Karlsson’s Penguins Exit Gets a Hard-Nosed Postmortem

Erik Karlsson’s 2025-26 season in Pittsburgh gets the full autopsy, and there is plenty here for a front office to chew on. The Penguins did not sign up for a nostalgia tour, and Karlsson’s year forced the kind of questions teams ask when the cap math starts getting louder than the highlights. This review digs into where he helped, where he complicated things, and why every big-name veteran season gets judged differently once the room stops pretending.