"I'm looking forward to it," Pearson said following the team's optional morning skate, his first practice with the Penguins. "When you look at it, my career started here. It was good meeting all the guys this morning and it'll be a lot of fun to get on the ice with them tonight."
Yesterday morning, Pearson was driving to the rink for practice when he learned about the trade. He pulled a U-turn, went home and packed up before flying across the country.
"I was able to get a lot done, which was nice," he said. "But with flying here and the time change, it was a pretty long day."
Pearson had been with the Kings ever since they drafted him, breaking into the league during the 2013-14 season. That spring, the forward scored four goals and 12 points in 24 playoff games as part of That 70s Line with Jeff Carter and Tyler Toffoli to help Los Angeles capture the Stanley Cup.
During the three seasons prior to this one, Pearson averaged 18 goals per campaign and scored a career-high 24 in 2016-17. And while the 26-year-old has gotten off to a slow start this season with just one assist in 17 games for the struggling Kings - who currently rank last in the league - he's hoping that a fresh start will help him re-discover his game.
"I think personally and team-wise, in LA it wasn't the start that we all wanted, especially personally," Pearson said. "But I'm hoping a change of scenery kind of refreshes things and I can get back to my game."
For Pearson - who's got good size and decent speed - that's being a good north-south player who is strong along the boards and makes plays. Ahead of his debut tonight against the Tampa Bay Lightning, head coach Mike Sullivan said they are going to put him in a position where he can play to those strengths and be at his best.
"As I said to Tanner, we're obviously excited to have him," Sullivan said. "We think he can help our team. We just don't want him to overthink it. We want him to trust his instincts and play hard and embrace his teammates and everything else will take care of itself. We'll give him a rudimentary understanding of how we're trying to play, but we're not going to fill his head with too much information. We just want him to trust his instincts and play."
