Vegas’ Karlsson blooming into a superstar
LAS VEGAS » “Wild Bill” rides again.
Golden Knights center William “Wild Bill” Karlsson continued his incredible run to superstardom in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday night, scoring his 50th goal of the year (7th of the postseason after a team-leading 43 in 82 regular season games) to help Vegas to a 6-4 win over the Washington Capitals at T-Mobile Arena.
Not only was the 25-year-old Swede was left unprotected by the Columbus Blue Jackets in June’s Expansion Draft, they gave the Golden Knights a first and second round pick in exchange for them agreeing to take Karlsson and the contract of injured forward David Clarkson off their hands.
That deal, like almost every other Vegas made in their inaugural season, has panned out and then some.
At the time, however, nobody batted an eye. He hadn’t so much as put together a doubledigit goal season since coming to North America at the tail end of the 2013-14 season — Karlsson’s career-high came when he lit the lamp nine times in 81 games with the Blue Jackets two years later — and this would be his third organization in four seasons.
Turns out, it was the right one.
As has been the case with the team as a whole, it turns out it was just a matter of finding the right chemistry for things to truly flourish.
“Ever since I got put together with (Jonathan) Marchessault and (Reilly) Smith, we found that chemistry and it’s been feeling really good,” Karlsson told The Trentonian at media day.
“I think we’ve just gotten better and better throughout the year, and my confidence grew with each game we played, I felt like. Ever since then, it’s kind of been snowballing. They set me up a lot of times, and they think hockey the same. It’s pretty quick when you think hockey the same, so it’s been pretty easy to play with those two.”
Things have seemingly come pretty easy for the Golden Knights as a whole, too. But it wasn’t always that way for Karlsson himself, who has flourished under the direction of head coach Gerard Gallant.
Under the likely Jack Adams winner, Karlsson’s average ice-time was over five minutes more than what he saw last year in Columbus under the winner of the honors as last year’s best coach, John Tortorella, and he led the league in both plus/minus (+49) and shooting percentage (23.4%). It wasn’t difficult to read between the lines as to why Karlsson felt his production increased the way it did.
“I’m much more confident, and I think I’ve grown as a player this last year,” Karlsson said. “Having people believe in you really helps, and you want to repay that. It’s been a crazy year, a lot of things have happened. It’s much easier to play when you have someone who believes in you, puts you out there in every situation.”