He was still pretty good in 2015, but Erik Karlsson starts 57% of his shifts ahead of the red line and manages to be a -24 barely over halfway through the season. And you're offering Niskanen, who has been a plus player in seen straight seasons, and has nearly as much offensive ability if he ever gets pressed into power play duty again. Great. Pass. https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/k/karlser01.html

Your argument against acquiring Karlsson is that Niskanen has a better plus minus and "nearly as much offensive ability"? Have you ever seen Karlsson play?

Right now Niskanen has a 15 team no trade list, Down to 10 team no trade list this summer. And i would imagine that Ottawa is on it.

Yes. I've seen some amazing highlight reel goals. 2/3 of the way through this season he's scored three goals. Niskanen has topped 47 points three times, and is going to pass 1200 career hits this season. Karlsson won't hit 600, and his opponents have outscored him at even strength by 24 points this year. Maybe he's injured? Or maybe he's just totally out of position and not thinking about playing defense at all. Either way, the Penguins would have a field day.

It's so rare that we agree. It's nice to see how much I value your piquant, factually based critiques when they're going against somebody else.

Karlsson is a world class player. Any thread wanting him to go to their team is a good thread. He can make any team better.

Or he just plays for the sens

Karlsson is coming off major ankle surgery and isn't back to 100% yet. Did you watch him take a pretty mediocre Ottawa team to 7 games, double OT against the Pens last year?

Twice as many hits doesn't make a guy a better player.

Niskanen may have topped 47 points 3 times, but that's not in the same universe as a guy who has topped 70 points 4 times, and 80 points once. Karlsson is a generational talent, and you are so attached to Niskanen's +/- on a President's trophy winning team that you want to stick with what you know.

As this might be true, let's remember that Ottawa went to the ECF last year. If the list was made January 1st of this year I would have no doubts. With that being said, I could see them being off his list right now.

As for this post, nice job. I think it's fair value

One of the better arguments I've seen^

karlson is better than nisk.......but nisk is cheaper and does exactly what the caps need him to......we dont need a 4th forward on the ice. Caps are teriible on defense i would rather have McDonagh right now.....

McDonagh isnt better but he fits what we need rght now

This is can jump on board with

Cool. Yeah. Exactly. The Caps need more Niskanens even though he's just an above average guy, offensively, from all that he has shown at the NHL level, while playing responsible defense consistently for the last decade.

But it's worth remembering that, the year before Niskanen and Orpik signed with the Caps, they easily led the Pens to the top of the East. They've been top four defensemen on teams that have won at least one playoff round in each of the last five years...well, except last year, when Orpik was pushed to the bottom pairing, behind Schmidt. The Sens have missed two of the last four playoffs. If you want to give Karlsson sole credit for making the third round, give him sole credit for missing two first rounds that Niskanen helped the Caps win.

Give it up man. Karlsson makes any team better. All of the world will agree with that. They’ll agree he’s better than Niskanen

...and if Karlsson is recovering from ankle surgery, wait on trading for him until Carlson walks. And even then, give Bowey, Niskanen, and Orlov chances.