Will Erik Karlsson be enough to move the needle for Penguins?

Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli discussed whether the addition of Erik Karlsson turns the Pittsburgh Penguins into a contender on the latest episode of "Daily Faceoff Live."

Tyler Yaremchuk: Let’s talk about the Penguins. The big move was they got Karlsson. They got their guy. Kyle Dubas is now in charge. My concern with this list of what the Penguins got up to, is Karlsson just a big splash for the sake of making a splash. I’m worried he doesn’t actually solve what their issues were last year.

Frank Seravalli: Well, he doesn’t really because I think the Penguins biggest issue was that their bottom six essentially didn’t piss a drop which is kind of a tough spot to be in. But more than that, I like the Karlsson move because Kyle Dubas was able to shift the pieces around on the chessboard and bring in a 100-point defenseman while also moving out guys that they didn’t have any room for, specifically on the salary cap. That was kind of the stroke of genius in this that didn’t really cost you a lot. And I was saying all along heading into the summer that the only way Karlsson is traded is if the Sharks essentially relent and give him up for nothing, which is kind of what they ended up doing.

They also took on a bunch of contracts to make it happen and still barely got a return. So, it makes sense from the Penguins perspective and I can see why the idea of adding a 100-point defenseman to your lineup is incredibly attractive. He moves the puck so well and gets the team up and out and on the offensive in such a significantly efficient way, that it really matters.

I’m curious about the impact on Kris Letang though, he’s been the stalwart there forever. He’s been the guy running the power play, is he just going to cede that to Karlsson? He seemed to be on board with it but it’s kind of like when players go to the team golf outing and they’re asked about their contracts. You kind of take that with a grain of salt, what’s Letang going to say, no I hate this and I’m jealous?

It’s funny to watch all of that play out, the proof will be in how he’s utilized because when Karlsson played with Brent Burns, the reason why he wasn’t a 100-point defenseman anymore was because there wasn’t enough oxygen for him. So they’re going to need to figure out how to solve that and I think the Penguins are a playoff team, I think they bounce back. But the real problem is I don’t have them vaulted into my cup contender category.

You can watch the rest of the episode here: