Comparing chabot this year to karlsson in his first norris year, the only thing karlsson does better, is his first 3 steps. Karlsson can explode away causing a one man break out. This leads to 3 on 2 or 2 on 1s. Those first 3 steps also lead to him catching up to guys on breakaways defensively. That being said, chabot's top speed seems to be very close. When chabot is going with the puck, he's blowing by everybody in the neutral zone with ease, like karlsson. I see chabot as more of a niedermayer in terms of skating, whereas karlsson was more like a bure. One is very explosive in small burts all over the ice, while the other is just so efficient and always first on the puck. Karlsson loved to be second on the puck and poke it away, almost to the point of gliding to pucks along the walls. Chabot seems to get there first.
Passing? up to that point, their passing seems very similar. You could even give an edge to chabot, as i don't think it's until karlsson slowed down that you saw him improve his long breakout passes.
Shooting? I think chabot is more effective with his shooting NOW however, karlsson used to be just as effective, if not more. But its very close here. Karlsson used to blast one timers with gonchar and alfredsson and it was magic. But the last couple years here it was constant fake slap passes. He seemed to almost never actually shoot to try to beat the goalie. Chabot just tries to flat out beat the goalie by letting it rip, more like karlssons first few seasons.
Stickhandling? Karlsson always had an amazing combination of skating and puck skills, but it's not until karlsson became a bonafide superstar that we started seeing cheeky dangles. We always saw stick skills, but it was the first 3 steps that blew us away. Sure, there were glimpses of dangles, but the through the legs datsyuk esque dangles came in season 3-4 and beyond for the most part. Chabot seems to love doing fakes and holds on to the puck smoothly. He, like early karlsson, seems to rely more on just skating around players instead of skating through them and slipping it betweeen their legs. But like karlsson, chabot should gain more confidence, and learn what he can get away with as the years go. We should notice more dangles from chabot in a couple years IMO.
