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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