Exclusive | Marcus Pettersson sees identity of Mike Sullivans Penguins success taking hold with Rangers

Marcus Pettersson knows Mike Sullivan’s structure and philosophy better than most with the Rangers, since the defenseman spent parts of seven seasons with the Penguins from December 2018 through February 2025 after Sullivan had already arrived and won a pair of Stanley Cups in Pittsburgh.And in the early portion of this season, Pettersson has noticed this iteration of the Rangers starting to adopt a similar identity to what those Penguins teams had with Sullivan as head coach, he told The Post before a 1-0 loss to the Blue Jackets in overtime where the Blueshirts largely flashed the same principles of checking and forechecking while earning their 13th point of the young season.Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Mollie Walker about the inside buzz on the Rangers.

“[Identity is] always the word on people’s mouths, I feel like, early in the year where it’s — some teams find it early, some teams are searching for that identity,” Pettersson, who was acquired in exchange for a top-10 protected first-round pick in the 2030 draft, said Saturday.“I think when you look throughout our lineup, our system and everything, I think everybody’s really bought in so far this season.

… We’re a really good checking team.I feel like, and if we can do that well, it’s gonna be tough to beat us every night.”With five years remaining on his contract, Pettersson, 30, will likely be part of shaping the Rangers blue line into the future, and outside of a pair of giveaways in Saturday’s game, he’s mostly been impressive with Sean Durzi on a revamped second pairing.

Pettersson has collected a pair of assists offensively too while settling into a critical role on the Blueshirts penalty-kill unit.His current group of Rangers teammates, who are now 6-3-1 through their opening 10 games, and his former Penguins teams contained different types of players, he said, but there are still some similarities in how th...