Parker Wotherspoon doesn’t necessarily have strong recollections of Dan Hamhuis’ time with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

His memory just isn’t that strong.

But to be fair to Wotherspoon, Hamhuis spent only five days with the Penguins and never even suited up for them.

On June 25, 2010, the Penguins acquired the signing rights to Hamhuis, who was projected to be one of the prizes on the upcoming free agent market. Former general manager Ray Shero hoped he could convince Hamhuis to sign a long-term contract with the Penguins and become a stabilizing entity on the blue line.

But those aspirations never materialized as Hamhuis, a native of Smithers, British Columbia, signed with his hometown Vancouver Canucks, agreeing to a six-year pact.

That transaction wound up sating Wotherspoon, then a 13-year-old living in Surrey, British Columbia.

Hamhuis immediately became a steady and effective top-four defenseman on a Canucks squad that won the Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL’s top overall team in the 2010-11 regular season, then reached the Stanley Cup Final, losing in seven games to the Boston Bruins.

“I just think he did all the right things,” said Wotherspoon, who attended Game 7 of the championship series as a fan. “He was good defensively, good offensively. A great two-way defenseman.

“There was a ton of those guys there on the Canucks. I just tried to model my game after a lot of those guys.”

Wotherspoon, now 28, has roughly fit that archetype in his first season on the Penguins’ back end.

An under-the-radar free agent signing this past offseason, Wotherspoon has largely been bolted onto the top pairing next to All-Star Erik Karlsson and that arrangement has paid off for both players and the team as a whole.

The Penguins have exceeded virtually every external expectation by entering the Olympic break in second place in the Metropolitan Division. And some of that has been due in part to Wotherspoon’s contributions.

Having already played a career-high 56 games, the left-handed player has also set high-water marks with three goals, 16 assists and 19 points.

And until recently, he led the team in penalty minutes with 36.

“Noooo…” Wotherspoon protested in disbelief to a reporter in Cranberry on Jan. 30. “Sid’s got to be up there. I don’t have that many. Come on. I want you to fact-check that!”

(Forward Sidney Crosby eventually surpassed Wotherspoon with 38 penalty minutes before the break.)

Still, Wotherspoon’s penalty minutes reflect a style of play that offers physicality when it’s necessary.

During a 6-2 home win against the Chicago Blackhawks on Jan. 29, Wotherspoon slammed Blackhawks forward Tyler Bertuzzi to the ice at the Penguins’ blue line, creating a turnover. That allowed Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin to take possession and set up linemate Egor Chiankov for the eventual game-winning goal.

“Just being able to separate somebody from the puck and getting it back, everybody has a different way of doing it,” coach Dan Muse said. “With Parker, you’ve seen a little bit louder ones there recently. It was just really good working to get that gap, working to take away time and space on a guy who is kind of slowly coming across the line.

“When we can take away that time and space, we’re putting ourselves in a really good position to transition and go on offense.”

Wotherspoon seems to have a pretty firm grasp on how a defenseman of his skill set needs to operate as a member of the Penguins.

“We have such skilled forwards,” Wotherspoon said. “Just try to get them the puck. If we’re doing our job back there killing plays and getting them the puck, they’re going to put the puck in the net. You can see how high-powered that offense can be.”

Wotherspoon’s methods can be offensive to those he puts on the ice. As such, he has had to occasionally step up and fight some tough customers at the NHL level, including the likes of Bertuzzi and Los Angeles Kings forward Corey Perry.

This season, during a 6-5 home overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks, Wotherspoon drew the ire of several members of the Sharks after he injured forward Will Smith with a big hit along the boards.

“It’s always been part of my game,” Wotherspoon said. “I’ve always been kind of scrappy. It’s hard to avoid confrontations and fights when you’re hitting guys. I was in the minors for a long time, so I had quite a few fights there, too. I wouldn’t say I’m a tough guy, but it’s a good part of the game. A lot of those fights early on in my career came from hitting guys and them taking exception. Those things happen. It’s part of the game.”

Just being part of an NHL roster is no small thing for Wotherspoon.

A fourth-round draft pick of the New York Islanders (No. 112 overall) in 2015, Wotherspoon spent parts of seven seasons in the American Hockey League, primarily with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, before finally getting a handful of NHL games in 2022.

He didn’t become a semi-regular NHLer until joining the Boston Bruins as a free agent in 2023.

What kept him chasing the NHL while he spent more than half a decade riding the bus in and out of Connecticut for road games?

“I just love the game,” Wotherspoon said. “I always wanted to play in the NHL. I just needed someone to believe in me. I thought I was playing well and it took a while to get a call-up, five and a half years. Then, once you get that, you slowly start building, finding your game. Then, obviously, having the Penguins believe in you, giving you a shot, playing with an all-time great defenseman (Karlsson) helps a lot. It’s been good for me.

“I’ve never wavered. I’ve always known this is what I want to do with my life. It was steps. Just get one game, get one game. Then you want more. Then you want more seasons. I always wanted to do that and I always wanted to do it while trying to win. Got a taste of the playoffs (in 2024 with the Bruins) and now, all I want is playoff games and obviously, we want to win the (Stanley) Cup. Just kind of steps in your life.”

Joining the Penguins appears to have been the right step for a variety of reasons for Wotherspoon, who is in the first year of a two-year contract with a frugal cap hit of $7 million.

“I came in here to compete for a spot,” Wotherspoon said. “That’s all I knew when I was signing here, that they were going to give me an opportunity to compete for a spot in the lineup on opening night. That’s all I wanted. Other than that, I didn’t think much of it. I just believed in myself coming here.

“Someone a long time ago told me, chase good people. So, obviously coming in here with Sid, (defenseman Kris Letang), all the big dogs, you knew that they could still compete. That’s the main thing. I didn’t want to come to this team and be a loser. I wanted to win games. I knew this team could compete.”