For Erik Karlsson, what he coined a “long summer” could also be described for the first few months as one in a perpetual holding pattern.
On the first day of NHL free agency, Karlsson was linked to the Penguins, but the blockbuster three-team trade that came to fruition on Sunday could not be completed back on July 1.
Karlsson was granted permission by the San Jose Sharks, his former employer, to talk with certain teams that were interested in him after the 2022-23 season, including the Penguins. He met with members of both the Penguins front office and coaching staff as Karlsson’s situation was in flux, at least in terms of who he’d skate for.
Other teams like the Carolina Hurricanes and Seattle Kraken were reportedly in the mix for Karlsson, too. Up until Aug. 6, it was unclear where Karlsson and his hefty contract with an average annual value of $11.5 million through the 2026-27 season would be headed.
But, of course, the Penguins emerged victorious in securing the services of the three-time and reigning Norris Trophy winner. When meeting with reporters Wednesday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena for the first time since the trade, a candid Karlsson voiced his pleasure with being dealt to a team he views as a Stanley Cup contender and that the “waiting around” had come to a close.
“I was very excited about the opportunity to have a chance to go somewhere where I could be on a team that [is] contending,” Karlsson said. “It was a lot of ups and downs and it was really hard to kind of get a grasp on where things were actually at because, obviously, I was not in most of the conversations behind the scenes. ... I’m happy that it worked out in the end.”
Karlsson, 33, is quite familiar with the group in Pittsburgh. Not only did he play with the fathers of current Penguins forwards like Andreas Johnsson and Alex Nylander and last season in San Jose with Matt Nieto, but Karlsson has a good deal of playoff experience against the team.
Most recently, Karlsson and the Ottawa Senators, his first team, squared off with the Penguins in the 2017 Eastern Conference final, a seven-game series that necessitated Chris Kunitz’s game-winning goal in double overtime.
“I’ve played against Pittsburgh many times and lost to them a few times when they went on to win the ultimate prize,” Karlsson said. “That’s something they know how to do here. The players that they’ve had here for a long time are still really good players.”
Among those players that Karlsson alluded to is another offensively driven right-shot defenseman in Kris Letang. During his first four seasons in San Jose, Karlsson similarly played with a like-minded blue-liner in current Hurricanes defenseman Brent Burns, a Norris Trophy winner himself.
It remains unclear whom coach Mike Sullivan will choose to quarterback the Penguins’ top power play, whether that be the team’s long-time point man in Letang or Karlsson, who last season became just the sixth defenseman in NHL history and first in a decade to record over 100 points in a season.
Sullivan could even go with quite the unorthodox power-play configuration by putting both on the ice simultaneously, much like former Sharks coach Peter DeBoer did with Karlsson and Burns early in their shared tenure. While the Sharks failed to collect the organization’s first Stanley Cup with both Karlsson and Burns, the former doesn’t think having him and Letang on the roster will be a problem.
“I don’t foresee it to be any issue whatsoever coming in here where we have a lot of strong players that have been here for a long time and have had extreme success,” Karlsson said. “I’m excited to be able to work alongside guys like [Letang], to learn things and to progress my game.
“At the end of the day, we’re all trying to do the same thing, which is win hockey games and win a Cup. If we’re all pulling the same rope, I don’t think it’ll matter how it all plays out.”
For as irrelevant as it seems to be to Karlsson how he’ll be used in what will be his 15th NHL season, what’s of more importance to the veteran defenseman is that he’s found joy in the game again. Until last season, Karlsson’s time in San Jose was marred by injuries.
Finally healthy this past year, Karlsson’s play not only improved, but he felt better about himself in “a lot of different ways” even while the Sharks limped to a 22-44-16 record.
“I just feel like I'm in a really good spot in my life right now,” Karlsson said. “I had a lot of fun playing hockey last year and coming to the rink every day, even though it wasn't under the easiest of circumstances and we didn't win very many games.”
The hope for Karlsson is his good mental state will carry over this season in conjunction with a playoff berth, what with the Penguins missing out on the postseason last year for the first time since the 2005-06 campaign. He’s eager to join an aging group seeking to squeeze at least one last title out of its aging core of Letang, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
Rearing to get to work after a summer of waiting, Karlsson hopes his presence will make the Penguins even better, perhaps just enough to catapult them back into the playoffs.
“I think that’s what you have to do in a group is help each other out and push each other,” Karlsson said. “I feel like the organization here and this team, that’s something they’ve been good at for a very long time. I feel like that’s something that they still have in them, and I’m really excited to be a part of it.”
Andrew Destin: adestin@post-gazette.com and Twitter @AndrewDestin1.
First Published: August 9, 2023, 10:47 p.m.