Karlsson opens 1st Penguins training camp aiming for Stanley Cup run

CRANBERRY, Pa. -- On this, the first day of Erik Karlsson's inaugural training camp with the Pittsburgh Penguins, the veteran defenseman pulled no punches when asked how far his new team could go this season.

“All the way,” he told NHL.com on Thursday.

Even on a team with one of the oldest sets of star players in the NHL.

Last season, he became the sixth defenseman in NHL history to have 100 points, finishing with 101 (25 goals, 76 assists) for the San Jose Sharks, and his efforts were rewarded when he was voted the Norris Trophy winner as the League’s best defenseman. But the Cup is the prize that he really wants, and the Sharks (22-14-16) were nowhere close to reaching those heights, finishing 29th in the NHL standings.

But 46 days after being traded to the Penguins, he was looking above the cubicles in the dressing room of the Lemieux Sports Complex at the names he’ll be joining as part of Pittsburgh’s 30-something-yet-still uber-talented Core Four.

Center Evgeni Malkin is 37. Center Sidney Crosby and defenseman Kris Letang are 36. Karlsson is the baby of the bunch at 33. There’s a legitimate chance all four will be members of the Hockey Hall of Fame one day. But that, Karlsson said, is looking too far ahead. The immediate goal is to win a championship, an obtainable goal in his mind, even though some skeptics question whether the Penguins are too old for that.

“What does that average out to, 35?” he said of the four players’ ages. “So what. When I first came into this league you didn’t sign your first good deal until you were 35.”

The disbelievers, he said, are not taking into account the championship pedigree of the players involved.

“These guys have won before,” he said. “They all know what needs to be done. Maybe there’s a different way to do it because the game has changed. But I think everyone is committed to optimize the talent we have in this room.”

In the process, Crosby, Letang and Malkin are on the cusp of sports history.

When they make their season debuts next month, health permitting, it will mark their 18th season together with the Penguins. That will make them the longest-tenured trio in the history of the four major North American pro sports leagues (NHL, NFL, NBA, MLB), breaking the mark of 17 they share with Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada (New York Yankees, 1995-2011).

They’ve won three Stanley Cup championships together (2009, 2016, 2017) and helped Pittsburgh reach the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 16 consecutive seasons from 2007-22. That run ended last season when the Penguins (40-31-11) finished one point behind the Florida Panthers for the second wild card from the Eastern Conference.

When Kyle Dubas was hired as president of hockey operations June 1, one of his first goals was prioritizing Karlsson as a trade target, in an effort not only to get the Penguins back to the postseason, but help them win a sixth championship.

Pittsburgh acquired him Aug. 6 in a three-team deal that involved the Sharks and Montreal Canadiens. San Jose will retain $1.5 million of his salary annually; he has four seasons remaining on an eight-year, $92 million contract ($11.5 million average annual value) he signed with the Sharks on June 17, 2019.

Karlsson is the first to admit his contract was an albatross in trade discussions. He and his family loved life in San Jose, but he quickly realized it wasn’t a place he was going to win that elusive first Stanley Cup title in the short term, especially given that the Sharks were in a rebuild. He wanted to join a contender dating back to the 2023 NHL Trade Deadline last March but that salary was an omnipresent obstacle.

Now, thanks to the Penguins, his goal of winning a championship is alive and vibrant again.

“It wasn’t an ideal situation, to be honest, but I was very open and transparent about the whole situation,” Karlsson said. “The uncertainty of the entire situation and not knowing was not ideal. I wish it would have been a lot sooner and there’d been a lot more clarity, but that’s not how the business world works. And that’s not how my situation was going to play out. I kind of knew that.

“We enjoyed ourselves out there but, at the end of the day, I’m in this country to play hockey. That’s why I moved over here from Sweden a long time ago. And that’s why I’m here: to play and to win.”

He took another quick glance around the Penguins dressing room.

“I think I have a great chance to do that here.”

* * * *

Mike Sullivan could tell early on in his dealings with Karlsson that the smooth-skating defenseman shared a couple of traits with Crosby, the team’s captain and face of the franchise.

One: He hated to lose. At anything.

Two: He picks the brains of the coaching staff. A lot.

The Penguins coach said he always knew how good of a player he was. Now, in their brief time together, he’s learned just how driven Karlsson is, much like No. 87, especially in those two specific ways.

“Look, we always had an appreciation for his body of work as an NHL player,” Sullivan said Thursday. “But in my discussions with Erik leading up to the potential trade and since we’ve had him, I’ve really grown to gain an appreciation of how competitive he is and his desire to win a Stanley Cup. And that’s something he’s talked a lot with us about. I know he’s had the same conversation with Kyle. And that’s important to us because that’s a priority in our locker room as well.

“I knew he was a competitive guy by nature by the way he plays the game. But after getting to know him on a personal level you get a better opportunity to see the drive and the desire.”

And, for that matter, the quest to get better, a process that involves grilling the coaches about game plans, blueprints, you name it.

“He asks an awful lot of questions,” Sullivan said with a chuckle. “He is one inquisitive guy. Our coaching staff, I know we joke about it, but we really appreciate that because he’s engaged in the learning process. He’s intrigued by some of the tactics or strategies or even logistical things.”

Sound familiar?

“Our captain is very much the same way,” he said. “I’ve always admired that about Sid. We’ve actually got a number of guys like that, so he’ll fit right in.”

The first on-ice session of a training camp is hardly the body of work to judge what a team’s setup will look like when the regular season will start. Still, it was interesting to see the makeup of the Penguins’ top two defense pairs Thursday: Karlsson with Marcus Pettersson, a fellow Swede, and Letang with the hulking Ryan Graves (6-foot-5, 220 pounds).

For as long as many in these parts can remember, Letang has been the quarterback of the Penguins’ top power-play unit. Karlsson now has the opportunity to fill that role, with Letang having the potential to efficiently run the second unit.

For Letang, the Penguins’ all-time leader in goals (156), assists (535) and points (691) among defensemen, the addition of Karlsson was a move he coveted.

“I thought it was unbelievable,” he said. “Every time you have a chance to bring in a guy of that caliber, especially with what he accomplished last year, it’s incredible.”

Forward Jeff Carter can appreciate what an elite defenseman can bring to a team in its quest for a championship. He watched then-teammate Drew Doughty be the backbone of two Los Angeles Kings Stanley Cup title teams, in 2012 and 2014.

Now, when he looks at Pittsburgh’s defensemen, he sees two such talented workhorses: Karlsson and Letang.

“Obviously his game speaks for itself, what he can do on the ice,” Carter said of Karlsson. “You have him and ‘Tanger’ back there, playing arguably three-quarters of the game, so it’s pretty good.

“Aside from that, though, he's been around and played in a lot of big games, internationally, in the NHL, all of that. He knows what it takes. I think he’ll be a really good fit here.”

Not to mention that Carter doesn’t have to play against Karlsson anymore.

“Rather have him here than to chase him around the ice,” Carter said. “He’s a [heck] of a player. He’s got a big presence in our room already.

“I think that’s going to go a long way for us.”

* * * *

It’s been a whirlwind few weeks for Karlsson and his family. Wife Melinda, daughter Harlow, who turns 4 on Oct. 3, and 1-year-old son Stellan recently joined him in Pittsburgh and moved into their new home.

Harlow loves team mascots and received a visit from San Jose’s S.J. Sharkie at the Karlssons’ California home before they packed up and moved east. He brought a rose for the excited little girl, and the two played with toys together as part of the farewell.

For his part, Karlsson said they’ll grow to embrace Pittsburgh like he has.

“I didn’t really know or understand how pretty it is here,” he said. “It’s very green. It’s very hilly. And the landscape is beautiful. I’m a big landscape guy so I like that stuff. As a family we’re really going to like it here. From the people so far we’ve been in contact with and the people we’ve met in grocery stores and stuff, they’ve been extremely friendly. It’s felt very homey already, which makes it easier to adapt.

“As for the team, I think I had a pretty good grasp of the franchise and how professional they are and how they do things. You can kind of feel that when you come here.”

For that, he said, he is thankful to Dubas, Sullivan and the rest of the franchise.

“Right from the start when we started having discussions, the organization, led by Kyle, was adamant of how I was going to be a good fit,” he said. “Obviously as a player and a person it made me feel good about myself, and I’m always going to feel grateful to them for doing what they had to do to get me here.”

To be teammates with Crosby is special too. Indeed, the closest Karlsson ever got to playing in a Stanley Cup Final was as a member of the Ottawa Senators in the 2017 Eastern Conference Final, when Crosby’s Penguins eliminated them 3-2 in Game 7 on Chris Kunitz’ goal at 5:09 of the second overtime.

Now foe has become friend.

“I can’t wait to start this new journey together,” Karlsson said. “We’re teammates now. There’s a lot of things I’ve learned about him that I wish I knew when I played against him, but I’m definitely not going to tell you or anyone else about them now.”

He laughed, something he said he’s been doing a lot of lately.

“So far everything’s been great,” he said. “I’m eager to get going.

“We have a chance to do some special things. I truly believe that.”

NHL.com independent correspondent Wes Crosby contributed to this report