This is a tad off topic but I wanted to touch upon the whole Karlsson is having a down year part.
Curiously, I wanted to see exactly where he was at in PPG as I feel like this is a decent stat to look at in regards to a yearly total and evaluating where he is in production.
As such, I went to TSN.ca as well as the Sens main web page to see the information
First, let's see currently the standing of all top 10 d man in scoring right now:
Klingberg: 0.85 PPG
Burns: 0.8 PPG
Carlson: 0.78 PPG
Gostisbehere: 0.83 PPG
Subban: 0.76 PPG
Hedman: 0.75 PPG
Josi: 0.73 PPG
EK: 0.77 PPG
Doughty: 0.77 PPG
Suter: 0.67 PPG
If we were to reorganize this in the PPG column, in the top 10, which all of these players have played 55+ games, EK ranks 5th:
Klingberg
Gostibehere
Burns
Carlson
Karlsson
Alright, so 5th in the league, over even some people who are on better teams such as PK and Hedman. Not too shabby, for a team that's completely devoid of much going on right now.
So now I decided to evaluate as a norm what EK does in a year in PPG:
2009: 0.43
2010: 0.6
2011: 0.96
2012: 0.82 (17 games)
2013: 0.90
2014: 0.80
2015: 1.00
2016: 0.92
2017 current: 0.77
Looking at this, his current pace is actually not his lowest, but let's take off his two first years because obviously the first two years of a player's career won't be great unless you're friggen Sidney Crosby or Connor McDavid. His average: 0.80 with everything calculated.
On a team that is having such a hard time, he's 0.03 off of his average. Which gives credibility to those saying he's having a down year...
But he's still exceptionally close to his average.
--
My point in this exercise is for those who think that he should be signed at a small contract. Looking above, to Karlsson, and his agent, there is NO way they would agree to that because Dorion "wants to see where he's at" because technically he's around his average anyway. He's just not having a crazy year like he did between 2013 and 2016. That's essentially giving some power to Dorion to say "You're not averaging the same amount since the urgency" to which EK's agent goes "he's averaging around his average in total."
Which is better than five of the ten top defencemen in the league right now. On a bum team. With a bum ankle. With 20 games to increase that closer to his average.
EK is NOT going to be looking for a bridge deal or below market value. He's going for the long term and it's justly deserved. To relate to the thread, it's up to Ownership now to decide if he's worth giving the money on a trend that he's still averaging his norm on a whole even with an ankle not 100% ready yet. You're gonna pay for 4-5 good years still of EK. The last three may not be up to snuff but nearly all contracts that long never are worth the last bit. Structure it so you pay off the most in the start and tail it down at the end and I'm thinking 8 years is fine.
You can rebuild with a superstar on your team. The problem is this: Does the player want to and will ownership be fine with giving him that money.