Hasso Plattner<\/a> spoke for the first time to local media in a decade.<\/p>\nThe San Jose Sharks owner was surprisingly frank when speaking about Karlsson, who GM Doug Wilson acquired to much fanfare, in the summer of 2018.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no need to re-litigate the highs and lows of Karlsson\u2019s tenure with the Sharks \u2014 we\u2019ve done that plenty at San Jose Hockey Now \u2014 but Plattner was pointed in his comments about Karlsson.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst, one [star] is not enough. Second, you know his qualities and you know his deficiencies, he was not the most, how do I say it, team-friendly player,\u201d Plattner said about Karlsson. \u201cHe was good, but he was probably very good in a very good team.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a one-on-one interview with SJHN in Dallas last week, Karlsson offered no comment, stressing that he still has a good relationship with his former owner.<\/p>\n
Karlsson, instead, is focused on the Pittsburgh Penguins, where he\u2019s enjoying a bounceback campaign.<\/p>\n
It was an up-and-down Steel City debut for Karlsson last year, who was coming off a 2023 Norris Trophy with the San Jose Sharks.<\/p>\n
This season, the 35-year-old has been the No. 1 defenseman for the surprising 14-8-7 Pens, putting up two goals and 21 points in 29 games, and playing solid two-way hockey.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just playing towards his strengths more consistently. He\u2019s engaged. He\u2019s skating, his puck play. It seems like he\u2019s got a little extra gear in him this year [more] than I\u2019ve seen since he left San Jose,\u201d San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky, who ran the defense during Karlsson\u2019s Norris campaign, said. \u201cDangerous player. We know what he can do. Extremely, extremely bright hockey player. He can make things happen from the goal line out. Got to be aware when he\u2019s on the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Karlsson spoke to SJHN about the Sharks\u2019 improved play this season, how San Jose set him up for success in 2022-23, his good relationship with GM Mike Grier, and how he\u2019d fit with Macklin Celebrini now.<\/p>\n
Sheng Peng: What are your thoughts about the San Jose Sharks\u2019 current turnaround?<\/p>\n
Erik Karlsson: It\u2019s nice. It\u2019s coming along. Obviously, they\u2019re going in the right direction, and they got some guys to show for it now, and they\u2019ve played some decent hockey this year. And they have a bright future.<\/p>\n
SP: What are your impressions of the Sharks\u2019 young stars, Celebrini and Will Smith and the like?<\/p>\n
EK: They\u2019ve obviously done a good job drafting the last couple of years. They got a lot of high-end prospects and a lot of prospects that are going to be NHL\u2019ers. I think they\u2019ve done a good job in how they structured it ever since Griersy got there. You just hope that it pans out for them.<\/p>\n
SP: It looks like the plan that they set out on, which included trading you, is working.<\/p>\n
EK: That\u2019s the direction they were going, and they fully embraced that and committed to that early on. Now you\u2019re starting to see why they were doing the things that they were doing and getting rid of a few of us guys that were back then.<\/p>\n
So good for them. That was their process, and that was their plan all along. And I\u2019m just happy that they told me about it as soon as they did. And we\u2019ve had a great relationship ever since. I wish them nothing but the best.<\/p>\n
SP: When exactly did the San Jose Sharks tell you?<\/p>\n
EK: You could kind of tell that that\u2019s the way it was going anyways.<\/p>\n
Griersy was just very open with it and said, like, \u2018Hey, we don\u2019t have much right now. If we stay status quo, we\u2019re not really going to go anywhere. We think that we have to go this route.\u2019<\/p>\n
And that was just how it was and he was just very open and honest about it. Ever since we met, we\u2019ve had good conversations and open conversations, and he\u2019s a good man. And obviously, as you can see right now, they\u2019ve done a good job at what they were doing.<\/p>\n
SP: How did Grier and head coach David Quinn set you up for success in 2022-23?<\/p>\n
EK: We didn\u2019t really have that much success that year, obviously.<\/p>\n
But I think in one regard, they tried to set guys up, myself included, to be as good as we could be. It wasn\u2019t only me who had a good individual year. It was a lot of other guys on that team as well.<\/p>\n
That was kind of all we had to work with, and we did the best out of the situation. Like I said, I think looking at it now, we\u2019re all the better for it.<\/p>\n
SP: What\u2019s the difference for you this year with the Penguins, as opposed to last season?<\/p>\n
EK: Obviously, we\u2019ve been winning a lot more games, which makes life a lot easier. It makes it easier to do things and move forward.<\/p>\n
And I think we\u2019ve done a good job so far, trying to create an identity for what we want to accomplish and what type of team we want to be. Obviously, when you get the results, everything makes it a little bit easier.<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s been a lot of fun this year so far, and hopefully we can keep the pace that we\u2019ve been on, and keep growing as a team, but we\u2019ve still got places to go.<\/p>\n
SP: It\u2019s funny how time works. When the Sharks traded you, they were headed for last place. But now that they have Celebrini, ironically, you\u2019re exactly the kind of player that they could use at the moment.<\/p>\n
EK: That\u2019s usually how it goes. That\u2019s another thing, timelines don\u2019t always add up. I was there at the wrong time, and it\u2019s easy to say, \u2018What could have been,\u2019 but everything happens for a reason.<\/p>\n
And like I said, I think what they\u2019ve done so far has worked out really good for them, and hopefully, they can reap the rewards for it here shortly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 Erik Karlsson took the high road. On opening night, Hasso Plattner spoke for the first time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,4780,10769,952,191044,25924,9851,575,4785,89070,7527,23189,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-345320","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-david-quinn","11":"tag-erik-karlsson","12":"tag-featured","13":"tag-hasso-plattner","14":"tag-macklin-celebrini","15":"tag-mike-grier","16":"tag-nhl","17":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","18":"tag-ryan-warsofsky","19":"tag-san-jose-sharks","20":"tag-sjhn","21":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}