When the Penguins acquired defenseman Erik Karlsson from the Sharks in August 2023 , they envisioned him giving their big three ( Sidney Crosby , Evgeni Malkin , and Kris Letang ) one last push for a playoff run. Two and a third years into the experiment, the results haven’t been promising, as Pittsburgh missed the playoffs in back-to-back seasons and has entered into a rebuild — or at least, that’s what they believed .

However, Karlsson and the big three have the Penguins in contention for a playoff spot some 26 games into the season, in a year when they expected to be one of the worst teams in the league. Karlsson is nowhere near the offensive producer he was during the 2022-23 season when he won the Norris Trophy and registered 101 points, but he has been in go

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