CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Amid the awesome, awestruck reaction a lot of the Penguins' players appeared to have regarding Erik Karlsson's formal arrival into the fold Thursday at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, there also was an appreciation expressed among a few for how that exchange with the Sharks came to be.
And, maybe more important, what it signified.
"The way everything happened over the summer," Marcus Pettersson brought up with me on his own Thursday, "you see a guy like Kyle Dubas coming in and setting a tone, showing that he believes in us and stuff like that.