Has Cale Makar already surpassed a prime Erik Karlsson in just his first 4 years?

[SeanMoneyHands]

What stacked rosters did Karlsson play on?

I can tell you he never played on a team remotely close to the current Avs.

Alfredsson
Spezza
Fisher
Kovalev
Michalik
Karlsson
Cheechoo
Phillips
Almost certain Redden and Havlat was on the team too when Karlsson was in his prime.

 

[Moridin]

As a huge Erik Karlsson fan..

Yes.

I think, when all is said and done, unless he plays against Matt Cooke or similar, I think he'll be clearly #2 after Orr, and ahead of any other D.

 

[Nihiliste]

I don’t have a definitive answer to the thread but I don’t buy into the argument that Makar’s superior teammates disqualify him.

Makar just played a series with Mcdavid, Draisaitl, Mackinnon, Rantanen, Landeskog, etc all on the same ice and outplayed them all. All year long, Makar was our best player.

 

[abo9]

Alfredsson
Spezza
Fisher
Kovalev
Michalik
Karlsson
Cheechoo
Phillips
Almost certain Redden and Havlat was on the team too when Karlsson was in his prime.

Humm I'm not sure if you're joking or not? These guys were mostly toast or far from their prime or not with the Senators BEFORE EK entered the league.

They certainly were not strong during his PRIME

 

[Pi]

Humm I'm not sure if you're joking or not? These guys were mostly toast or far from their prime or not with the Senators BEFORE EK entered the league.

They certainly were not strong during his PRIME

Yeah most of these guys were over their prime. How can you tell? Because no one outside of Karlsson is currently in the NHL right now.

Those guys on average were 5-10 years older than him.

Last active guy was Spezza and he just retired.

 

[SuperScript29]

I love Makar and think he has an amazing potential, but let's put the breaks on the "Orr, Bourque, or Lidstrom" talk.

 

[Pi]

I don’t have a definitive answer to the thread but I don’t buy into the argument that Makar’s superior teammates disqualify him.

Makar just played a series with Mcdavid, Draisaitl, Mackinnon, Rantanen, Landeskog, etc all on the same ice and outplayed them all. All year long, Makar was our best player.

Yeah I don't care how good your team is, if you are capable of being over a career PPG in the regular season AND the playoffs as a defenseman. You must be a special player.

I feel like Makar is a player who both the eye test and the analytics people like. You don't have to know much about hockey to watch Makar and go "Who is that guy on the ice? He looks better than everyone else."

 

[MXD]

Makar is better than Karlsson when the latter first joined the league. Not sure he's better than 2015-2017 Karlsson.

 

[Pi]

I love Makar and think he has an amazing potential, but let's put the breaks on the "Orr, Bourque, or Lidstrom" talk.

The word potential shouldn't be used for Makar anymore unless you're talking about "He's got the potential to be one of the best players to ever play the game."

He's a superstar of this game and the Conn Smythe favorite right now.

You can say that the Avs are a great team, but you can also say that the Avs became this consistently elite team ever since Makar joined them.

Being a great player on a great team shouldn't discredit what he's done because he's a big reason why they are so good.

 

[Golden_Jet]

Alfredsson
Spezza
Fisher
Kovalev
Michalik
Karlsson
Cheechoo
Phillips
Almost certain Redden and Havlat was on the team too when Karlsson was in his prime.

Redden and Havlat gone by then.

 

[Frolov 6'3]

You don't remember Karlsson's prime? Man, he was absolutely electric!

Electric, fun yes but he was also watching how opponents were scoring.

Than you are not one of the best.

 

[Nihiliste]

The word potential shouldn't be used for Makar anymore unless you're talking about "He's got the potential to be one of the best players to ever play the game."

He's a superstar of this game and the Conn Smythe favorite right now.

You can say that the Avs are a great team, but you can also say that the Avs became this consistently elite team ever since Makar joined them.

Being a great player on a great team shouldn't discredit what he's done because he's a big reason why they are so good.

Right, the Avs had all these forwards and were an 8th seed scraping into the playoffs. Makar jumped in straight from college and they became a contender overnight

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

The word potential shouldn't be used for Makar anymore unless you're talking about "He's got the potential to be one of the best players to ever play the game."

He's a superstar of this game and the Conn Smythe favorite right now.

You can say that the Avs are a great team, but you can also say that the Avs became this consistently elite team ever since Makar joined them.

Being a great player on a great team shouldn't discredit what he's done because he's a big reason why they are so good.

Nah, that's Shesterkin's trophy to lose

 

[Pi]

Nah, that's Shesterkin's trophy to lose

Shesterkin has to make the SCF before that happens and then win the Cup for that to happen. New York has a .250 record on the road. There is a very good chance that this series is tied after tonight.

 

[PeE eL DuBoiS]

He gives my username excellent value.

What? People keep complimenting it. It might actually have value on here.

He's defiantly better than... Ray Bourque!

That aside, I think he deserves Conn Smythe if Colorado wins the cup.

Hurt in a car? Call Cale Makar.

 

[OKR]

What an arbitrary and useless metric. Karlsson "finished T-4th in league scoring" with 82 points in 2015-16. That wouldn't even crack the top-25 this year. The 2nd leading scorer in 2015-16 (Jamie Benn with 89 points) would have been #17 in the league in 2021-22.

Roman Josi had significantly more points this year than Karlsson ever scored in any year of his career.

Makar >> Karlsson

Prime-Karlsson would’ve scored 100points in 2021-22 so that’s even more useless.

 

[K Fleur]

Alfredsson
Spezza
Fisher
Kovalev
Michalik
Karlsson
Cheechoo
Phillips
Almost certain Redden and Havlat was on the team too when Karlsson was in his prime.

Some real superstars there. Karlsson even played with Karlsson.

Havlat and Redden were not on the Sens at any point Karlsson was there much less his prime.

 

[Doubty]

Not even close yet. Let's see it next year if this was just some lucky slump.

 

[Buck Naked]

Makar is better than Karlsson when the latter first joined the league. Not sure he's better than 2015-2017 Karlsson.

Or 11-12 Karlsson, which might be his best season. 25 points ahead of the second highest scoring Dman. 17 5v5 points ahead. Not sure we'll see that kind of dominance again.

 

[Ninjadude]

He is simply...AmAziNg!

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Alfredsson
Spezza
Fisher
Kovalev
Michalik
Karlsson
Cheechoo
Phillips
Almost certain Redden and Havlat was on the team too when Karlsson was in his prime.

Are you trying to be funny? Come on…

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

I don’t have a definitive answer to the thread but I don’t buy into the argument that Makar’s superior teammates disqualify him.

Makar just played a series with Mcdavid, Draisaitl, Mackinnon, Rantanen, Landeskog, etc all on the same ice and outplayed them all. All year long, Makar was our best player.

Disqualify? Of course not. It’s simply one variable to consider. But the way it was presented was like: “Well, now that he’s gone to the finals, he’s better than Karlsson… “

No.

 

[Sting]

Alfredsson
Spezza
Fisher
Kovalev
Michalik
Karlsson
Cheechoo
Phillips
Almost certain Redden and Havlat was on the team too when Karlsson was in his prime.

As others have pointed out, most of these guys did not play with Karlsson. Those that did were over the hill by that point.

Look at the roster that Karlsson took within 1 game from the Cup final (which they had a good chance of winning). It was literally a one man show.

Look at what Cale Makar has in front of him.

Now Makar may very well be as good as EK was in his prime. I doubt that very much but it's within the realm of possibility. The problem is, we'll never know how good Makar is without a stacked lineup in front of him / surrounding him.

 

[The Merchant]

 

[guzzy]

Yes AINEC. He is already better offensively and defensively.