Erik Karlsson has been creeping up the NHL's all-time scoring list this season. He started the season with 870 career points, ranked 16th in the league's history among defensemen. As the season's gone on, he's surpassed Brad Park (896) and Scott Stevens (908).

He passed the big one in Sunday's 4-3 win over the Mammoth in Salt Lake City.

Karlsson had the primary assist on Anthony Mantha's power-play goal that started the Penguins' rally. It was his 915th career point, tying the game's greatest defenseman Bobby Orr. Karlsson's secondary assist on Noel Acciari's game-winning goal moved him ahead of Orr for the 12th-most points by a defenseman in league history.

In typical Karlsson fashion, he had no idea he was nearing the mark. In his first season in Pittsburgh I remember when he passed Borje Salming for the second-most points by a Swedish defenseman in league history -- a milestone that sounds convoluted and small only if one doesn't realized what Salming means to Swedish players like Karlsson. I spoke with Karlsson after that one, and he too had no idea about the milestone. And when his locker room neighbor Marcus Pettersson heard what I had relayed to him, Pettersson insisted on standing up and shaking Karlsson's hand before Karlsson talked about how much it all meant to him.

Just as with that milestone, moving up to 12th on the list doesn't sound like anything that's a massive deal, but when it's someone like Orr, that's something that means a great deal more.

The No. 11 spot for Karlsson is a moving target -- it's Brent Burns, who leads active defensemen with 938 points. Karlsson has 11 points in his last nine games. With the resurgence he is having this season, which has taken on a new level of late, it's not out of the question that he could lap his former teammate on the all-time scoring list, too.