Erik Karlsson

**Erik Karlsson** (born Erik Sven Gunnar Karlsson on May 31, 1990 in Landsbro, Sweden) is a Swedish professional ice hockey defenceman and alternate captain for the San Jose Sharks of the NHL.

Erik was drafted in the first round (15th overall) by the Ottawa Senators in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft.

## Playing Career

### Sweden

Erik made his Elitserien debut for Frölunda HC on March 1, 2008, recording 8:48 of ice time during a sold out home game in Scandinavium against league leaders HV71. He scored the game-winning goal (assisted by Tomi Kallio and Magnus Kahnberg) with a slap shot in overtime during a man advantage. The win secured a playoff berth for Frölunda with three games remaining in the regular season.

He finished the season with Frölunda's J20 team playing in the J20 SuperElit playoffs, where Frölunda took home the Anton Cup when they won (two games to one) against Brynäs IF's J20 team in the Swedish Junior Ice Hockey Championship final.

### Ottawa Senators

Prior to the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, Erik was ranked fourth among European skaters by the NHL's Central Scouting Service. He was ultimately drafted 15th overall by the Ottawa Senators in front of their hometown fans at Scotiabank Place in Ottawa. The selection was made by Ottawa's captain Daniel Alfredsson, a native of Gothenburg, who played for Frölunda before entering the NHL.

Then-Ottawa general manager Bryan Murray traded Ottawa's first-round pick (18th overall) and their third-round pick in 2009 to the Nashville Predators in exchange for the Predators' first-round pick (15th overall) to ensure that no other team would select Karlsson before them. A few weeks before the 2008–09 Elitserien season premiere, Frölunda announced that Erik was brought up to the senior team as a regular roster player.

In September 2009, Erik attended the Senators' training camp ahead of the 2009–10 season. On 29 September 2009, the Senators announced that he had made the team's NHL roster. After struggling in nine regular season games with Ottawa, he was assigned to the team's American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Binghamton Senators.

On 27 November 2009, exactly one month after being sent down, Erik was recalled from Binghamton. He would score his first NHL goal against the Minnesota Wild's Niklas Bäckström in a 4–1 win for Ottawa on 19 December 2009, and would remain in the NHL for the remainder of the season and play in all of Ottawa's 2010 Stanley Cup playoff games. He was selected to participate in the 2011 NHL All-Star Game, set for 30 January 2011, at the RBC Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, having recorded 25 points in 41 games.

The 2011–12 season saw Erik continue his development. On 16 December 2011, with his third assist of the night, he registered his 100th regular-season NHL point (in 168 games) in a game against the rival Pittsburgh Penguins.

He was the NHL's leading vote-getter in All-Star voting, receiving 939,951 fan votes and becoming one of four Senators players selected to partake in the 2012 NHL All-Star Game.

Erik finished the season as the leading scorer among NHL defencemen, leading second-place Dustin Byfuglien and Brian Campbell by 25 points. He was being mentioned as a James Norris Memorial Trophy candidate, if not the favourite for the award

On 19 June 2012, Karlsson signed a reported seven-year, $45.5 million contract with the Senators. The following day, he was announced as the winner of the James Norris Trophy as the NHL's best defenceman, beating Zdeno Chára of the Boston Bruins and Shea Weber of the Nashville Predators. He became the second Swede after seven-time winner Nicklas Lidström to win the award, joining the ranks of Hall of Famers Bobby Orr and Denis Potvin as the only players to win the award under the age of 23.

During the 2012–13 NHL lockout, Erik signed with Jokerit of the Finnish SM-liiga. He received a one-game suspension for allegedly throwing his stick at a referee following a game on 8 December 2012. He finished his stint in Jokerit with 9 goals and 25 assists (34 points) in 30 games, leading all defencemen in scoring. Once the lockout ended and the NHL season commenced, He promptly recorded a goal and two assists as Ottawa defeated the Winnipeg Jets 4–1 in their season opener.

On 13 February 2013, Erik's Achilles tendon was lacerated when Pittsburgh Penguins forward Matt Cooke had his skate land on the back of his left leg, requiring surgery and taking him out of Ottawa's lineup indefinitely. Cooke had been suspended several times previously for much-criticized incidents resulting in injury to opposing players, but was not suspended for this incident. At the time of the injury, he led all NHL defencemen with six goals.

Though initial estimates had him out of the lineup for four-to-six months, he returned to the Ottawa lineup against the Washington Capitals on 25 April 2013, ten weeks to the day after the injury occurred. The Senators made the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs but were eliminated by Pittsburgh in the Eastern Conference Semifinal, with Erik registering one goal and seven assists in ten games.

Erik appeared in all 82 games during the 2013–14 season and finished the season with 20 goals and 74 points, resulting in him being the first defenceman since Brian Leetch in 2000–01 to have at least 20 goals and 50 assists in the same season; however, the Senators would fail to qualify for the 2014 playoffs.

On 2 October 2014, the Senators organization announced that Erik would serve as the ninth captain in the team's modern history, replacing the recently-traded Jason Spezza. In his first season as team captain, he led all NHL defencemen in points for the third time in four seasons, including a career-high 21 goals.

He also played in all 82 of Ottawa's games for the second season in a row and ranked third in the NHL in total ice time (2,234:55) and average ice time (27:15) to carry the Senators to a 23–4–4 record on the way to an unlikely playoff spot.

On 24 June 2015, it was announced he won his second Norris Trophy, beating out fellow nominees Drew Doughty and P. K. Subban.

Erik appeared in all 82 games for the third-straight season during the 2015–16 season and led the league in assists with a career high 66 assists and set a career high in points (82), finishing fourth in the league in scoring alongside San Jose Sharks forward Joe Thornton. With his 81st point, he broke the record for most points in a single season by a Swedish defenceman, which was previously set by Nicklas Lidström during the 2005–06 season.

He was also the first defenceman since Paul Coffey in the 1985–86 season to finish in the top five in scoring and the first since Bobby Orr in the 1974–75 season to lead the league in assists. His performance earned him his third Norris Trophy nomination, though Drew Doughty won the trophy with Erik finishing in second place in vote totals.

During the 2016–17 season, Erik set a Senators record on 4 March 2017 when he appeared in his 312th consecutive game, breaking the previous set by defenceman Chris Phillips; however, he would miss his first game in almost four years in late March 2017 after sustaining an injury from blocking a shot during a game against the Philadelphia Flyers, ending his consecutive game streak at 324 games.

He finished the regular season in third place among defencemen in points and second place among defencemen in assists and blocked shots, earning him his fourth Norris Trophy nomination. He would finish second in voting, with the award going to Brent Burns.

Erik's performance continued into the 2017 playoffs, helping the Senators reach the Eastern Conference Final, the first time the team had done so since 2007. Although the Senators would be eliminated by the Pittsburgh Penguins in seven games, he was praised for his performance during the Senators' playoff run and how he continued playing despite suffering two hairline fractures in his left heel. He would also set a playoff team record for most assists and points for a defenceman in the playoffs.

Shortly after the Senators were eliminated from the playoffs, Erik had surgery to repair torn tendons in his left foot, resulting in him missing the beginning of the 2017–18 season. His productivity dwindled in this season, finishing the season with 62 points in 71 games, partly due to coping with injuries and the loss of his child towards the end of the season.

Despite his lower-than-average performance, he moved into third place on the franchise's all-time points list (with 492 points) on 8 February 2018 after a 4–3 win over the Nashville Predators. The Senators also struggled during the season, finishing the season in 30th place in the league.

In the midst of a rebuild, the Senators attempted to trade Erik before the NHL trade deadline, as his seven-year contract was ending in 2019 and the organization was uncertain about re-signing him, though a deal could not be reached before the deadline; however, the day after the deadline, he expressed his interest in staying in Ottawa and said that he never requested a trade.

### San Jose Sharks

On 13 September 2018, Erik (along with Francis Perron) was traded to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for Chris Tierney, Dylan DeMelo, Josh Norris, Rudolfs Balcers, the Sharks' first-round pick in 2020, second-round pick in 2019 and a conditional second-round pick in 2021. He scored his first goal with the Sharks on 18 November in a 4–0 win over the St. Louis Blues.

After a slow start to the season, Erik became the fifth defenceman in league history to have at least one assist in 14 consecutive games following a 7–2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on 8 January 2019. On 23 December 2018, he was suspended for the first time in his career for two games for an illegal check to the head of Los Angeles Kings player Austin Wagner.

A groin injury resulted in Erik missing many games near the end of the season before returning for the last game of the season against the Colorado Avalanche. He would finish the season with 45 points in 53 games, his lowest point tally since the 2012–13 season.

He assisted San Jose in reaching the Western Conference Finals during the 2019 playoffs, though he sustained another groin injury in a game against the St. Louis Blues, resulting in him missing San Jose's final game of the playoffs when the team lost 5–1 in Game 6. He would finish the playoffs with 16 points in 19 games. On 31 May, he underwent groin surgery.

On 17 June 2019, Erik signed a new eight-year, $92 million contract to remain with the Sharks, with an annual value of $11.5 million. His new contract made him the highest-paid defenceman in league history and the third highest-paid player in the league at the time, behind Auston Matthews ($11.6 million annually) and Connor McDavid ($12.5 million annually). He broke his thumb on 14 February 2020, in a game against the Winnipeg Jets. He was placed on injured reserve and would miss the remainder of the 2019–20 season.

## International Play

Erik was selected as the tournament's best defenceman at the 2008 IIHF World U18 Championship. He was the tournament's plus/minus leader with a plus eight rating. He led team Sweden in assists, finishing third overall in the tournament with seven in six games which also tied him for first place in defencemen scoring.

During the 2008 U20 4-Nations tournament (which Sweden won), Erik scored one goal and one assist which tied him with David Rundblad, Viktor Ekbom and Tim Erixon as Sweden's defenceman scoring leader.

At the 2009 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, he was selected to the all-star team and as the tournament's best defenceman. With two goals and seven assists in six games, he led all Swedish players in points and was tied for the tournament lead among defencemen.

Erik played at the 2010 World Championships and was the highest scoring defenceman for Sweden with one goal and three assists in nine games. He tied for fourth in team scoring with Senators teammate Daniel Alfredsson at the 2012 World Championship with seven points and led all Swedish defencemen in that category. He also finished tied for fifth in points and tied third in goals by defencemen overall in the tournament.

At the 2014 Olympic Tournament held in Sochi, Erik led all players with eight points and was tied for second in goals. February 21, 2014, his scored a powerplay goal in the semi-final against Finland to earn Sweden a spot in the gold medal final against Canada. The Swedes would later lose 3–0. Along with a silver medal, he was named the Best Defenceman of the tournament and was selected to the All-Star team.

Erik declined an invitation to play for Sweden at the 2015 World Championship due to an undisclosed injury. On March 1, 2016, he was announced to represent Sweden at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. In September, he was named alternate captain alongside Daniel Sedin.

## Style of play

Erik's performance has been widely acclaimed by current and former ice hockey players, head coaches and the media. He is well known for his speed, such as his ability to lead a rush and be the first man to return to defend, and for making plays.

In 2012, Bobby Orr praised Erik for his fast skating and performance, comparing him to former defencemen such as Larry Robinson and Paul Coffey while Coffey himself praised him as an "elite player" and one of the best players in the NHL. Ken Hitchcock praised him for his skating skill and reading of plays, saying that he is "ahead of the curve everywhere".

Henrik Lundqvist also called Erik "one of the best players in the game", complimenting his skating skills and vision of the game. Despite his performance, he has also been criticized for not playing a more defensive role as a defenceman. He is known as being a more offensive defenceman. He has earned more than 70 points in four different seasons and is the second defenceman in league history to lead his team in scoring in four consecutive campaigns.

Erik has also shown his grit and toughness as he has played in numerous games and playoff series with very noticeable injuries. In the Ottawa Senators playoff run in 2017, he was reported to have played on a broken heel which he had to get a surgery the following off season. He also rushed himself back from a groin injury in the 2019 NHL playoffs to help with the San Jose Sharks playoff run which also ended in the conference final series. He is recognized for using Snus (a Swedish form of dipping tobacco) during the games.

## Personal Life

Erik and his first wife, Therese were divorced in 2013. He married his second wife, Melinda Currey in Ottawa in August 2017. On November 22, 2017, the couple announced via Instagram that they were expecting their first child. On December 18, 2017, they revealed it was a boy. On March 20, 2018, the Karlssons announced that their son was stillborn. On October 3, 2019, Erik and Melinda announced the birth of a daughter.

On June 12, 2018, Erik's wife, Melinda filed a protection order against Monika Caryk (the girlfriend of teammate Mike Hoffman) for harassment both before and after the passing of their son. The nature of the alleged harassment included using fake accounts to direct over 1,000 malicious comments towards the Karlssons, including some made regarding the stillbirth of the Karlssons' son. The harassment allegations against Caryk remain to be proven in a court of law.

Later that year, he and his wife started a charity called "Can't Dim My Light" which raise funds and awareness about bullying in schools.

Erik's childhood idols included Nicklas Lidstrom, Daniel Alfredsson, Mats Sundin and Peter Forsberg. He is a supporter of English Premier League football club Arsenal.