Erik Karlsson remembers playing in Pittsburgh as an opposing player in Ottawa and San Jose, often "on the wrong side of things," as he put it.
"Every time we played you f---ers, it was always that you didn't even want to go into (the locker room) after," he said with a laugh while touring the team facilities on Tuesday.
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Karlsson won't have to experience that PPG Paints Arena visiting locker room and any bad memories associated with it again anytime soon. He's on the other side now, after being acquired by the Penguins in a three-team trade on Sunday.
Karlsson, the defending Norris Trophy-winning defenseman, had requested a trade out of San Jose. He's 33 years old, has four year left on his contract, and the Sharks are in a rebuilding stage. Karlsson wants to win a Stanley Cup, and with a full no-movement clause in his contract, he had the leverage to be able to narrow his list of approved teams down to the ones he saw as contenders.
“In this stage of my career, that's what I'm looking for," Karlsson said back at the NHL Awards media day on June 25. "There's no particular team. Whenever it comes down to it, I'm going to look at all the teams and be like, ‘I think this is the winning team.’ That's not to say we're going to win, but I think this is where I can have the most impact.”
That team was the Penguins.
Karlsson, after arriving in Pittsburgh and touring the practice facility on Tuesday, held his introductory press conference Wednesday at PPG Paints Arena. He divulged a bit more about the weeks leading up to the trade, and how the Penguins came to be one of his preferred destinations.
"I think I've been fairly open about discussions and the process," Karlsson said. "I came into this with a very open mind. I think that me and (Sharks general manager) Mike Grier in San Jose, ever since he came in he's had a very open and honest dialogue about where things are at."
Karlsson said that he didn't go into the process with a preferred destination or a short list of teams. As the weeks went on, the Penguins emerged as one of a few teams with high interest and the ability to pull of a trade for his high $11.5 million cap hit. Karlsson had permission from San Jose to speak with interested teams, and he spoke with the Penguins' management -- including Mike Sullivan -- about the team's vision for him and a potential fit. Karlsson liked what he heard, and he liked what he saw from the team Kyle Dubas had helped build in Pittsburgh. He saw the Penguins as having a real chance to win the Stanley Cup.
"I was very excited about the opportunity to have a chance to go somewhere where I can be on a team that we're contending," he said.
Karlsson called that desire to contend his "ultimate drive" at this point in his career, and said that he sees this organization as being one that had shared that drive for a long time.
"I played against Pittsburgh many times, and lost to them a few times when they went on to win the ultimate prize," Karlsson said, no doubt having flashbacks of Chris Kunitz's game-winner in double overtime of Game 7 in the 2017 Eastern Conference Final as he spoke. "That's something that they know how to do here. The players that they've had here for a long time are still really good players. I'm really excited to step into that group and learn a lot of things. Also at the same time, hopefully bring some new things and help them become even better."
What Karlsson brings is ... a lot. He's coming off of a 101-point season despite playing on one of the league's worst teams. Dubas described him as "one of the elite players" in the league in terms of moving the puck out of his own end, and the data backs that statement up. Per Sportlogiq, he ranked in the top six in puck possession among defenseman last season (that means actual possession time, not using shot attempts as a proxy for possession), and was the second-best defenseman in the league in possession-driving plays (plays with control to move the puck up ice, not dumping and chasing).
He's simply the best puck-moving, offensive defenseman in the game today.
"I started playing this sport because I love the game and playing with the puck, and I still like to do that," Karlsson said. "I think that I found the joy in the game again this year for real, and I just love it. I think that's, where (his approach to puck movement) comes from. The team that controls the puck the most is usually the team that is going to do the best. It's something that I've always tried to be good at and still trying to evolve."
It's pretty certain that Karlsson's partner will be one of Marcus Pettersson or Ryan Graves, and the other will be paired with Kris Letang. Karlsson doesn't have a real preferred archetype for a potential partner. He just likes playing with partners who "want to reach their full potential," no matter the skill set.
"I want to do as well as I possibly can do to help the team and be successful," he continued. "I would like that for everybody around me as well. It seems like it's a really driven group here. So I'm excited for whoever you get to play the most with, and I'm sure I'm going to end up playing a little bit with everyone at some point. But I just like it when guys have that drive to always try and be as good as they possibly can."
Karlsson has a pretty good feel for the room already. He said that a number of new teammates reached out to him after the trade, but he had prior relationships with a fair amount of players already. He knew Letang, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin from league events over the years like All-Star Games. He played with Lars Eller in junior in Sweden, played with Matt Nieto in San Jose and with Rickard Rakell in various Swedish national team events.
Karlsson has also played with the fathers of two Penguins -- recently-signed forward Andreas Johnsson's father Jonas back in Sweden, and Alex Nylander's father Michael with the Swedish national team.
"Makes me feel a bit old even though I'm not," Karlsson said with a grin of those connections. "It's going to be nice to not have to step in into a locker room where you don't really know anyone. I think that's going to be a little bit of a comfort, especially early on, just to get a grasp on on how things really work."
Karlsson also said that he's met Sullivan a handful of times over the years, and since the trade he's noticed the similarities between Sullivan and his coach in San Jose, David Quinn. Both Quinn and Sullivan are from the New England area and went to Boston University, and Karlsson quipped that they even sound the same -- "same dialect, I could tell they're both Boston guys."
"They come from the same school, they have similar backgrounds," Karlsson added. "So I'm excited about that part as well. From everything I've heard about (Sullivan) from other players, and people that have come into contact with him, it's only good things. He's been here for a long time for a reason."
Karlsson has a decent grasp of Pittsburgh as a city, too, from all his years coming here as an opposing player with the Senators and Sharks. He's been to downtown where he visited Market Square, and once even popped over to the North Shore for a Pirates game at PNC Park. Other than venturing out to Oakmont for some rounds of golf over the years, he hadn't been too far outside city limits until arriving in town this week. He's impressed with what he's seen.
"It's nice to see what it's actually like," he said. "Going out to Cranberry and seeing the practice facility and the various areas around. I think that the thing that surprised me the most is how green it is here and how hilly it is, which I think is beautiful. That was a pleasant surprise that I did not know before."
Karlsson seemed pretty pleased with the fit he found in Pittsburgh, from the city to his teammates to his new head coach. His ultimate goal remains to win the Stanley Cup, though, and time will tell whether he's the piece the Penguins need to make that happen.
SYDNEY BLACKMAN / PENGUINS
Erik Karlsson speaks Wednesday at PPG Paints Arena
