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Pittsburgh Penguins

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The Pittsburgh Penguins are a professional ice hockey team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They play in the National Hockey League (NHL).

Facts

Franchise history

1967-1969

File:PIT 67-68.gif
The original Penguins logo (1967-68)

Home to the former Pittsburgh Pirates (NHL) team during the 1920s and a very successful Pittsburgh Hornets American Hockey League franchise from the 1930s to 1960s, Pittsburgh was one of the six cities selected to host an expansion team when the NHL doubled in size for the 1967. The new teams were hampered by restrictive rules that kept most major talent with the "Original Six", and beyond aging ex-Rangers star Andy Bathgate and tough ex-Bruin defenseman Leo Boivin, the first Penguins team was manned by a cast of former minor leaguers. The club nevertheless finished just six points out of first place in the closely fought West Division, but out of the playoffs.

File:Pittsburgh Penguins 1968.gif
Logo used (1968-71)

Though Bathgate led the team in scoring both he and Boivin were soon gone. Despite a handful of decent players such as right wing Ken Schinkel, Keith McCreary, agitator Bryan Watson and goaltender Les Binkley, talent was thin, and the Penguins' record was poor in the early years, missing the playoffs five of their first seven seasons.

1970-1971

Tragedy struck the Penguins in 1970 when rookie center Michel Briere, who finished third in scoring on the team during his only season in the league, was injured in a car crash. He died in 1971 after spending a year in the hospital.

1970s

File:Pittsburghpenguinslogo80s.gif
Logo used (1971-1992)

For a few years in the mid-Seventies, Pittsburgh iced some powerful offensive clubs, led by the likes of 'Century Line' forwards Syl Apps, Jr., Lowell MacDonald, and Jean Pronovost. As the 70s wore on, they brought in players such as Rick Kehoe, Pierre Larouche, and Ron Schock on offense, along with defensemen Ron Stackhouse and Dave Burrows. But the Pens' success was always neutralized by mediocre team defense and poor goaltending, and the club never went far in the playoffs.

1980s

By the early Eighties Pittsburgh had Kehoe, star defenseman Randy Carlyle, prolific scorers Paul Gardner and Mike Bullard, but little else. The team had the league's worst record in both the 1983 and 1984 seasons. The reward for such pitiful hockey was the right to draft French Canadian phenom Mario Lemieux. Other teams offered substantial trade packages, but the Penguins kept the pick and a legend was born.

Lemieux Era

File:Pittsburghpenguinslogo90s.gif
Logo used (1992-2000)

With the first draft pick in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft Pittsburgh acquired Mario Lemieux, who would become one of the greatest players in NHL history. After four more years out of the playoffs, Lemieux led the league in scoring in 1988-89 and the Penguins had given him a supporting cast for the first time, with superstar defenseman Paul Coffey coming from the Edmonton Oilers, high-scoring Kevin Stevens, Rob Brown, and John Cullen. The team made the playoffs, but lost in the second round to the Philadelphia Flyers.

In 1990-91, the Penguins reached the top. They drafted star Czech right winger Jaromir Jagr in the 1990 NHL Entry Draft, and Jagr and Lemieux were two of the league's biggest scoring threats throughout the 1990s. Adding that to Stevens, free agent acquisition Joe Mullen, and Coffey, up-and-coming Mark Recchi, star center Ron Francis (acquired in a major trade with the Hartford Whalers), and the goaltending of Tom Barrasso, the Penguins became the league's best team, beating the Minnesota North Stars in the Stanley Cup finals. The following season, the team lost coach Bob Johnson to cancer, and Scotty Bowman took over as coach. Under the legendary Bowman, they swept the Chicago Blackhawks to repeat as Stanley Cup champions.

Cancer nearly dealt the Penguins a double whammy in 1993. Not only were they reeling from Johnson's death, but Mario Lemieux was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. His comeback only two months after the diagnosis was one of the league's greatest "feel-good" stories of all time. Despite the difficulties the team faced, Pittsburgh finished with a 56-21-7 record, winning the franchise's first Presidents' Trophy, as the team with the most points in the regular season. Despite their strong play in the regular season, the team was upset in the second round of the playoffs by the New York Islanders.

The Penguins continued to be a formidable team through the rest of the 1990s, but it came with a price. They had paid so much for their talent that they almost went bankrupt, and Lemieux (who retired in 1997) took the team over in bankruptcy court -- having been owed many millions in deferred salary from his playing days and so being a principal creditor -- and prevented it from relocating to Portland, Oregon. Lemieux shocked the hockey world by deciding to come back in late 2000 and led the Penguins into the 2001 playoffs, where they lost to the New Jersey Devils in the Eastern Conference Finals.

File:Lemieux.jpg
Mario Lemieux

Still, the Penguins needed to cut costs. They dealt Jagr and Frantisek Kucera to the Washington Capitals for prospects Kris Beech, Michal Sivek, and Ross Lupaschuk, and $4.9 million in the summer of 2001. The absence of Jagr proved devastating to the Penguins, and in 2002 they missed the playoffs for the first time in 12 years. Further financial difficulties saw them trade fan favorite Alexei Kovalev the next season, quickly followed by the departure of Robert Lang in free agency.

2003-2004

The 2003-04 NHL season was expected to be a rebuilding year for the Penguins, with first overall pick Marc-Andre Fleury in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft and new head coach (and former Penguin and commentator) Eddie Olczyk. Cost restrictions made the signing of Fleury rather tense. Fleury showed resolve with his excellent goaltending, and although the Penguins continued with the worst NHL record, Fleury showed that he could shrug off hard shots from some of the league's best players. However, more troubles besieged the Penguins when Lemieux suffered a hip injury early in the season. Months later it was determined that he would sit the rest of the season out to recover. The Pens then traded away Martin Straka to the Los Angeles Kings and later had to send Fleury back down to his junior league team due to further money problems.

While the Penguins have suffered small-market syndrome for most of their existence, cost-cutting has prevented another collapse into insolvency, and financially, the team was one of the better-managed NHL franchises between its 1998 bankruptcy and the 2004-05 NHL lockout. Thanks to significant post-season runs, the Penguins broke even in 2000 and turned a small profit in 2001. Failure to make the playoffs in the next three seasons hurt the team's bottom line, but the shedding of contracts kept the team afloat as other franchises, like the Ottawa Senators, faced significant losses or declared bankruptcy.

In the summer of 2004, the the Penguins re-signed one of their biggest fan favorites and former stars, Mark Recchi, before the impending lockout in the 2004-05 season.

2004-2005: Lockout Season

With the 2004-05 NHL season cancelled due to the NHL lockout, several Penguins signed with the club's AHL affiliate Wilkes-Barre Penguins, while experienced players like Aleksey Morozov and Milan Kraft honed their talents in the elite European and Russian leagues.

Various reports have the Penguins in dire financial straits even after the lockout. Lemieux himself has stated that it is doubtful that the club will remain in Pittsburgh once the Mellon Arena lease expires. A recent arena proposal includes a partnership with Isle of Capri Casinos Inc. - a gambling company intending to install slot machines. The project cost is estimated at $290 million. A new arena is part of a proposed $1 billion development financed by Nationwide Realty. If an arena is not built, rumors suggest that the team will move, possibly to Portland, Kansas City, Winnipeg, Hartford or Houston. Many fans hold out that Isle of Capri Casinos Inc. will win the slots license and build the new arena.

2005-2006

On July 22, 2005, the Penguins won an unprecedented draft lottery, in which all 30 teams had weighted chances to win the first overall pick of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft on July 30 in Ottawa, Ontario The Penguins chose junior league superstar Sidney Crosby from the QMJHL. Under the new salary cap included in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) signed by the owners and players to end the 2004-05 NHL lockout, the Penguins began the process of rebuilding the team. They signed free agent offensive defenseman Sergei Gonchar and scorers John Leclair and Zigmund Palffy, and trading for goaltender Jocelyn Thibault from the Chicago Blackhawks.

With the selection of Crosby and the other summer acquisitions, there was hope for Pittsburgh to return to playoff contention. Unfortunately, the Penguins never recovered from a long winless skid at the start of the season, posting the worst record of the Eastern Conference and allowed the most goals-against in the league. Only the St. Louis Blues had a worse record than the Penguins by the end of the season.

Things went from bad to worse. Palffy announced his retirement due to a lingering shoulder injury. At the time, he was the team's second-leading scorer. On January 24, 2006, Mario Lemieux announced his second retirement. He finished as the NHL's seventh all-time scorer (1,723), eighth in goals (690) and tenth in assists (1,033).[1][2][3]

On April 17, Crosby became the youngest rookie in history to score 100 points, tying Lemieux's rookie record. The next day, on the Penguins' final game of the season, Crosby scored a goal and an assist to break Lemieux's record and became the top scoring rookie in team history with 102 points, despite losing the rookie scoring race to Alexander Ovechkin by 4 points.

The team announced on April 20, two days after the close of the 2005-06 NHL season, that the contract for General Manager Craig Patrick would not be renewed. Patrick began as GM in December 1989, and the Penguins won five division titles and back-to-back Stanley Cups during his tenure.

Team president and CEO Ken Sawyer announced on May 25 that Ray Shero had been signed to a five-year contract as General Manager. Shero had previously spent eight seasons as Assistant General Manager for the Nashville Predators preceded by six seasons as Assistant GM for the Ottawa Senators. Ray is the son of the late Fred Shero.

With Lemieux retired, Crosby will lead the team in the coming years as they begin a new reconstruction period. Russian superstar Evgeni Malkin is expected to sign a contract in the summer of 2006 to join the team next season. Forwards like Colby Armstrong and Michel Ouellet showed some of their potential last season and will add even more talent to the roster. The Penguins are also assured of another top-level prospect with the second overall pick in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft in Vancouver.

Season-by-season record

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime losses/Shootout losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes

Season GP W L T OTL Pts GF GA PIM Finish Playoffs
1967-68 74 27 34 13 -- 67 195 216 554 5th in West Out of playoffs
1968-69 76 20 45 11 -- 51 189 252 677 5th in West Out of playoffs
1969-70 76 26 38 12 -- 64 182 238 1038 2nd in West Lost in 2nd round
1970-71 78 21 37 20 -- 62 221 240 1079 6th in West Out of playoffs
1971-72 78 26 38 14 -- 66 220 258 978 4th in West Lost in 1st round
1972-73 78 32 37 9 -- 73 257 265 866 5th in West Out of playoffs
1973-74 78 28 41 9 -- 65 242 273 950 5th in West Out of playoffs
1974-75 80 37 28 15 -- 89 326 289 1119 3rd in Norris Lost in 2nd round
1975-76 80 35 33 12 -- 82 339 303 1004 3rd in Norris Lost in 1st round
1976-77 80 34 33 13 -- 81 240 252 669 3rd in Norris Lost in 1st round
1977-78 80 25 37 18 -- 68 254 321 1300 4th in Norris Out of playoffs
1978-79 80 36 31 13 -- 85 281 279 1039 2nd in Norris Lost in 2nd round
1979-80 80 30 37 13 -- 73 251 303 1038 3rd in Norris Lost in 1st round
1980-81 80 30 37 13 -- 73 302 245 1807 4th in Norris Lost in 1st round
1981-82 80 31 36 13 -- 75 310 337 2212 4th in Patrick Lost in 1st round
1982-83 80 18 53 9 -- 45 257 394 1859 6th in Patrick Out of playoffs
1983-84 80 16 58 6 -- 38 254 390 1695 6th in Patrick Out of playoffs
1984-85 80 24 51 5 -- 53 276 385 1493 6th in Patrick Out of playoffs
1985-86 80 34 38 8 -- 76 313 305 1538 5th in Patrick Out of playoffs
1986-87 80 30 38 12 -- 72 297 290 1693 5th in Patrick Out of playoffs
1987-88 80 36 35 9 -- 81 319 316 2211 6th in Patrick Out of playoffs
1988-89 80 40 33 7 -- 87 347 349 2670 2nd in Patrick Lost in 2nd round
1989-90 80 32 40 8 -- 72 318 359 2132 5th in Patrick Out of playoffs
1990-91 80 41 33 6 -- 88 342 305 1641 1st in Patrick Won Stanley Cup
1991-92 80 39 32 9 -- 87 343 308 1907 3rd in Patrick Won Stanley Cup
1992-93 84 56 21 7 -- 119 367 268 1776 1st in Patrick Lost in 2nd round
1993-94 84 44 27 13 -- 101 299 285 1624 1st in Northeast Lost in 1st round
1994-951 48 29 16 3 -- 61 181 158 1036 2nd in Northeast Lost in 2nd round
1995-96 82 49 29 4 -- 102 362 284 1623 1st in Northeast Lost in 3rd round
1996-97 82 38 36 8 -- 84 285 280 1498 2nd in Northeast Lost in 1st round
1997-98 82 40 24 18 -- 98 228 188 1225 1st in Northeast Lost in 1st round
1998-99 82 38 30 14 -- 90 242 225 977 3rd in Atlantic Lost in 2nd round
1999-00 82 37 31 8 6 88 241 236 1221 3rd in Atlantic Lost in 2nd round
2000-01 82 42 28 8 3 96 281 256 1585 3rd in Atlantic Lost in 3rd round
2001-02 82 28 41 8 5 69 198 249 1248 5th in Atlantic Out of playoffs
2002-03 82 27 44 6 5 65 189 255 1125 5th in Atlantic Out of playoffs
2003-04 82 23 47 8 4 58 190 303 1270 5th in Atlantic Out of playoffs
2004-052 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
2005-06 82 22 46 -- 14 58 244 316 1539 5th in Atlantic Out of playoffs

1 Season was shortened due to the 1994-95 NHL lockout.
2 Season was cancelled due to the 2004-05 NHL lockout.

Notable players

Current squad

As of May 10, 2006 [4]

Goaltenders
Number Player Catches Acquired Place of Birth
29 Canada Marc-Andre Fleury L 2003 Sorel, Quebec
31 Canada Sebastien Caron L 1999 Amqui, Quebec
41 Canada Jocelyn Thibault L 2005 Montreal, Quebec
Defensemen
Number Player Shoots Acquired Place of Birth
2 Czech Republic Josef Melichar - A L 1997 Ceske Budejovice, Czechoslovakia
4 United States Noah Welch L 2001 Brighton, Massachusetts
5 United States Rob Scuderi L 1998 Syosset, New York
19 United States Ryan Whitney L 2002 Boston, Massachusetts
24 Canada Lyle Odelein R 2005 Quill Lake, Saskatchewan
33 Canada Eric Cairns L 2006 Oakville, Ontario
44 United States Brooks Orpik L 2002 San Francisco, California
55 Russia Sergei Gonchar - A L 2005 Chelyabinsk, U.S.S.R.
Forwards
Number Player Shoots Position Acquired Place of Birth
7 Canada Michel Ouellet R RW 2000 Rimouski, Quebec
9 United States Andy Hilbert L C/W 2006 Lansing, Michigan
10 United States John LeClair L LW 2005 St. Albans, Vermont
12 United States Ryan Malone L C/LW 1999 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
15 Sweden Niklas Nordgren R LW/RW 2006 Ornskoldsvik, Sweden
17 United States Matt Murley L LW 1999 Troy, New York
23 United States Eric Boguniecki R C 2005 New Haven, Connecticut
20 Canada Colby Armstrong R RW 2001 Lloydminster, Saskatchewan
28 Finland Jani Rita L RW/LW 2006 Helsinki, Finland
36 United States Andre Roy L LW 2005 Port Chester, New York
37 Canada Ryan Vandenbussche R RW 2004 Simcoe, Ontario
43 Slovakia Tomas Surovy L LW/RW 2001 Banska Bystrica, Czechoslovakia
71 Belarus Konstantin Koltsov L RW/LW 1999 Minsk, U.S.S.R.
87 Canada Sidney Crosby - A L C 2005 Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia

Team Captains

Hall of Famers

Retired numbers

  • 21 Michel Brière, C, 1969-70; taken out of circulation following his death but not officially retired until January 5, 2001
  • 66 Mario Lemieux, C, 1984-97, 2000-06; retired November 19, 1997, his jersey number was lowered from Mellon Arena roof and "unretired" when he began his comeback on December 27, 2000; re-retired January 24, 2006. His number will be re-raised during the 2006-2007 season.
  • 99 Wayne Gretzky (Did not play for the Pittsburgh Penguins, but his number was retired league-wide by the NHL in 1999)

Awards and Trophies

NHL ALL-ROOKIE TEAM

FIRST ALL-STAR TEAM

SECOND ALL-STAR TEAM


1st round draft picks

Franchise scoring leaders

These are the top-ten point-scorers in the history of the Penguins. Figures are updated after each completed NHL regular season. Note: GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points

Player POS GP G A Pts
Mario Lemieux C 889 683 1018 1701
Jaromir Jagr RW 806 439 640 1079
Rick Kehoe RW 722 312 324 636
Ron Francis C 533 144 449 613
Jean Pronovost RW 753 316 287 603
Kevin Stevens LW 522 260 295 555
Syl Apps, Jr. C 495 151 349 500
Martin Straka C 560 165 277 442
Paul Coffey D 331 108 332 440
Ron Schock C 619 124 280 404

See also

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