Golden Knights sign William Karlsson to a 2-year, $13.5 million extension

LAS VEGAS (AP) — William Karlsson, one of three remaining original Golden Knights players known as the Misfits, signed a two-year, $13.5 million contract extension with Vegas on Wednesday.

The deal takes the 33-year-old center through the 2028-29 season. He and defensemen Brayden McNabb and Shea Theodore have been in the organization for its entire 10-year history.

Karlsson is one of the NHL's top two-way players because of his ability to finish at the goal and defend the entire ice. He is second in team history with 165 goals, 403 points, 382 takeaways and a plus-128 rating.

The Golden Knights selected him from Columbus in the 2017 expansion draft, and Karlsson immediately produced 43 goals, which remains the club's single-season record, with a plus-49 rating that led the league. Vegas made the Stanley Cup Final that season before losing to Washington in five games.

Karlsson has excelled in the postseason, and his plus-55 ratings tops all active NHL players. He had 11 goals and six assists with a plus-11 rating over 22 games when the Golden Knights won the 2023 Stanley Cup, defeating Florida in five games.

They made it back to the final last season, falling in six games to Carolina. Karlsson missed nearly six months of the regular season and the first round of the playoffs because of a lower-body injury, but he returned before the second-round series against Anaheim. He produced three goals and six assists with a plus-10 rating in 15 games before an upper-body injury in Game 5 sidelined him.

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