2023-24 Season in Review: Marcus Pettersson

New defensive partner but the same strong play from Marcus Pettersson this season.

Vitals

Player: Marcus Pettersson
Born: May 8, 1996 (Age 27 season)
Height: 6’ 3”
Weight: 177 pounds
Hometown: Skelleftea, Sweden
Shoots: Left
Draft: 2014 second round (38th overall) by the Anaheim Ducks
2023-24 Statistics: 82 games played, 4 goals, 26 assists = 30 points
Contract Status: In 2024-25, Pettersson will be playing out the final year of a five-year deal signed back in January 2020 and took effect in the 2020-21 season. His current deal carries an AAV of $4.025 million with an 8-team NTC. If he does not sign a new deal by July 1, 2025, Pettersson will become and unrestricted free agent.
History: 2022-23 (62% A, 35% B); 2021-22 (57% B, 34% C); 2020-21 (37% B, 49% C); 2019-20 (73% B, 13% C); 2018-19 (30% A, 65% B).

Monthly Splits

via Yahoo!

Story of the Season

It was no secret among the Pittsburgh Penguins fanbase just how good Marcus Pettersson has been since being acquired, but it feels like he hit another level with his play in 2023-24. Defensively he was as good as ever, and by forming a blue line pairing with fellow Swede Erik Karlsson, Pettersson quietly posted the best offensive season of his career.

Pettersson doubled his previous career high in goals and set new career highs in both assists and total points as well. He did all of this while remaining healthy and playing in all 82 games this season and being as steadfast on the defensive side as he has always been.

Most of his time on the ice in 2023-24 was spent with Erik Karlsson and it’s clear Pettersson benefitted from having an offensive minded partner though he was asked to take on more defensive responsibility given Karlsson’s style of play.

Regular season 5v5 advanced stats

Data via Natural Stat Trick. Ranking is out of nine defensemen on the team who qualified by playing a minimum of 150 minutes.

Corsi For%: 52.5% (2nd)
Goals For%: 56.5% (1st)
xGF%: 51.8% (2nd)
Scoring Chance %: 53.5% (2nd)
High Danger Scoring Chance%: 54.1% (3rd)
5v5 on-ice shooting%: 10.1% (2nd)
On-ice save%: .910% (5th)
Goals/60: 0.12 (7th)
Assist/60: 0.97 (2nd)
Points/60: 1.09 (3rd)

If the eye test wasn’t enough to convince you on Pettersson, these numbers should help do the trick. Tremendous underlying numbers just reinforce what a great season Pettersson put together. Even as a non-offensive defenseman he still posted great rates, especially in terms of assists and points.

Some of this is a result of playing the majority of his ice time alongside someone as great as Karlsson, but this is more than just Pettersson being the product of an all-time great. This isn’t a one off for Pettersson who has been an good analytics players for quite a few seasons now, playing with Karlsson was more of a boost to an already great player.

Charts n’at

Via HockeyViz and JFresh Hockey

Besides a chunk in the middle of the season when Mike Sullivan was trying to shake up the pairings, Pettersson was tied to Karlsson most of the time. Given how similar Karlsson and Kris Letang are there probably wasn’t a massive adjustment process for Pettersson regardless of blue line partner.

Large swaths of the middle of the ice are nearly inaccessible with Pettersson on the ice. While the high danger area in front of goal can still come back to bite him, Pettersson makes it very difficult for opponents just about everywhere else.

Almost every other defenseman, sans Kalrsson, is worse off when playing without Pettersson. His defensive capabilities allow for his playing partner to engage more offensively and push play up the nice knowing their safety blanket in Pettersson is waiting to help out.

None of the offensive numbers are ever going to jump off the page for a guy like Pettersson but he still posts pretty solid metrics for being a defense first player. A great passer of the puck, one wonders what kind of assist numbers he could post if his teammates could finish.

A good look at Pettersson’s impact over three seasons to show how solid he’s been for the Penguins in that time frame. While the defense has been notably consistent during this time, what sticks out the most is his improvement in offensive production.

Highlights

Questions to ponder

What are the Penguins plans for Marcus Pettersson moving forward?

Next season will be the last of Pettersson’s current contract and he is eligible to sign an extension beginning July 1, 2024. He has proven year in and year out that he is one of the Penguins most reliable players and has developed into one of the best defense first defenseman in the NHL.

His next deal will certainly come with a well earned pay raise and defenders like him do not just grow on trees. Keeping him in Pittsburgh long term should be a top priority for Kyle Dubas and company this offseason.

Ideal 2024-25

Ideally, Pettersson signs an extension the second the window opens in July and his future with the Penguins is secure for the immediate and long term future. Pettersson earned his next contract and whatever pay increase comes with. He is simply too valuable to the Penguins to let walk in a year, and if they are serious about keeping the window open as long as possible, he needs to be apart of that.

As for on the ice, just continuing to do what he has been doing since he arrived in Pittsburgh back in 2018 from Anaheim. Playing with Karlsson has clearly helped boost his offensive production while giving him the opportunity to show off his defensive talents. More of the same we saw this season is the perfect scenario for Pettersson.

Bottom line

It hasn’t always been smooth sailing for Pettersson during his time in Pittsburgh, but seeing his development into a top end NHL defenseman is patience paid off. It feels like his name has been mentioned in trade rumors more often than not, but thankfully none of those have ever come to fruition.

Being the defensive partner to a player like Erik Karlsson comes with its own set of challenges given his style of play, but Pettersson passed with flying colors this season. You can claim it was the Swedish connection, but I lobby it was simply because Pettersson is just a damn good blue liner.