"Mark is a great friend of mine," Tanev said. "He's a great player and an even better person. So I was super excited when I saw that the team had decided to sign him. We spoke yesterday, and we're both very excited to play together and I'm really excited and happy for him to be part of the organization. It's going to be nice to have a familiar face again in the locker room and with Pittsburgh."
And of course, their college group chat immediately started going off once the news came out.
"Everyone was all texting one another and everyone was happy that we were able to get a couple of former teammates and Friars back together," Tanev said with a laugh.
Instagram from @janko61\_: Good luck to all these guys as we're starting up camps. Gonna miss them all this year.
It's funny because Tanev and Jankowski's personalities are polar opposites. Tanev earned the nickname 'Turbo' in Pittsburgh for a reason - he's a ball of energy that's always buzzing around. Meanwhile, Jankowski is more reserved and low-key, but Tanev said he's come a long way in terms of getting out of his shell.
"He was very shy and quiet and kept to himself, but I think he's grown into himself," Tanev said. "He always has a smile on his face and he's such a humble and great person. An amazing individual who will do anything for anyone else and always put his friends, his family, his teammates first. So I just think his personality and how he treats others around them is refreshing and amazing to see."
But Tanev said don't let Jankowski's demeanor fool you - he's as competitive as it gets.
"When we were in college, we did have some battles with the N64 playing Mario Kart and Mario Tennis," Tanev said. "One of the memories that sticks out is when we beat him in those games because he'd never played the system before, and next thing you know he's beating us because he put in hours of work. He's a very competitive human being."
Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford said he sees Jankowski joining the bottom-six as the potential third-line center. At 6-foot-4 and 212 pounds, they like his size and defensive prowess, particularly his penalty killing abilities. He's recorded seven career shorthanded goals, including five in 2018-19.
"Mark developed that part of his game at Providence, and obviously he's done very well for himself in the in the National Hockey League when it comes to penalty killing and specialty teams," Tanev said.
But in addition to that, Jankowski has displayed some offensive acumen as well. He scored 17 goals in 72 games during his rookie season in 2017-18, and followed that up with 14 tallies in 79 games the next year.
"Mark is a great two-way forward," Tanev said. "He plays a full 200-foot game and as we've seen before, he's had the ability to score goals. He's put up a lot of goals in some years and has great offensive instincts. He's a big body and willing to play the game in the dirty areas. He gets to the front of the net, he blocks shots, he's a great penalty killer, so he's going to add another element to our specialty teams. But he's a great 200-foot player and has great offensive instincts as well."
