William Karlsson was the only full-time NHL player from the Blue Jackets to take part in the World Championships. He played well for Team Sweden helping them to their first Gold Medal at the Worlds since 2013.

With the talent on Sweden Karlsson wasn’t asked to play an offensive role. He played the same role he does on the Jackets, third line penalty killer. He averaged 16:01 a game, eighth most among the forwards. He chipped in offensively scoring one goal and two assists, though the goal was an empty netter.

William Karlsson - 4:2 pic.twitter.com/saxH6yoQKN

— Gary (@GaryUSAgo) May 16, 2017

He played in all 10 games and was a staple on the Swedish penalty kill. He was key in the gold medal game against Canada playing 17:03, including the last minute of the game with Sweden on the penalty kill trying to push the game to overtime. This was great to see and really shows how far he's come as a defensive player. Sweden had plenty of strong defensive players on their roster but they opted to use Karlsson.

This is a big reason why I think the Jackets should be protecting Karlsson in the expansion draft over Josh Anderson. Karlsson first of all is a centre, and on top of that he's a strong defensive centre. The Jackets have plenty of offensive players in their line-up and coming up through the system, it’s good to have at least a couple players who excel at the other end of the ice. Karlsson’s possession numbers weren’t very good this year, but I think as he continues to grow and develop into this shutdown role he will get better and his numbers will improve. Playing a shutdown role at this tournament certainly helps with that.

I think being around a winning team and being in that environment was great for Karlsson. He was surrounded by high level players and got to share the ice with some of the best players in the NHL. Here he is helping to set up and Oliver-Ekman Larsen goal.

Hockey-VM: Drömstart för Tre Kronor - Oliver Ekman-Larsson ökar på till 2-0 på sin egen sargretur. #twittpuck #hockeyvm pic.twitter.com/YIvskAIc4t

— C More Sport (@cmoresport) May 16, 2017

This is invaluable experience, and hopefully he is able to bring some of what he learned to Columbus in the fall.

You can follow me on Twitter @PaulBerthelot

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