Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson continues to grow

Late in the 2021-22 season, defenseman Marcus Pettersson experienced something new in his existence with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

A healthy scratch.

For a handful of games down the stretch, Pettersson was swapped in and out of the lineup in favor of reserve defenseman Mark Friedman.

“Once you’re out of the lineup, you want to kind of reset a little bit,” Pettersson said in April 2022.

Today, 18 months later, Pettersson appears to have mashed that reset button more than a little bit.

Especially when considering his current station.

He is Erik Karlsson’s defensive partner at the dawn of the 2023-24 season.

Good work if you can get it.

“He loves communicating out there,” Pettersson said. “He loves talking a lot. He’s a very vocal guy on the bench and on the ice. It’s great. He has a high standard for how he wants to play and how he wants his partner to play. I love that. We can hold each other accountable that way.”

Pettersson is thoroughly accountable when it comes to discussing his own play and development since those absences from the lineup in 2021-22. That level of self-honesty led to him getting promoted to the top pairing last season with Kris Letang, a duo management rarely had utilized before that point.

“You always have to kind of evaluate yourself throughout the year,” Pettersson said. “A team can do great, and you feel like you’re not where you need to be and vice versa as well. It starts with yourself. As a team game, like hockey is, you always have your teammates to help you. If you’re struggling, make sure there’s four other guys — five with the goalie too — out there playing with you too. I feel like I have taken a lot of steps.”

Pettersson and Karlsson have only taken one step together in regular season play. That came in the form of the team’s season-opener Tuesday, a 4-2 home loss to the Chicago Blackhawks. In that contest, they logged an even 17 minutes of five-on-five ice time together — the most of any of the team’s pairings — and were in the red with regards to puck possession. They were on the ice for 22 shots attempts for and 25 shot attempts against according to Natural Stat Trick.

The opportunity to skate with Karlsson — a three-time winner of the James Norris Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman — is a marvelous one. But it comes with a unique, if not demanding, set of instructions.

Chaz Palla | Tribune-Review

Penguins defensemen Erik Karlsson with Marcus Pettersson have been paired with one another since the start of training camp.

“He will use you,” said Marc Methot, Karlsson’s primary partner for several seasons with the Ottawa Senators. “It’s not like it’s always about Erik all the time. If he’s in trouble or if he’s in a jam, he’s so good at sucking (opponents) in, you’ll find yourself with a lot of opportunities around the (offensive) blue line for (defenseman-to-defenseman) plays with wide-open lanes. Patience for sure. Just understand that Erik likes to jump up.

“There’s such a strong likelihood that he will jump up, you have to understand that you’re going to come back. So you’re going to have reload underneath him, you might have to defend the odd-man rush here or there. But I think the pros will always outweigh the cons in those instances.”

The prime of the high-wire act between Karlsson and Methot took place roughly a decade ago when Pettersson was a 17-year-old in Sweden, just getting used to the professional game with Skelleftea AIK of the Swedish Hockey League.

The notion he would ever be worthy of skating next to a superstar from his home country such as Karlsson was far-fetched. Especially to him.

“I would never believe you,” said Pettersson (6-foot-3, 177 pounds). “Playing back home, I got called up pretty early (to) the senior team. Didn’t do great in the beginning. I was young. I got chances early in my career, but I don’t feel like I was fully evolved in here (points to his head) or (physically). I was even skinnier then than I am right now. I think a lot of people back home are surprised to see me where I am today.

“You’ve always got to evaluate yourself and believe in yourself. If it’s going well, you can be up (high) and if it’s going bad, you can’t be down (low). I’ve always had struggles with that. It’s always up and down. It’s day to day. It’s game to game. You can be great one game and bad the next. Your mood can go from (high) to (low). I’ve learned a lot keeping even keel.”

Staying level-headed is a bit easier now that a modified no-trade clause in Pettersson’s contract has kicked in starting with this season. While a trade is always possible, such a clause — he can submit a list of eight teams he would accept a deal to — provides a sense of some security in his surroundings.

Over the first three years of his five-year contract, Pettersson admitted speculation he could be traded or even swept away by the Seattle Kraken in the 2021 expansion draft caught his attention.

“It did for sure,” Pettersson said. “Especially in the summer when you’re not in it and you can’t affect it. You can always affect things with your play in the regular season. It was for sure on my mind. … That’s tough when it’s in the summer and in the offseason and you’re not playing. You see more about that.

“I think I’ve grown from that too. Learn from the noise around you. You can kind of take things away from that and grow as a person too.”

That growth has allowed Pettersson to emerge from the ignominy of being a healthy scratch less than two years ago.

“You can tell he’s being more assertive out there,” Penguins forward Bryan Rust said. “He’s playing with more confidence. On and off the ice, he’s a more confident person, a more confident player. He just continues to grow his game. Going into this (season), he’s going to get even better.”

Pettersson seems to have designs on doing just that.

“I want to be more of a leader out there, a guy you can count on in every situation,” Pettersson said. “I want to be a guy that my teammates know what they’re getting from me all the time. Hopefully, an easy guy to read off of and play with. I still feel I have steps to take.”

Note: The Penguins had a scheduled day off Wednesday.