Mailbag: Carlsson’s role with Ducks, impact of Penguins moves

Here is the Sept. 27 edition of the weekly NHL.com mailbag, where we answer your questions asked on X. Send your question to @drosennhl and @NHLdotcom, and tag it with #OvertheBoards.

Do you think Leo Carlsson sticks with Anaheim through the whole year? -- @BrentFoote

Tough question. It is way too early to say yes or no with any definitive feeling. The No. 2 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft will be given a chance by the Anaheim Ducks, though. That's a lock.

Ducks coach Greg Cronin said he thought Carlsson was "terrific" in his first preseason game Sunday, a 3-2 win against the Los Angeles Kings at Honda Center. Cronin said he noticed the 18-year-old "has got a presence on the ice when he gets the puck. You can see his talent because he's already thinking a couple plays ahead and he's very confident with it." He said the big thing for Carlsson will be the quick transition to being a two-way center for the Ducks. If he can be reliable defensively he will have a great chance to stay with Anaheim all season. Cronin talked about Carlsson's need to react quicker defensively because the ice is smaller and the game is played tighter in North America than it is in Sweden. It's something Carlsson will have to get used to, and Cronin said he acknowledges that.

The good thing for the Ducks is if they don't feel he's ready for full-time NHL duty, Carlsson is eligible to be sent to San Diego of the American Hockey League. The Ducks are not in a position to contend this season, so they have to think about Carlsson's development and their long-term future. If in the short term that means a stint or an entire season in the AHL, then so be it. But Carlsson has the talent to play in the NHL.

Did the Penguins actually get any better? Have they moved closer to being a contender or are the playoffs the most realistic goal? -- @TheBigChicken7

They’re better. I think the Pittsburgh Penguins are a Stanley Cup Playoff team this season. That's a realistic goal. I don't at this point look at them as serious Stanley Cup contenders as I don’t think they're better than the Carolina Hurricanes, New York Rangers or New Jersey Devils, and that's in their own division. But I did not think the Florida Panthers were better than the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs and Hurricanes last season, and they defeated them all to get to the Stanley Cup Final. So we will see.

All that said, defenseman Erik Karlsson, acquired in a trade with the San Jose Sharks on Aug. 6, makes the Penguins a more dynamic team. I think forward Reilly Smith, acquired in a trade with the Vegas Golden Knights on June 28, does too. They're deeper. But most importantly, Karlsson and Kris Letang give them a right-handed shooting weapon on each of their top two defense pairs. They are expected to start the season on the same power-play unit. That's fine. I can see Pittsburgh in a 1-3-1 with Karlsson and Letang rotating from the left circle to the point. They also could line up with one of them on the left point and the other on the right, using crossovers to create room and allow one to dive down from the point to create some tic-tac-toe opportunities. Their movement could create more room for Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and whoever takes Jake Guentzel's netfront position. Guentzel is expected to miss at least the first five games recovering from offseason ankle surgery. It could be Bryan Rust or Rickard Rakell in his spot. You know Crosby will be around the net. Malkin too. Will it work to perfection? No. Will it be changed when the power play struggles, which it will at times? Yes. But it can be dangerous. And the Penguins offense in general should be more dangerous this season than last season, when they were 16th in goals (3.18 per game) and 14th on the power play (21.7 percent). They won't be a middle-of-the-pack team offensively this season. They will be better.

The San Jose Sharks have had some rough years recently. What is GM Mike Grier's plan? They have some blue-chip prospects, mainly William Eklund. Where do these players fit in this year? What is on the horizon for veterans like Logan Couture and company? -- @theashcity

The Sharks are rebuilding, and Grier really hasn't made that a secret. That's why they traded Karlsson to the Penguins. That's why they traded forward Timo Meier to the New Jersey Devils in February. It's why they traded defenseman Brent Burns to the Hurricanes before last season. They'll try to remain competitive this season, relying on forwards Couture and Tomas Hertl to lead them, but make no mistake, this is a full-on rebuild. Couture has four seasons left on his contract. Hertl has seven seasons left on his. They're going to be a part of this rebuild. The Sharks likely would prefer to move on from Marc-Edouard Vlasic, but the defenseman has three seasons left on his contract, making it difficult to part ways with him. But the Sharks also might be two or three seasons away from being a playoff contender. They aren't going to rush it.

Eklund and Thomas Bordeleau each has a big opportunity this season to become a full-time, impactful NHL forward. Eklund was the No. 7 pick in the 2021 NHL Draft; Bordeleau was a second-round pick (No. 38) in the 2020 NHL Draft. Will Smith will be out of sight but not out of mind. The forward, the No. 4 pick in the 2023 draft, is entering his freshman season at Boston College. He may be two or three seasons away from being a player for San Jose, but he's a huge part of the rebuild, just like Eklund and Bordealeau. The Sharks are hoping defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin, a first-round pick (No. 20) in the 2020 draft who was acquired from the Devils in the Meier trade, and forwards Filip Bystedt (first round, No. 27, 2022 NHL Draft) and Ozzy Wiesblatt (first round, No. 31, 2020 draft) also will be a big part of their future. Mukhamadullin, Bystedt and Wiesblatt are not ready for the NHL yet. The same can be said for forward Quentin Musty, a first-round selection (No. 26) in the 2023 draft. San Jose also has four picks in the first two rounds of the 2024 NHL Draft: two in the first and two in the second, though two of those picks are conditional.

Will the Maple Leafs be able to keep Max Domi for more than a year or keep his dad out of the picture? He changes teams every year. What do you think? -- @podoc15

Not sure why you have to bring his dad, Tie Domi, into the conversation here. The fact is a lot of players signed one-year contracts this offseason mostly because of NHL salary cap constraints being felt across the League’s 32 teams, but also because some players were betting on themselves that a one-year deal could be parlayed into a multiyear contract starting next season, when the salary cap could rise by between $4 million and $5 million. Domi got a one-year, $3 million contract from the Maple Leafs. It's a fair contract for a versatile forward who had 56 points (20 goals, 36 assists) in 80 games for the Chicago Blackhawks and Dallas Stars last season. He went to Chicago on a one-year contract last offseason and it was easy to predict that the rebuilding Blackhawks were going to move him to a contender before the 2023 NHL Trade Deadline. That's what happened. The Maple Leafs are contenders now, so unless things go sideways for them and/or Domi, I do not anticipate them trading him before the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline on March 8. That doesn't mean they'll re-sign him. That's partially up to Domi. He's one of 10 Toronto players who each can become an unrestricted free agent after this season, including forwards William Nylander, Tyler Bertuzzi , Sam Lafferty and Dylan Gambrell. The Maple Leafs are playing for this season. Domi's future with them beyond that is not part of the picture yet, but if he stands out this season, it will be.

Do you think the Devils will go with two rookie defensemen to start the season or will they acquire a veteran? -- @BMinotti9500

They could go with two rookies, Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec, but that would be a choice they'd make based on merit, not because it's a need. The New Jersey Devils do not have to acquire a veteran defenseman. They have five (Dougie Hamilton, Jonas Siegenthaler, John Marino, Colin Miller and Brendan Smith) plus Kevin Bahl, who played 42 games last season. The more likely scenario, unless Nemec plays his way into the top six, is for New Jersey to have Hughes on the NHL roster and Nemec in the AHL to start the season. If Nemec plays his way onto the final roster, the Devils still could carry eight defensemen, 13 forwards and two goalies. Their salary cap situation will allow them to carry a 23-man roster into the season. Other teams might have to stop at 22 players, 21 or, in some cases, 20. Hughes is about as close to a lock as a rookie defenseman can be in the NHL, which is to say he's a lock to be in their top six barring injury. The Devils acquired Miller from the Stars on July 1 essentially as insurance, buying them time for Nemec's development into an NHL defenseman. If he's not ready, they still have depth at the  position at the NHL level.