Player Essentials: Marcus Pettersson

When Marcus Pettersson saw the news about Erik Karlsson joining the Penguins, he was ecstatic, to say the least. Pettersson, who is six years younger than Karlsson, has followed his countryman's career since before the three-time Norris Trophy winner entered the league.

"It's a guy that, as a defenseman myself, you watch. Especially being a Swedish guy, with the career he's had and all the highlights and everything like that," Pettersson said. "To be able to play with a guy like that, I mean, it's just awesome. You know, when I first came over and got the chance to play with (Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang), now Erik - especially being a Swede - it's really a dream come true, for sure, to be on the same team."

Pettersson is looking forward to learning from Karlsson in so many respects, mostly on the ice, of course, where the two may end up being paired together in the top four. But Pettersson is also open to any advice someone like Karlsson might have for elevating his personal style, particularly when it comes to helping him pick out a classic timepiece.

"I know a lot of the guys on the team are really into watches, especially Tanger, and we'll see now with Erik, I know he's into watches too. So, maybe get a hold of one of those guys and have them recommend me to a jeweler or something," Pettersson said. "I haven't had a watch and it will be really interesting to get into that game, because it's a thing that it doesn't lose its value, so it's a good investment. But nothing for now there, so I'm going to have to step up my game."

In the meantime, here are some of Pettersson's current must-haves, shared from his home in Skellefteå while hanging out with infant son Frans.

It's a Swedish brand. Both me and my wife Beatrice have a pair of those. This is going to sound awful (laughs), but they're kind of like see-through, lime green almost, though they're actually dark green. That's probably my favorite brand. I used to have a pair of Ray-Bans, but I really like the Chimis I have now, for sure.

I will kind of wear whatever, but there's another Nordic brand I like that I have on right now called Les Deux. It started in Copenhagen. I really like their hats, and I have some clothes from them as well. Then, Sid gave me a gray beanie a couple years ago. It was a brand from his hometown or something like that. I can't remember what the name is, but I wear it all the time. I have it in Pittsburgh. I didn't need it this summer, so I left it there, but maybe I should have brought it. Swedish summers are not as hot as over there.

I always have a hat or a beanie on, more for hiding my hair (laughs). But something that I picked up on that's sort of like a soft texture paste that I use right now is IGK. They've got deodorants and hair products, and I use that one right now, but not often. Just throw a sun hat on and you're fine.

Beatrice usually buys clothes for me, since she has better style. But another Swedish brand that I like, they have kind of oversized stuff, is Acne. Then another good one is always Tiger of Sweden.

My iPad is a good one. If we have a long flight or anything like that, you can download a show or something like that. Usually, the headphones go with that because you wear them on the bus on the way to the game in addition to the flight. I really like Apple's new noise-cancelling ones that go in the ear. Those are really nice.

Say one team had a great year in '94 or '95. This Swedish reporter talks about that season and all their players and stuff like that. So, the team he's talking to, it's like when they were kings, when they were at their best. He's a really good talker. There was a four-part episode about the coach from Manchester City, and each part was three-and-a-half hours long. So, he can really talk (laughs). That's what I usually listen to. I just finished listening to one.

I go through a lot of shows. I feel like there's a lot of different ones that catch my eye, but I like more sci-fi or fantasy. The new Lord of the Rings show, I watched… the new Game of Thrones, the old Game of Thrones, all of those. I watched a show early in the summer called Silo on Apple TV+. It's a really good one. If it's a good show, it doesn't matter what genre it is or anything like that, but if there's a hyped-up sci-fi show or movie, I tend to watch that. Me and my wife, we have very different tastes. There's only a few shows that we can watch together, otherwise we tune in on our own. The only thing we watch together is reality shows. We both like that from time to time.

MC: I feel like you and Raks (Rickard Rakell) were saying that you would watch Swedish Survivor when you lived together?

We watched it sometimes. But he's really into that because he would want to be on that show, I know that. Maybe that's why he watches it so much.

We Swedes drink a lot of coffee. That's something I have to have. We usually bring our own or we have family bring coffee for us, because we think Swedish coffee is way better than what we get in the U.S. On a game day, I have a few. I have one on the bus or in the car over, then right before our meetings and stuff, I have another one. I've toned it down a little bit, but I'm still on it.

Coffee always has to be in a 'fika' (a Swedish custom of enjoying coffee and a treat while talking about life, that typically occurs in the afternoon). That's a no-brainer. But as for a snack or like a little dessert or whatever, I really like a cinnamon bun, the Swedish kind. I know the cinnamon rolls are different over there because you guys put glaze on it or whatever. We usually use the big sugar pearls on cinnamon rolls. Then we have another one called vetebullar that I really like, too. It's a bun with glaze on top and then vanilla cream inside of it. Whenever we need new fika, we just go to IKEA and buy a bag of tiny cinnamon rolls.

I have the same snack every time: oatmeal with some maple syrup. I've also got some peanut butter in there, some raisins, and a banana.