{"id":423509,"date":"2026-01-23T12:03:42","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T12:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/423509\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T12:03:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T12:03:42","slug":"pittsburgh-penguins-activate-erik-karlsson-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/423509\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Penguins Activate Erik Karlsson \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/penguins\/status\/2014484498671378826\" rel=\"nofollow\">According to a team announcement<\/a>, the Pittsburgh Penguins have activated defenseman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/karlser01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-22_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Erik Karlsson<\/a> from the injured reserve. In a corresponding roster move, the Penguins have placed defenseman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/g\/gravery01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-22_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ryan Graves<\/a> on the injured reserve.<\/p>\n<p>Pittsburgh will have their highest-scoring defenseman back in the lineup tonight against the Edmonton Oilers. Karlsson, 35, has been <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prohockeyrumors.com\/2026\/01\/penguins-place-erik-karlsson-on-ir-recall-two.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">sidelined<\/a> the last nine days with an undisclosed injury and has returned somewhat earlier than expected.<\/p>\n<p>In a resurgent year, the former Norris Trophy winner has registered four goals and 33 points in 44 games for the Penguins this season. He\u2019s led all defensemen in Pittsburgh in ATOI with a 23:46 mark.<\/p>\n<p>He has played a crucial role in the Penguins\u2019 surprising return to contention this season. Not only is Karlsson 20 points away from matching his point totals from last season, but he\u2019s managed a robust 54.3% CorsiFor% at even strength. Despite his 88.6% on-ice SV% being below what most teams would expect from their top defenseman, it\u2019s an improvement from where Karlsson was at as recently as last year.<\/p>\n<p>It couldn\u2019t have come at a better time for the player or team, either. Being the subject of trade speculation throughout Pittsburgh\u2019s retool, a resurgent year from Karlsson has put the Penguins in a better spot regarding his future. The team may be more comfortable retaining Karlsson, given his strong play this season, or have better luck trading him now that interested parties may be more inclined to acquire him.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Graves will head to the injured reserve after initially being recalled to replace Karlsson\u2019s spot on the active roster. Assuming the rest of the defensive core can remain healthy, Graves will likely be reassigned to the AHL\u2019s Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton Penguins upon his activation. He cleared waivers at the end of December and hasn\u2019t met the requirements to need waivers again.<\/p>\n<p>Infamously signed through the 2028-29 season at a $4.5MM cap hit, Graves has been scarcely used by the Penguins this season. Serving in a depth role, he\u2019s registered one goal in 19 games while averaging 15:29 of ice time per game. Playing in the AHL for the first time since the 2018-19 season, Graves has recorded two goals and nine points in 13 contests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to a team announcement, the Pittsburgh Penguins have activated defenseman Erik Karlsson from the injured reserve. In&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5113],"tags":[642,5,402,4,118,1469,100,5216,3638,405],"class_list":{"0":"post-423509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-penguins","8":"tag-erik-karlsson","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-injury","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-penguins","13":"tag-pittsburgh","14":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","15":"tag-pittsburghpenguins","16":"tag-ryan-graves","17":"tag-transactions"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115944319104109015","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}