Erik Karlsson should be top 10 defensemen all time when he hangs up his skate.
He is elite in every sense. He is like a upgraded version of Paul Coffey.
Well...Coffey doesn't even make the top-10 around here (13th) and as good offensively as Karlsson is, he is not in Coffey's class.
Orr and Coffey are quite clearly and quite significantly in an offensive category all by themselves.
Karlsson is not Bourque and he never will be. He is also not Lidstrom and never will be.
If one wants the best comparitive, one would have to go with Leetch IMO.
The question then becomes, can one honestly place Karlsson ahead of Leetch at the same point in their careers?
Offensively, it looks fairly close.
Defensively, Leetch doesn't have a huge edge but it is a clear one.
Playoff's...Leetch buries Karlsson to this point.
So no, I don't believe any rational person can honestly have Karlsson ahead of Leetch at this point.
I mean obviously with Leetch's knee problems and playing on some really, really bad teams after year 9, Karlsson is going to have the opportunity to make up some ground but in order to pass him, he will have to catch him first and that is no small task IMO.