Who WOULD and who SHOULD are two different questions. I think Karlsson would get massive O Zone deployment with Pettersson while Letang and Graves played all the hard matchups. Karlsson would get more minutes, but they would be much easier minutes too.

As I stated previously all of these I believe to be top pairing DMen over EK65.

Top Pairing meaning playing against a teams hardest matchup night end night out

Dahlin plays the right side

And what was EK doing the past 13 years?

Would you have him as a top pairing over EK?

Yep

Getting beat night in and night out by the other teams better players. Even with the offensive numbers this year he's always been below average defensively, and teams would employ him on 2nd pair and PP. The only 2 years he had any signals of success for the team was 2017 and they got beat in 2OT in game 7 by Chris Kunitz en route to back to back Stanley Cups and year 1 in San Jose where they got beat by St Louis. In 14 NHL seasons he's missed the playoffs 8 Times. In the 6 seasons he has made it past the first round 3 times.


Like I said his defensive liabilities make him an at best 2nd pair defenseman on any contending team. Non contending team sure he's a top pair go score as many as you can and take risks kind of guy.

Like seriously, quit being blinded by the inflated numbers from being on a really bad team that really didn't care if he played sound defensively or not and took offensive risks. If he's on a contender his amount of freedom will be limited and I think that devalues him a bit

Fox makes EK a 2LD. A number of guys would. EK is great offensively no doubt but many of the guys on the list will take top spot. Now 1PP there would be a number of guys here that would make it a 2Dman PP. He won the Norris but really isn’t the best Dman, just got the most points. And I like that he got it because it solidifies the HOF argument for him.

Yes

They can play together on the top lines. There's nothing stopping players from playing the other side
but if they are locked in their positions in fantasyland then EK goes behind most of these guys, save for maybe IMO Bouchard, Faulk/Parayko, Spurgeon, Carlson, Ekblad

Out of curiosity, do people think of EK65 as a powerplay specialist?

Edit: I'm trying to gauge what peoples perceived view of EK is as a player.

Not exactly, he's still good enough 5 on 5 offensively to contribute as a top pair d man, but his defense leaves a lot to be desired. I view more as a Crosby/Malkin 1A/1B situation Crosby can handle all of the 1st line responsibilities offensively and defensively, and Geno can more than produce on the 1st line offensively its just he lacks some of the defense, but together they make an excellent 1/2 punch. If Karlsson had that type of player in front of him for his career we would probably be having a very much different discussion about him.

At the end of the day my point still stands that no team is going to be willing to give up multiple first round picks, above average prospects, and a nhl ready player for an 8 million 2nd pair dman for the next 4 years thats 33 years old.

But He's not a 2nd pairing d-man. He's literally the best defenseman at this moment in time and was voted the third best among all players in the NHL from his peers.

Sure I'd take a couple of those guys as a 1 RD over EK (Makar, McAvoy, maybe Petro imo) but he's the best player on the majority of teams. To say he's a middle pairing guy is false.

He is the best Offensive defenseman sure......... but best defenseman overall not by a long shot his actual defensive skills are lackluster at best. Plenty people have said he's like having 4 forwards on the ice. As far as voted by his peers, he is really tough to play against offensively and he's hard to defend against cause like I said its like having 4 forwards on the ice which is a matchup nightmare, but he is still not responsible defensively and as a defenseman that has value. Contenders would shelter his minutes against top offensive units to maximize his offensive output, which is why I am saying he's a second pair DMan at best.

IMO a top pairing guy is one you do not worry about who is out their against them you know they can handle their job defensively which all these guys I listed do just that night in night out for 25+ minutes