Penguins A to Z: It's time for Marcus Pettersson to take another step

With the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 2022-23 season coming to an end without any postseason action, the Tribune-Review will offer Penguins A to Z, a player-by-player look at all 49 individuals signed to an NHL contract — including those whose deals do not begin until next season — with the organization, from mid-level prospect Corey Andonovski to top-six winger Jason Zucker.

This series will publish every weekday leading into the NHL Draft on June 28 and 29.

(Note: All contract information courtesy of Cap Friendly.)

Marcus Pettersson

Position: Defenseman

Shoots: Left

Age: 27

Height: 6-foot-3

Weight: 177 pounds

2022-23 NHL statistics: 68 games, 24 points (one goal, 23 assists)

Contract: In the third year of a five-year contract with a salary cap hit of $4,025,175 million. Pending unrestricted free agent in the 2025 offseason.

(Note: Pettersson’s contract contains a modified no-trade clause that begins next season. He may submit a list of eight teams he would not accept a trade to.)

Acquired: Trade, Dec. 3, 2018

Last season: Upon first glance, Marcus Pettersson has an obvious trait.

His frame.

Tall and lanky, Pettersson could make a stick figure conscious of its waistline.

Dig a little deeper and another attribute is quite evident.

His honesty.

Following the 2021 postseason, Pettersson admitted that he needed to take “another step” forward after plateauing in his development.

Roughly two years later, Pettersson looks to have finally taken that step as he graduated to being one of the team’s top defensemen.

Opening the season on the second pairing with Jeff Petry, Pettersson eventually graduated to the top pairing alongside franchise pillar Kris Letang by early November.

While injuries and illnesses shuffled all the pairings and limited Pettersson and Letang to 408:37 of common five-on-five ice time together (per Natural Stat Trick), Pettersson’s promotion led to him establishing a new career-high of 20:35 of ice time per contest.

That figure was buttressed by an increased role on the penalty kill as Pettersson averaged 1:41 of short-handed ice time per contest. (In contrast, he clocked an average of 18 seconds of penalty kill time during the 2021-22 season.)

Pettersson also adopted something of a physical edge in 2022-23 as he served as a de facto “enforcer.”

To be clear, he’s nothing close to an enforcer in the classic sense but he did lead the team with two fighting majors, each of which involved two of the NHL’s leaders in fighting majors, Philadelphia Flyers forward Nicolas Deslauriers (Nov. 25) and San Jose Sharks forward Jonah Gadjovich (Jan. 28).

And while offense has never been a major component of Pettersson’s game, he fell one point short of matching his career high in points despite missing 14 games because of various medical concerns. His only goal of the season came during a 3-2 road overtime win against the St. Louis Blues on Feb. 25.

Pettersson’s otherwise satisfactory season virtually came to an end in March when an undisclosed injury landed him on long-term injured reserve for 12 games before the regular season finale.

The future: After a handful of offseasons in which Pettersson was the target of speculations over trades or even the 2021 expansion draft, he appears to have a pretty safe spot with the franchise.

The Penguins’ defense will need some significant overhauling, but Pettersson isn’t part of the problems that ail the blue line.

With Brian Dumoulin a logical candidate to move on as a pending unrestricted free agent, Pettersson seems bound to become the team’s top left-handed defenseman. And with that designation, comes a presumed permanent pairing with Letang.

With all of those factors coming together, it’s time for Pettersson to take another step.

Follow the Penguins all season long.