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 21st
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.
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