Linus Karlsson

This Season So Far

The 2025-26 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.

Last Season

3 goals and 3 assists in 23 games — 6 points at 10:56 a night, plus-5, with a power-play goal, a game-winner and 6 penalty minutes on 28 shots.

There is no five-on-five sample worth reporting. A plus-5 in 23 games on a club that finished minus-10 is the sort of number that means nothing and reads well.

The Finesse Game

28 attempts and 3 goals in 23 games. He was a prolific scorer in Sweden and in the American League and none of it has translated yet.

3 assists. The hands are decent and the pace of the NHL game is the thing he has not solved, which is the usual story for a 25-year-old with 27 career games.

The Physical Game

6-1 and 178 and light. He forechecks honestly and he does not win pucks against defencemen.

6 penalty minutes in 23 games. He is disciplined and not physically involved.

The Intangibles

A third-round pick of San Jose in 2018 out of Sweden, traded here in 2019, and 27 NHL games in across two seasons.

He is 25. He has scored at every level below this one and the window in which that continues to be interesting is closing.