All I know is this wouldn't be close if Karlsson played with a top 4 Dman all year.
True... Look at all the other top defencemen. They all have a great partner, almost as good as themselves.
Karlsson played with Phillips (worst D in the league), Cowen (more brainfarts and bad positionings than Obama) and Borowiecki, who is a third pairing scrub/7th D on most teams.
Methot isn't a first pairing defenceman on more than 7-8 teams either.
Imagine Karlsson with Weber, Markov etc..