Penguins defenseman Mike Matheson doesn't deny his struggles, but is ready to get past them

Like a lot of people who get a new job and move to a new city, Mike Matheson needed a real estate agent.

He already knew one who was pretty established in the Pittsburgh market.

Kris Letang.

OK, maybe not literally. Letang probably isn’t familiar with the encumbrances of Cape Cods in Wexford. But he’s someone Matheson leaned on when he made the move to Pittsburgh after being acquired in a trade from the Florida Panthers on Sept. 24.

“I’m sure I was a little annoying, but I was asking him certain questions about where to live,” Matheson said Tuesday during a video conference with media. “That was the first thing I asked about getting acclimated to the area. Obviously, he was a guy that I leaned on a lot for that.”

Matheson and Letang have trained in the same offseason circles in their native Quebec and have a relationship that predated Matheson joining the Penguins.

“I’ve always looked up to him in a lot of ways and kind of pulled him aside in the offseason and asked him about certain things,” Matheson said. “Obviously, that’s been heightened a bit now that we’re teammates.”

Hopes for Matheson have been high ever since he was a first-round pick by the Panthers in 2012 (No. 23 overall). They only got larger when that franchise signed him to a capacious eight-year contract extension with a salary cap hit of $4.875 million in 2017.

Considering Matheson only served two years of that deal in Florida before being jettisoned to Pittsburgh, it’s safe to say he failed to meet even the most modest of expectations.

That’s a notion he doesn’t dispute. If anything, he heartily endorses that critique.

“In Florida, it just seemed like things snowballed,” Matheson said. “It got the point where I started to lose confidence. Obviously, that’s on myself. Going into this offseason, I didn’t really try to hide from the fact that I needed to get better in certain areas. I tried to dive right into them and focus right on them and come ready to play this year.”

Matheson claims ownership for these struggles, but they didn’t take place in a vacuum. While playing for the never-ending rebuilding project the Panthers have been for the bulk of their existence, the 26-year-old skated for four coaches in the five seasons he played for that organization.

A more stable environment could benefit Matheson, who has skated with Cody Ceci on the team’s presumed third defensive pairing in camp.

“The speed and execution level here is definitely elevated,” Matheson said. “That’s a testament to how they play as a group throughout the years. That’s something that complements my game as well.”

Part of the structure the Penguins can provide to Matheson involves assistant coach Todd Reirden. During his previous stint as an assistant with the Penguins as well as his time with Washington Capitals as an assistant and head coach, Reirden developed a highly acclaimed track record for working with defensemen on the malfunctions in their games.

He’s already been doing that with Matheson, even before camp opened, albeit in a virtual setting given the protocols the NHL has enacted because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“I watched a lot of video,” Matheson said. “Broke down pretty much every area of my game. The worst thing that you can do is pretend that everything is great. Obviously, I wasn’t happy of where my game was last year. … Going back for pucks, breaking pucks out. Watched a lot techniques for that sort of thing. Defending the rush. All types of areas. I could sit here and talk to you about it for hours. … It was just all about going back and not being too emotional and just taking a strong look at areas I can improve in.”

Matheson’s willingness to be frank about his shortcomings has resonated with his new boss.

“I give Mike a lot of credit because sometimes it’s tough to take ownership for your game when it doesn’t go the way you that you’d like it to go,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “Mike has high expectations of himself, as he should. He’s a very talented player. The fact that he takes responsibility and ownership for his performance and his body of work to this point suggests the maturity of his makeup. That’s the first step in making progress, is recognizing that you have some control over your ability to be proactive and improve in certain areas.

“Now, it’s our job as a coaching staff to help him in that regard. The biggest thing with Mike is we’re going to try to help him and we’re also going to try to put him in positions where he understands how to play to his strengths. If we can do that, and we can help him leverage his mobility and just simplifying his game where he doesn’t put himself in some difficult positions, I think that’s going to help his game grow to the point where he can be a real impact player for us.