All-Time Team: Pittsburgh Penguins (1967-present)

  The NHL season is upon us! The most wonderful eight-ish months of the year. And so to celebrate, I'm doing some more renditions of what I believe are the all-time fantasy lineups of two NHL teams. For this week I'll be putting together the ideal historical lineup of last year's Stanley Cup champions, the Pittsburgh Penguins.

  But first, a brief history. The Pittsburgh Penguins were one of the first batch of National Hockey League expansion teams in 1967, which doubled the league's size from six to twelve teams. The team's first few years were pretty average for an expansion team, posting losing records and making sporadic playoff appearances in the late 1960's and early 1970's. However in the mid-1970's, the NHL realigned its divisions which benefited the Penguins greatly just when the franchise was dealing with bankruptcy. Around this time the Penguins also fielded some effective scorers such as the Century Line's Jean Pronovost, Lowell MacDonald, and Syl Apps Jr. Between 1975 and 1982 the team only missed the playoffs once, though they only ended up winning two playoffs series.

  Unfortunately the team bottomed out in the league standings in the 1982-83 and 1983-84 seasons. This brought back fears that the team would once again go through bankruptcy and possible relocation. The only hope of saving the team, it seemed, was Mario Lemieux, a superstar in the QMJHL and a foregone conclusion as to the #1 draft pick in 1984. In a controversial move, Penguins management made the decision to finish 1983-84 with the worst record in order to draft Lemieux. Super Mario proved a godsend to the struggling team, dazzling fans with his impeccable scoring prowess – which was only rivaled by Wayne Gretzky's – as well as serving as the nucleus around which a strong team could be built. The mid-to-late 1980's saw the acquisition of other big names such as Kevin Stevens, Randy Cunneyworth, and Tom Barrasso.

  In 1989, Pittsburgh made the playoffs for the first time in seven years. They missed the playoffs the following year, spending their off season acquiring even more talent: Ron Francis, Joe Mullen, Larry Murphy, and Ulf Samuelsson. But by far the most crucial acquisition during this time was the drafting of Jaromir Jagr who would go on to be one of the premier offensive superstars of the 1990's. This roster overhaul transformed the team into Stanley Cup contenders. Not surprisingly, the Penguins won the Stanley Cup two years in a row, in 1991 and 1992. The next few years consisted of excellent regular season performances (including a President's Trophy for 1992-93 and several division titles), Lemieux's play time limited by various health problems, and many deep playoff runs. Although they didn't return to Stanley Cup glory the Penguins remained one of the dominant NHL teams of the 90's, never missing the playoffs between 1991 and 2001.

  Mario Lemieux retired from professional hockey at the end of the 1997 playoffs, and so Pittsburgh's slow regular season decline began. At the same time, not only was home game attendance dwindling, but also the team had tons of debt to deal with and was forced to declare bankruptcy yet again in 1998. Then in December 2000, to everyone's amazement Mario Lemieux (who was by now the team's owner) returned to the ice, his scoring touch still with him. He lead the team to another playoff run, ending with a semi-finals loss to the New Jersey Devils.

  Due to financial restraints, Pittsburgh was forced to trade away Jagr and Alexei Kovalev, another high scorer. Combined with limited appearances from Lemieux, the team posted terrible regular season efforts, missing the playoffs four consecutive seasons. Attendance continued to suck and the Mellon Arena where the Penguins played was super old. In short, times were bad.

  Fortunately, history seemed to repeat itself. As was the case in the mid-80's, the Pens' poor performances in the mid-2000's resulted in some favourable draft positions, giving them star players like Evgeni Malkin, Marc-Andre Fleury, Jordan Staal, and of course Sidney Crosby, the Jaromir Jagr of his generation. These new additions made the Penguins exciting again – in spite of Lemieux's permanent retirement in 2006 – giving attendance a noticeable bump. Things were finally looking up; goals were being scored, the new arena was being built, and the team's financial problems were dealt with. The Pens finished the 2006-07 season with 105 points, whereas in the previous year it could only manage 58!

  The Penguins returned to the playoffs in 2007 and haven't left it since. They've had many deep playoff runs in the past 11 years, including 4 Stanley Cup finals appearances and 3 Stanley Cup championships (2009, 2016, and 2017). Needless to say, they're one of the dominant teams in the league right now.

  In their 49 seasons of existence, the Pittsburgh Penguins have made the playoffs 32 times and won 8 division titles, 1 President's Trophy, and 5 Stanley Cups from 6 finals appearances.

So today, let's take a look at the best Pittsburgh's 49 seasons has to offer. But first, the rules: only the players' accomplishments with the Penguins will be considered, and the roster is limited to players who have played at least 200 games with the team. So here we go.

Forwards

L-R: Lemieux, Stevens, Pronovost

LW	C	RW
Kevin Stevens (1987-95, 2001-02)	Mario Lemieux (1984-1997, 2000-06)	Jaromir Jagr (1990-2001)
Chris Kunitz (2009-17)	Sidney Crosby (2005-present)	Joe Mullen (1990-97)
Randy Cunneyworth (1985-89)	Pat Boutette (1981-84)	Jean Pronovost (1968-78)
Matt Cooke (2008-13)	Bryan Hextall (1969-74)	Nick Harbaruk (1969-73)

  

  You know you're dealing with a team with offensive depth when Evgeni Malkin doesn't make the cut. The starting centre is a complete no-brainer (unless you're a dumb kid who knows nothing about hockey history). Three-time league MVP, two-time playoff MVP, six-time leading scorer, ten-time 100 point scorer: I could go on, but when you get right down to it no player has ever meant as much to his team as Mario Lemieux. To his left is Kevin Stevens, one of the NHL's premier power forwards of his time. To the right is Jaromir Jagr, the other big scorer of 1990's Pittsburgh. On the second line we have capable playmaker Chris Kunitz (it's weird; the Pens have had a lot of outstanding right-wingers but not a ton of great left-wingers), Sidney Crosby, the 21^st century's high-scorer, and the reliable goal-scorer Joe Mullen. The third line provides some defensive posture, with special teams specialist Randy Cunneyworth, tough guy/playmaker Pat Boutette, and the defensive forward who could still net 50 goals, Jean Pronovost. The last line is meant to get under the opposition's skin. We've got the defensive Harbaruk, the enforcer Hextall, and the pest Cooke.

Honourable Mentions: Val Fonteyne, Ron Francis, Pierre Larouche, Evgeni Malkin, Mark Recchi, Jordan Staal

Defencemen

L-R: Coffey, Gonchar

Paul Coffey (1987-92)	Sergei Gonchar (2005-10)
Randy Carlyle (1978-84)	Ian Moran (1995-2003)
Ulf Samuelsson (1991-95)	Bryan Watson (1969-74)

  Our first defensive pairing puts together two of the most offensively-minded blueliners of their respective times: Sergei Gonchar and Paul Coffey, the second highest scoring defenceman in NHL history. The second pairing has Ian Moran and Randy Carlyle (who was also included on my all-time Winnipeg Jets team), two long-serving rock-solid defenders. And the third pairing has aggressor Bryan Watson and the infamous enforcer Ulf Samuelsson (previously listed on my all-time Hartford Whalers lineup).

Honourable Mention: Larry Murphy

Goaltenders

Fleury

Marc-Andre Fleury (2003-17)

Tom Barrasso (1988-2000)

  This was kind of a tough call. Both Tom Barrasso and Marc-Andre Fleury were great goaltenders for their respective times, but I'm giving the edge to Fleury because of his longevity and consistency. Fleury played 60 or more games in seven seasons and from 2006 to 2017 posted consistent save percentages between .905 and .921. While both goaltenders had some impressive seasons, Fleury simply had more of them, recording 30 or more wins in eight seasons to Barrasso's two.

So that was my all-time picks of Pittsburgh Penguins history. I hope you like it. Next time I'll be showing off my picks of the all-time greatest of my personal favourite NHL team. Stay tuned.