Melker Karlsson

Melker Karlsson
Date of birth	July 18, 1990
place of birth	Lycksele , Sweden
Nickname	Melkman
size	184 cm
Weight	82 kg
position	Center / right wing
number	# 68
Shot hand	Right
Career stations
until 2006	Lycksele SK
2006-2014	Skellefteå AIK
2014	Worcester Sharks
since 2014	San Jose Sharks

Melker Karlsson (born July 18, 1990 in Lycksele ) is a Swedish ice hockey player who has been under contract with the San Jose Sharks in the National Hockey League since May 2014 and plays for them on the position of the center and right winger .

Career

Melker Karlsson began his career at the local ice hockey club Lycksele SK , for which he played in the 2005/06 season as a 15-year-old together with David Rundblad in Division 2 , the fourth-highest Swedish division. For the following season he moved to the youth department of Skellefteå AIK and was used in parallel in the U18 and U20 teams in his first season.

After Karlsson made his professional debut in the first-class Elitserien in the 2008/09 season and finished second in the scorer ranking of the U20 team, he signed a three-year contract with Skellefteå, which was extended for another two years in 2011. After two defeats in the final, he won his first Swedish championship with the team in 2012/13 . Karlsson was also able to significantly increase his personal point scoring compared to the previous season and completed the play-offs as the third best scorer and most successful assists of his team. In the following season Karlsson was able to repeat the success with the team.

After eight seasons in Skellefteå, the striker, who had not been selected in the NHL Entry Draft by any team, decided to move to North America. There he signed a one-year contract with the San Jose Sharks in May 2014 . After initially spending 20 games with their farm team, the Worcester Sharks , in the American Hockey League , Karlsson was appointed to the Sharks' NHL squad for the first time and also scored his first scorer point on his debut on December 9, 2014 against the Edmonton Oilers while preparing a goal from Barclay Goodrow .

Karlsson first played in an attacking series with Goodrow and James Sheppard before moving up towards the end of the season in the front row around Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski . Overall, he finished his debut season 2014/15 with 24 scorer points from 53 games as the most successful rookie of the Sharks.

Achievements and Awards

• 2011 Swedish runner-up with Skellefteå AIK
• 2012 Swedish runner-up with Skellefteå AIK
• 2013 Swedish champion with Skellefteå AIK
• 2014 Swedish champion with Skellefteå AIK

Career statistics

Status: end of the 2019/20 season

				Regular season						Playoffs
season	team	league		Sp	T	V	Pt	SM		Sp	T	V	Pt	SM
2005/06	Lycksele SK	Division 2		9	1	2	3	0		-	-	-	-	-
2006/07	Skellefteå AIK J20	J20 SuperElit		1	0	0	0	0		-	-	-	-	-
2007/08	Skellefteå AIK J20	J20 SuperElit		9	4th	2	6th	0		2	1	0	1	0
2008/09	Skellefteå AIK J20	J20 SuperElit		34	10	14th	24	58		6th	1	3	4th	2
2008/09	Skellefteå AIK	Elitserien		4th	0	0	0	0		1	0	0	0	0
2009/10	Skellefteå AIK J20	J20 SuperElit		27	14th	21st	35	10		2	1	1	2	0
2009/10	Skellefteå AIK	Elitserien		36	2	0	2	8th		8th	0	2	2	0
2010/11	Skellefteå AIK	Elitserien		40	4th	2	6th	2		16	1	3	4th	2
2010/11	Örebro HK	Allsvenskan		10	2	4th	6th	12		-	-	-	-	-
2011/12	Skellefteå AIK	Elitserien		44	3	2	5	8th		19th	2	2	4th	4th
2012/13	Skellefteå AIK	Elitserien		44	13	15th	28	14th		13	2	8th	10	10
2013/14	Skellefteå AIK	SHL		48	9	16	25th	14th		14th	4th	8th	12	12
2014/15	Worcester Sharks	AHL		20th	5	5	10	6th		-	-	-	-	-
2014/15	San Jose Sharks	NHL		53	13	11	24	20th		-	-	-	-	-
2015/16	San Jose Barracuda	AHL		4th	0	2	2	0		-	-	-	-	-
2015/16	San Jose Sharks	NHL		65	10	9	19th	16		24	5	3	8th	10
2016/17	San Jose Sharks	NHL		67	11	11	22nd	22nd		6th	1	0	1	6th
2017/18	San Jose Sharks	NHL		71	8th	11	19th	26th		10	0	3	3	2
2018/19	San Jose Sharks	NHL		79	12	4th	16	26th		20th	0	2	2	4th
2019/20	San Jose Sharks	NHL		61	6th	6th	12	20th		-	-	-	-	-
J20 SuperElit overall				76	31	38	69	68		10	3	4th	7th	2
Elitserien / Svenska hockey clothes overall				216	31	35	66	46		71	9	23	32	28
AHL total				24	5	7th	12	6th		-	-	-	-	-
NHL overall				396	60	52	112	130		60	6th	8th	14th	22nd

( Legend for player statistics: Sp or GP = games played; T or G = goals scored; V or A = assists scored ; Pkt or Pts = scorer points scored ; SM or PIM = penalty minutes received ; +/− = plus / minus balance; PP = overpaid goals scored ; SH = underpaid goals scored ; GW = winning goals scored; ¹  play-downs / relegation )

Web links

• Player biography on the San Jose Sharks website
• Melker Karlsson at eliteprospects.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sharks Previews & Predictions: Melker Karlsson Regresses , The Hockey Writers, August 20, 2015