How Carl Hagelin and Patric Hornqvist became best friends

Carl Hagelin and Patric Hornqvist are best friends. We could infer as much from the amount of time they appeared to have spent together over the summer in Sweden, but we also know it thanks to Jim Rutherford’s admission in a Players’ Tribune article.

In it, he mentions how, once he traded for Hagelin, he saw Hornqvist, who asked if he knew Hagelin was his best friend. But that was well before they were teammates, of course - and thanks to this little feature from Sportsnet, now we know just how they became best friends.

If you can’t watch for whatever reason, here’s what Hagelin had to say (with a smiling Hornqvist beside him):

“Yeah, we were both working out one time. I was rehabbing my shoulder, and he was there working out and I looked over. I’m like, ‘This guy’s working really hard in the gym.’ And then he looked at me and he saw the same thing, and then we started doing bike sprints together, and then we’re like, ‘You know, we should be best friends.’”

That’s the most athlete thing ever; that’s awesome.

Hagelin also said he feels knowing Hornqvist helped him get his footing on the team that much quicker, so really, all of the Pittsburgh Penguins became winners from these two Swedes bonding in the gym one day.