Just before the season got underway, team president Kyle Dubas made it abundantly clear what the identity of the 2023-24 Penguins would be.

In the aftermath of the team’s fourth straight win Saturday night, a commanding 4-0 victory against the Buffalo Sabres, coach Mike Sullivan reaffirmed Dubas’ sentiment in the midst of answering a question about the Penguins’ willingness to play low-risk games.

“When you look at the group we have, we’re wired for offense,” Sullivan said. “That’s part of our DNA.”

The way Dubas constructed the team over the offseason, it became readily apparent in the summer the Penguins would have to lean into perhaps their greatest strength. Depth would hardly be the Penguins’ calling card, as they were pushed to the brink with the salary cap after trading for the offensive-minded Erik Karlsson and his hefty contract.

Instead, the Penguins would need to get the best out of the Big Three of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang. Karlsson had to prove a worthy addition, as would winger Reilly Smith. Returning forwards like Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust had to find ways to consistently chip in offensively.

Through 13 games, all of the above has certainly been the case. Of the 122 points the Penguins have racked up as a team, 69% of them have come via the following players: Crosby, Malkin, Karlsson, Smith, Guentzel and Rust. Malkin and Guentzel are tied for the team lead at 16.

In particular, Malkin and Crosby have been sensational. Malkin is pacing the team with eight goals, while Crosby is in the midst of an eight-game point streak. Seemingly everything Malkin has thrown toward the net this season has wound up in it, the most recent example being a backhand flip off Sabres netminder Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen for the game’s first goal on Saturday.

Letang has lagged behind the other members of the Big Three in terms of point production, totaling a goal and six assists while being moved to the second power play unit. But Letang’s been critically important as a penalty killer, continues to command plenty of ice time, and sets up his teammates.

Even with each player 36 years or older, Malkin, Crosby and Letang remain amply capable of driving play for the Penguins, especially during the team’s surge that’s put them above .500 for the second time this season.

“They’re obviously incredible players,” Drew O’Connor said of the Big Three. “The team kind of revolves around them. They make everything go.”

Of course, not every player the Penguins expected to lean on offensively has quite held up their end of the bargain.

Thirteen games in, Rickard Rakell remains in search of his first goal of the year despite taking the fifth-most shots on the team. He’s hardly been a negative presence on Malkin’s line, however, as Rakell’s found other ways to be impactful, such as being hard on the puck and forcing turnovers.

But in general, the Penguins’ top guns are firing on all cylinders to counteract a bottom six that has generated only eight goals, though those lines have started to heat up recently. The way the team is set up, it’s no secret how much the Penguins as a collective feed off the game the likes of Crosby, Malkin and a handful of others put forth.

“When they’re going, it definitely lifts everyone else up,” O’Connor said. “But I think whether they’re scoring or not, every night, they’re playing a solid game. So we just kind of try to help out where we can and kind of build off of the momentum they give us.”

Perhaps most relevant to the team’s winning ways has been Karlsson’s rising level of play. When he talked with reporters in San Jose, Calif., prior to his first game against the Sharks as a Penguin, Karlsson noted how he felt he was getting more settled with his new team every day. Sullivan, meanwhile, said he believed there was another level to Karlsson’s game the team could bring out of him.

Since then, Karlsson has chipped in at least two points in three of four games. He’s riding a five-game point streak, during which he’s posted a plus-8 rating. Not to mention, he contributed his first two-goal game as a Penguin in Saturday’s win.

Rather than discuss his own advancement in his game, Karlsson credited his teammates for bringing out the best in him lately.

“The guys in general, I think, are playing more cohesive hockey together,” Karlsson said. “Guys are starting to find that chemistry that you don’t have to think about it. It’s just coming a little bit more naturally.”

Whatever the reason, the Penguins will gladly take Karlsson inching closer to the Norris Trophy winner of last season who became the first defenseman in three decades to record a 100-point season.

After all, it’s a bit unsustainable to expect Malkin and Crosby to continue producing above point-per-game rates. Same goes for Rakell to remain in his goal-scoring drought.

Regardless, the prospects of the Penguins’ season are most dependent on the offensive contributions of their highest-profile returners and first-year players.

From Karlsson’s standpoint, though, the group as a whole is starting to jell. It’s a development that provides some degree of optimism the 2023-24 campaign won’t be defined by the ebbs and flows of the Penguins’ top scorers, even if it very well may and has thus far.

“We’re starting to come together as a group,” Karlsson said. “We’re still early in the journey, and it still feels like we got a lot more to give, which is a nice feeling to have.”