Erik Karlsson and Parker Wotherspoon have formed surprisingly strong top defense pairing

When you start analyzing the Pittsburgh Penguins’ surprisingly strong start to the 2025-26 season, the team’s defense or defensive play is probably not high on the list of reasons for their early success. On paper, it looks like the weak link of the roster, especially when you look at the list of names on the left side. Statistically, a lot of the Penguins’ team defensive metrics are …. bad. By the eye test, they have let some third period leads (and big leads) slip away, while often times struggling in their own zone.

The team is winning thanks to some veteran forwards still having some juice to their game, some fresh young talent making an impact at forward, the power play being outstanding, and the goaltending being even better and more surprising.

There is, however, one aspect of the defense that has been legitimately good and productive, and it is the top-pairing of Erik Karlsson and Parker Wotherspoon.

This is probably not something a lot of people were expecting when the season began.

For one, even though Karlsson arrived in Pittsburgh as a Hall of Fame talent with three Norris Trophies on his resume, his first two years with the Penguins were wildly disappointing. The offense was still mostly strong, but the overall impact was not there, and as his initial time here progressed it was becoming painfully obvious that he and former head coach Mike Sullivan did not see eye-to-eye on many things. It was a bad fit.

Through the first quarter of the season under first-year head coach Dan Muse, Karlsson looks rejuvenated and is giving the Penguins the exact type of impact they were expecting when they originally acquired him. His goal-scoring numbers are not quite there at the moment, but he is on pace for 50 assists and is playing remarkably better away from the puck, using his skating and instincts in a way we did not really see under Sullivan. His offensive vision and playmaking are also still very much elite, as he displayed on Wednesday night with that pass to set up Kevin Hayes for the go-ahead goal in the third period.

When it comes to Wotherspoon, he was another of the Penguins’ short-term, low-cost free agent additions that just appeared to be roster-filler and potential future trade-bait than anything else. A two-year, $2 million contract for a 28-year-old that had bounced around the NHL and never really played a major full-time role is not something that is ordinarily going to get much attention.

The best way to describe his game so far is probably just … solid. He does not do anything spectacularly well, and while he has had the occasional mishap (that delay of game penalty in Anaheim), he has mostly been an extremely strong complement on Karlsson’s pairing.

As a duo, they have been very good, and by far the most effective of the Penguins’ most-used defense pairings.

In their 322 minutes of 5-on-5 ice-time together the Penguins have outscored teams 12-7 with the Karlsson-Wotherspoon duo on the ice, and possess scoring-chance and high-danger scoring chance shares of well over 53 percent. Their expected goal share is a little lower at only 48 percent, but it is still among the best marks among Penguins defense pairs.

When that duo is not on the ice, and when neither player is on the ice, the Penguins are being outscored 24-31 while their scoring chance and high-danger scoring chance shares see drops of 3-5 percent.

On a league-wide level, there have been 40 defense pairings that have logged at least 200 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time together (all numbers via Natural Stat Trick).

The Karlsson-Wotherspoon pairing ranks:

• Shot attempt share: 52.07 percent (16th)

• Goals scored share: 61.3 percent (8th)

• Expected goals share: 47.5 (33rd)

• Scoring chance share: 53.2 (15th)

• High-danger scoring chance share: 55.4 (9th)

Not quite elite numbers, but consistently strong and above average, and by far the best on the team across almost all of those categories.

The other aspect to their game that might be going a little unnoticed is they have also been extremely effective on the penalty kill together, which is another area you probably did not expect them — and especially Karlsson — to make such an impact.

They have been the Penguins’ most-used defense pairing during short-handed situations, and have been mostly effective, allowing just 4.68 goals per 60 minutes and only 7.39 expected goals per 60 minutes. What do those numbers mean? A team that allows 4.68 goals per 60 minutes of PK team would rank fourth-best in the NHL. A team that allows 7.39 expected goals per 60 minutes of PK team would rank sixth-best in the NHL.

As a team, the Penguins have a top-six PK unit across almost all metrics, including goals against per 60, expected goals against per 60 and their overall success rate (85.2 percent).

No matter the situation they have simply played strong hockey together, and been a nice strength on a unit (the defense) that has otherwise struggled this season. They deserve a lot of credit for that.