that stack points on the powerplay. That’s what it’s all about. It’s like finding quarterbacks that pick up rushing yards in fantasy football. You gotta have a defenseman that picks up PP points. Karlsson probably has 80 on the low end next year which would have been good enough for first place among defensemen last year. I just have a hard time imagining that he can’t put up 80 points in that role with the Penguins. Karlsson wasn’t playing with anybody close to as talented as Sidney Crosby last year.
I’m still not 100% sure that the Penguins are a super legit contender but you shouldn’t really worry about that part. The Penguins are super top-heavy and Karlsson will get all those top end minutes when it’s time to go score. Nothing else has really changed outside of swapping Reilly Smith for Jason Zucker. The Sharks’ leading point getting last year outside of Karlsson was Logan Couture at 67. Crosby had 93 without Karlsson last year in a down year. Just saying…
I think Crosby, Malkin, and Guentzel should get slight bumps in their rankings. Karlsson is going to help set them up. It has to be factored in. The only guy this damages in terms of fantasy is Letang. Can we really expect Letang to get 15 PP assists if he’s manning the second unit? We’re also talking about a guy that’s struggled staying on the ice and suffered a stroke last year. We’ll see where he’s ranked but I wouldn’t go anywhere inside the top 100 which previously hasn’t been the case when drafting in prior years.
Feel free to let those comments fly. It all depends on where the rankings come in. It’s August. A lot of time before the season actually gets going. However, I’d be buying on Karlsson knowing the offensive points will be there barring injury. Injury concerns might push him down the board a tad but you’re just not taking many defensemen over him in 2023-24 fantasy hockey leagues.
