PITTSBURGH — Erik Karlsson took the high road.

On opening night, Hasso Plattner spoke for the first time to local media in a decade.

The San Jose Sharks owner was surprisingly frank when speaking about Karlsson, who GM Doug Wilson acquired to much fanfare, in the summer of 2018.

There’s no need to re-litigate the highs and lows of Karlsson’s tenure with the Sharks — we’ve done that plenty at San Jose Hockey Now — but Plattner was pointed in his comments about Karlsson.

“First, one [star] is not enough. Second, you know his qualities and you know his deficiencies, he was not the most, how do I say it, team-friendly player,” Plattner said about Karlsson. “He was good, but he was probably very good in a very good team.”

In a one-on-one interview with SJHN in Dallas last week, Karlsson offered no comment, stressing that he still has a good relationship with his former owner.

Karlsson, instead, is focused on the Pittsburgh Penguins, where he’s enjoying a bounceback campaign.

It was an up-and-down Steel City debut for Karlsson last year, who was coming off a 2023 Norris Trophy with the San Jose Sharks.

This season, the 35-year-old has been the No. 1 defenseman for the surprising 14-8-7 Pens, putting up two goals and 21 points in 29 games, and playing solid two-way hockey.

“He’s just playing towards his strengths more consistently. He’s engaged. He’s skating, his puck play. It seems like he’s got a little extra gear in him this year [more] than I’ve seen since he left San Jose,” San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky, who ran the defense during Karlsson’s Norris campaign, said. “Dangerous player. We know what he can do. Extremely, extremely bright hockey player. He can make things happen from the goal line out. Got to be aware when he’s on the ice.”

Karlsson spoke to SJHN about the Sharks’ improved play this season, how San Jose set him up for success in 2022-23, his good relationship with GM Mike Grier, and how he’d fit with Macklin Celebrini now.

Sheng Peng: What are your thoughts about the San Jose Sharks’ current turnaround?

Erik Karlsson: It’s nice. It’s coming along. Obviously, they’re going in the right direction, and they got some guys to show for it now, and they’ve played some decent hockey this year. And they have a bright future.

SP: What are your impressions of the Sharks’ young stars, Celebrini and Will Smith and the like?

EK: They’ve obviously done a good job drafting the last couple of years. They got a lot of high-end prospects and a lot of prospects that are going to be NHL’ers. I think they’ve done a good job in how they structured it ever since Griersy got there. You just hope that it pans out for them.

SP: It looks like the plan that they set out on, which included trading you, is working.

EK: That’s the direction they were going, and they fully embraced that and committed to that early on. Now you’re starting to see why they were doing the things that they were doing and getting rid of a few of us guys that were back then.

So good for them. That was their process, and that was their plan all along. And I’m just happy that they told me about it as soon as they did. And we’ve had a great relationship ever since. I wish them nothing but the best.

SP: When exactly did the San Jose Sharks tell you?

EK: You could kind of tell that that’s the way it was going anyways.

Griersy was just very open with it and said, like, ‘Hey, we don’t have much right now. If we stay status quo, we’re not really going to go anywhere. We think that we have to go this route.’

And that was just how it was and he was just very open and honest about it. Ever since we met, we’ve had good conversations and open conversations, and he’s a good man. And obviously, as you can see right now, they’ve done a good job at what they were doing.

SP: How did Grier and head coach David Quinn set you up for success in 2022-23?

EK: We didn’t really have that much success that year, obviously.

But I think in one regard, they tried to set guys up, myself included, to be as good as we could be. It wasn’t only me who had a good individual year. It was a lot of other guys on that team as well.

That was kind of all we had to work with, and we did the best out of the situation. Like I said, I think looking at it now, we’re all the better for it.

SP: What’s the difference for you this year with the Penguins, as opposed to last season?

EK: Obviously, we’ve been winning a lot more games, which makes life a lot easier. It makes it easier to do things and move forward.

And I think we’ve done a good job so far, trying to create an identity for what we want to accomplish and what type of team we want to be. Obviously, when you get the results, everything makes it a little bit easier.

So it’s been a lot of fun this year so far, and hopefully we can keep the pace that we’ve been on, and keep growing as a team, but we’ve still got places to go.

SP: It’s funny how time works. When the Sharks traded you, they were headed for last place. But now that they have Celebrini, ironically, you’re exactly the kind of player that they could use at the moment.

EK: That’s usually how it goes. That’s another thing, timelines don’t always add up. I was there at the wrong time, and it’s easy to say, ‘What could have been,’ but everything happens for a reason.

And like I said, I think what they’ve done so far has worked out really good for them, and hopefully, they can reap the rewards for it here shortly.