We caught up with Sens captain Erik Karlsson during today's Media Day at NHL All-Star Weekend to chat about the upcoming festivities in Tampa Bay, Sweden's strong showing on the rosters, the Sens acquiring Magnus Paajarvi yesterday and more...

What he's looking forward to this weekend:

It's always fun to see the guys and to see the type of show each host city puts on. Here you've got the weather on your side so it'll be a little bit different from some of the other ones but it's always a fun and relaxing time. You get a little break from your everyday life.



On Tampa as the host city:

The city is busy and everyone is buzzing so it's going to be a good few days here I think. I haven't been around the rink yet so I haven't seen what they've done there but I'm expecting it to be really high quality. I think we're all going to have a good time in Tampa.



On being at his fifth NHL All-Star game with the influx of first-time All-Stars this year:

It doesn't feel that good...it means I'm getting old. Maybe I'm on my way out? (laughs) It's nice to see the young guys coming up and I remember when I was in their position and how much it means to you and how special it is. We're just here to have a good time, whether it's your fifth time or if it's your first time.



On his friend Victor Hedman missing NHL All-Star weekend with an injury:

I'm a little frustrated about that but not much you can do obviously. I'm staying at his house for the weekend so that's nice and we'll get to spend some time together which is rare on occasions like this. He's still going to be around and he said he'll be at the rink both tonight and tomorrow so we'll get some quality time in together.



His thoughts on Sweden being well represented on the blue line this weekend:

It's great. The culture that we have now back in Sweden is good and I think our national team has been strong ever since the 1990s. Growing up watching all the guys play for Team Sweden in the Olympics and World Championships inspired a lot of kids to start playing hockey and it's starting to pay off. Every team in Sweden has a good program for younger guys and we're good at developing kids into pros and that's really showing across the league now.

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On the Sens acquiring Magnus Paajarvi:

He's a great guy. I haven't played with him for a long time now but he's someone that has big upside. He moves his big body around a lot and hopefully he'll fit in good with our group of guys. I know the guys on the team are really going to enjoy playing with him so hopefully he can spark something for us. I played a lot of tournaments with him growing up on the national team. He's a great guy and a funny guy. His skill set is really good even though he hasn't been put in a situation to show it much lately.



The on-ice portion of this weekend kicks off tonight at 7 p.m. with the 2018 GEICO NHL All-Star Skills Competition (CBC, SN, TVA Sports) followed by the 2018 Honda NHL All-Star Game (CBC, SN, TVA Sports) tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. Click here for all the details.