| Pittsburgh Penguins |
|
|
| Conference |
Eastern |
| Division |
Atlantic |
| Founded |
1967 |
| History |
Pittsburgh Penguins
1967 - present |
| Home Arena |
Mellon Arena (17,132) |
| City |
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Colors |
Black, Vegas Gold, and White |
| Media |
FSN Pittsburgh
WPCW 19 (Pittsburgh's CW)
WXDX (105.9 FM)
WBGG (970 AM)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review |
| Owner(s) |
Lemieux Group L.P |
| General Manager |
Ray Shero |
| Head Coach |
 Michel Therrien |
| Captain |
Sidney Crosby |
| Minor League Affiliates |
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (AHL)
Wheeling Nailers (ECHL) |
| Stanley Cups |
1990-91, 1991-92 |
| Conference Championships |
1990-91, 1991-92 |
| Division Championships |
1990-91, 1992-93, 1993-94, 1995-96, 1997-98 |
The Pittsburgh Penguins are a professional ice hockey team based in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of
the National Hockey League (NHL).
Franchise history
Expansion years: 1967-69
The home of the early NHL incarnation of the Pirates during the 1920s and the successful Hornets American Hockey League franchise from the
1930s through the 1960s, Pittsburgh was one of six cities awarded an expansion
team when the NHL doubled in size for the start of 1967-68.
After deciding on the "Penguin" nickname (which was inspired by the fact that the team was going to play in an "Igloo", the
nickname of the Pittsburgh Civic Center)[1], a logo was
chosen, that had a penguin in front of a triangle, which is thought to be in tribute to the "Golden Triangle."[2]
The Penguins' first general manager was Jack Riley. His team (along with the
other expansion teams) was hampered by restrictive rules that kept most major talent with the "Original Six." Beyond aging sniper Andy Bathgate and tough
defenseman Leo Boivin, the first Penguins team was manned by a cast of former minor-leaguers.
The club missed the playoffs, but were a mere six points out of 1st place in the close-fought West Division.
Though Bathgate led the team in scoring, both he and Boivin were soon gone. Former player George Sullivan was the head coach for the club's first two seasons, until being replaced by
Hockey Hall of Famer Leo Kelly. Despite a handful
of decent players such as Ken Schinkel, Keith
McCreary, agitator Bryan Watson, and goaltender Les
Binkley, talent was thin. The Penguins' missed the playoffs in five of their first seven seasons.
1970s
Tragedy struck the Penguins in 1970 when promising rookie center Michel Briere, who finished third in scoring on the team,
was injured in a car crash. After spending a year in the hospital, he died. Pittsburgh managed a playoff berth in
1972 but not much beyond that. With the Penguins battling the California Golden Seals near the division cellar in 1973-74, Jack Riley was fired as general manager and replaced with Jack
Button. Button traded for Steve Durbano, Ab Demarco Jr., Bob "Battleship" Kelly, and Bob Paradise. The personnel moves proved
successful, as the team's play improved. The Penguins just barely missed the playoffs in 1974.
Beginning in the mid-Seventies, Pittsburgh iced some powerful offensive clubs, led by the likes of the "Century Line" of forwards Syl Apps, Jr., Lowell MacDonald, and Jean Pronovost. They came tantalizingly
close to reaching the Stanley Cup semifinals in 1975, but were ousted from the
playoffs by the New York Islanders in one of only three best-of-seven game series in
professional sports history where a team came back from being down three games to none. As the 70s wore on, they brought in other
offensive weapons such as Rick Kehoe, Pierre
Larouche, and Ron Schock, along with a couple solid blue-liners such as
Ron Stackhouse and Dave Burrows. But the Pens'
success beyond the regular season was always neutralized by mediocre team defense and poor goaltending.
In 1975, the Penguins' creditors demanded payment of back debts. Through the intervention of a group that included
Wren Blair, the team was prevented from folding. A decline started when Baz Bastien became general manager. The Penguins missed the playoffs in
1977-78 when their offense lagged, and Larouche was traded for Pete Mahovlich and Peter Lee. Bastien traded prime draft choices for
several players whose best years were already behind them, such as Orest Kindrachuk,
Tom Bladon, and Rick MacLeish, and the team would
suffer in the early 1980s as a result.
1980s
The Penguins began the decade by changing their team colors. In January 1980, the team went from blue & white to their
present-day black & gold to honor Pittsburgh's other sports teams, the Pirates
and the Steelers, as well as the Flag of Pittsburgh. Both the Pirates and Steelers had worn black and gold for decades,
and both were fresh off world championship seasons at that time. The Boston Bruins
protested this color change, claiming a monopoly on black and gold. The Penguins defended their choice stating that an
early hockey club in Pittsburgh also used black and gold as their team colors.
The NHL agreed, and Pittsburgh was allowed to use black and gold, a color scheme since adopted as well by the Anaheim Ducks when that team changed their uniforms in 2006.
On the ice, the Penguins began the 1980s with defenseman Randy Carlyle, and prolific
scorers Paul Gardner and Mike
Bullard, but little else.
During the 1982 playoffs, the Penguins held a 3-1 lead late in the fifth and final
game of their playoff series against the reigning champions, the New York Islanders.
However, the Islanders rallied to force overtime and won the series on a goal by John
Tonelli. It would be the Pens' final playoff appearance until 1989.
The team had the league's worst record in both the 1983 and 1984 seasons, and with the team suffering financial problems, it again looked as though the Penguins
would fold. But the reward for the dismal 83-84 season was the right to draft French Canadian phenomenon Mario Lemieux. Other teams offered substantial trade packages for the draft choice, but the Penguins kept
the pick.
The Mario Lemieux era: 1984-2004
Mario Lemieux played for the Penguins from 1984-94, 1995-97, 2000-06
With the first overall pick in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft Pittsburgh selected
Quebec Major Junior Hockey League superstar Mario Lemieux. He paid dividends right away, scoring on the first shot of his first shift in his first NHL
game. Some criticized Lemieux for neglecting his defensive responsibilities, but Pittsburgh was looking for offense.
Pittsburgh spent four more years out of the playoffs. In the late 80s, the Penguins finally gave Lemieux a strong supporting
cast, trading for superstar defenseman Paul Coffey from the Edmonton Oilers (after the Oilers' 1987 Stanley Cup win), and bringing in young talent such as scorers Kevin
Stevens, Rob Brown, and John Cullen
from the minors. And they finally acquired a top-flight goaltender with the acquisition of Tom
Barrasso from the Buffalo Sabres. The Pens made the playoffs, but lost in the
second round to their trans-Pennsylvania rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers. Though amassing 123 points, Lemieux missed 21 games in 1989-90 due to a herniated disk in his back, and the Pens slipped out of the playoff picture.
But in 1990-91, the Penguins reached the top of the standings. They drafted
Czech right-winger Jaromir Jagr in the
1990 NHL Entry Draft, the first player from his country to attend an NHL draft
without having to defect, and then paired with Mario Lemieux as the league's biggest
one-two scoring threat since Wayne Gretzky and Jari
Kurri on the Edmonton Oilers in the 1980s. Mark
Recchi arrived from the minors, and Bryan Trottier signed as a free agent.
Joe Mullen in a minor trade all set up these major trades that brought Larry Murphy, Ron Francis, and Ulf
Samuelsson to Pittsburgh. The Penguins finally became the league's best team, defeating the currently defunct
Minnesota North Stars in the Stanley Cup
finals in six games. 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 Lemieux was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. Only two months
after the diagnosis, his comeback was one of the league's great "feel-good" stories of all time, missing 24 out of 84 games, but
winning his fourth Art Ross Trophy as scoring champion with 160 points scored, edging
out Pat LaFontaine and Adam Oates for the award.
Despite the off-ice difficulties, Pittsburgh finished with a 56-21-7 record, winning the franchise's first (and still only)
Presidents' Trophy as the team with the most points in the regular season; the 119 points earned that year is still a franchise record. After Lemieux's return, the
team played better than it ever had before, winning an NHL-record 17 consecutive games before tying the New Jersey Devils in the final game of the season. Despite all of this success, they were still
eliminated in the second round by the New York Islanders in overtime of Game 7.
The first Penguins Stanley Cup banner.
The Penguins continued to be a formidable team throughout the 1990s. The stars of the Stanley
Cup years were followed by the likes of forwards Alexei Kovalev, Martin Straka, Aleksey Morozov, Robert Lang, and Petr Nedved, and defensemen
Sergei Zubov, Darius Kasparaitis, and
Kevin Hatcher,. Lemieux retired in 1997 and formally passed the torch to Jagr as the
league's leading scorer. Because of his legendary status, the Hockey Hall of Fame
waived its three-year waiting period and inducted him as an Honored Member in the same year he retired. When Gretzky retired two
years later, everyone amongst the list of NHL superstars who was expecting a full-steam-ahead Hall of Fame berth was
disappointed.
Despite a strong on-ice product, the Penguins were in the midst of a battle for their survival. Their free-spending ways
earlier in the decade came with a price — owners Howard Baldwin and Morris Belzberg had asked the players to defer their
salaries. When they finally came due, combined with other financial pressures, the Penguins were forced to file for Chapter 11
bankruptcy in November 1998--the second such filing
in franchise history. Just when it appeared that the Pens were about to either move or fold, Lemieux put together an ownership
group. He had become one of the team's principal creditors due to years of deferred salary, and was able to convert the money the
Penguins owed him into equity with the court's blessing. Just as he saved the franchise in 1984, he did it again.
He later shocked the hockey world by deciding to come back. He returned to the ice on December
27, 2000, becoming the first player-owner in NHL history. Lemieux helped lead
the Penguins deep into the 2001 playoffs, highlighted by an overtime victory against
the Buffalo Sabres in Game 7 of the second round. Kasparaitis scored the series-clinching
goal to advance the Penguins to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they lost in 5 games to the New Jersey Devils.
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 Kovalev to the New York Rangers the next season, quickly followed by
the departure of Lang in free agency. Unfortunately for the franchise, none of the prospects acquired for the stars' salary dumps
materialized into NHL stars. Thus, the Penguins spent the next several seasons in the NHL's basement.
2003 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, but he later showed his resolve with excellent goaltending for a last-place
club. Lemieux suffered a hip injury early in the season, and he sat out the rest of the season to recover. The Pens then traded
Straka away to the Los Angeles Kings and sent Fleury back to his junior team due to
further money problems. The Penguins finished with the worst NHL record, but lost the lottery for the 2004 NHL Entry Draft to the Washington Capitals.
The Penguins have suffered small-market syndrome for most of their existence, and cost-cutting prevented another collapse into
insolvency. 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.
Lockout season: 2004-05
With the 2004-05 NHL season cancelled due to the NHL lockout, several Penguins
signed with the club's American Hockey League affiliate Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, while experienced players like Aleksey Morozov and Milan Kraft honed their talents in the elite
European leagues.
The Sidney Crosby era: 2005-present
Sidney Crosby with the Penguins.
The Penguins won an unprecedented draft lottery in the summer of 2005, in which all thirty teams had weighted chances to win
the first overall pick of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft. The Penguins chose junior
league superstar Sidney Crosby from the Rimouski
Oceanic of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. With a new
Collective Bargaining Agreement signed by the owners and players to end the 2004-05 NHL
lockout, the Penguins began rebuilding the team under a salary cap. They signed big-name free agents Sergei Gonchar, John LeClair, and Zigmund Palffy, and traded for goaltender Jocelyn Thibault. The
team began the season with a long winless skid that resulted in a coaching change from Olczyk to Michel Therrien. Palffy announced his retirement due to a lingering shoulder injury while the team's
second-leading scorer. Then on January 24, 2006, Lemieux
announced his second retirement, this time for good, after developing an irregular heart
beat. He finished as the NHL's seventh all-time scorer (1,723), eighth in goals (690) and tenth in assists
(1,033).[3][4][5]
It was now, for all intents and purposes, Crosby's team, and on April 17, Crosby became the
youngest rookie in history to score 100 points. And 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. Despite a decent finish, the Penguins posted the worst
record of the Eastern Conference and the highest goals-against in the league.
The team announced on April 20 that the contract for General Manager Craig Patrick would not be renewed. Patrick had been GM since December 1989, and the Penguins won five
division titles and back-to-back Stanley Cups during his tenure. On May 25, Ray Shero signed a five-year contract as General Manager.
On October 18, 2006, young Russian superstar Evgeni Malkin scored a goal in his first NHL game, and
went on to set the modern NHL record with a goal in each of his first six games. Also contributing early to the 2006-07 season
was Jordan Staal, the third of four Staal brothers in hockey, who was the Penguins' first
pick (second overall) in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft. On February 27, 2007, the
Penguins acquired Gary Roberts from Florida and Georges Laraque from Phoenix.
The Penguins earned points in sixteen straight games of 14 wins and only 2 overtime losses in early 2007. The streak ended on
February 19 with a last-minute loss to the New York
Islanders. It was the second longest point streak in club history. [1]
The Penguins finished the 2006-07 season in fifth place in the Eastern Conference with a record of 47-24-11, totaling 105
points, only two points behind the division winner, New Jersey Devils.
Sidney Crosby won the Art Ross Trophy as the
NHL's top scorer with 120 points, amassing 36 goals and 86 assists, beating San Jose
Sharks' Joe Thornton by six points (Crosby's victory in the scoring race marked the
twelfth time in the past nineteen seasons that a Penguin has won the Art Ross Trophy). In the first round of the 2007 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Penguins were defeated four games to one, by the eventual
Stanley Cup finalists, the Ottawa Senators.
After the conclusion of the Penguins' season, the team announced that Sidney Crosby
would become the team's captain. This honour made him the youngest full team captain in NHL history at only 19 years old (In
January 1984, Brian Bellows of the Minnesota North
Stars was made captain at 5 months younger then Crosby, but he only served the latter half of the 1983-84 season replacing injured captain Craig Hartsburg).
He had been offered the position during the course of the season, but Crosby deferred stating that he did not want to mess with
the chemistry of the team while they were in the playoff hunt.
Possible relocation
The Penguins have had their tradition and success on the ice tempered with a shaky ownership group from time to time. As early
as the mid 1970s the ownership group experienced cash flow issues and sought to sell the team, even if it meant relocation. In
the mid 1980s, only a decade later, a similar financial situation faced the team. As recently as the 2006 and 2007 seasons the
franchise ownership sought alternatives that would provide a return on their investment. Various prospective owners sought to buy
the team, before the Lemieux group chose instead to keep ownership but move the team to the highest bidder. As in the mid 70s and
80s, the fanbase and local government officials were successful in persuading the ownership that Pittsburgh and its region were
capable of meeting the needs of a modern NHL team.
New arena agreement
On March 13th, 2007, in a joint announcement by Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, Allegheny County Executive
Dan Onorato, Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, and Mario
Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins ownership group, it was made public that an agreement had been reached between the
parties. A new state-of-the-art multi-purpose arena will be built. This agreement
will keep the Penguins in Pittsburgh for another thirty years. Following the announcement of this plan, the Lemieux ownership
group announced that they no longer have plans to sell the team.
On June 8th, 2007, a $325 million bond was issued and the Penguins signed a 30-year lease, binding the Penguins to the city of
Pittsburgh for the next 30 years.
On September 19, 2007, the Pittsburgh Penguins formally signed a lease agreement with the SEA that binds the team to the city
until 2040.
The new $290 million dollar arena is expected to open in time for the
2010-11 NHL season.[2]
Logos and Uniforms
The original Penguins logo (1967-68)
|
|
|
|
Pittsburgh's current logo; the Penguins logo from the 1972-1992 period, now with a Vegas gold triangle as opposed to
yellow.
|
Pittsburgh's alternate logo 2001-2007; the Penguins logo from 1992-2001 period, now with a Vegas gold triangle as opposed to
yellow.
|
With the exception of the 1992-2001 period, the Penguins have used a variation of the "Skating Penguin" logo since the team's
inception. For their inaugural season, the logo featured a hefty-looking skating penguin with a scarf, on a yellow triangle inside a circle reading "Pittsburgh Penguins". Feeling that the logo looked too
cartoonish, the team refined it the following season, removing the scarf and giving the penguin a sleeker, meaner look. The
circle encompassing the logo was removed in 1972.
This would remain unchanged until the 1992-1993 season, when the team unveiled new
uniforms and a new logo. The logo featured a modern-looking "flying penguin". Although the logo sruvived in various forms for 15
years, it received mixed responses from fans and was never as widely accepted as the "skating penguin" logo. Longtime
KDKA anchor Bill Burns even went as far as calling
the penguin in the logo "a pigeon."
After Mario Lemeiux (a personal fan of the "skating penguin" logo) purchased the team
from bankruptcy court in 1999, he announced plans to bring back the "skating penguin" logo. This occurred for the
2000-2001 season, when the team revived the logo (abliet with a "Vegas gold" triangle instead of yellow) on the chest of the team's new alternate jerseys. The following season, the logo became the primary logo, and the "flying penguin" logo
(also with a "Vegas gold" triangle instead of yellow) was relegated to secondary status, and only on the shoulders of the team's
jerseys, until it was quietly retired in 2007 when the team introduced their version of the Rbk
Edge uniforms.
The team's colors were originally powder blue and white. The shade of blue was later
changed to royal blue in 1972 and navy blue in 1977. As
mentioned before, the team adopted the current black & gold color scheme in January 1980, although like the Pirates (at the time) and Steelers, the shade of gold
more closely resembled yellow. The shade of gold was updated to Vegas gold in 2001.
The uniforms themselves have changed several times over the years. The original jerseys from the team's first season had a
diagonal script reading "Pittsburgh". Currently, only images of these uniforms survive. The uniforms themselves were discovered
nearly thrity years later in a garbage bag by a Civic Arena employee at the arena. Due the
years of neglect in the bag, the uniforms were damaged beyond repair. The following season, the team changed the Pittsburgh
script to the crest of the team's logo. Last names were added in 1970.
Until 1977, the team had some minor striping patterns on the jerseys change every few years. But in 1977, the team basically
adopted their longest-lasting uniform style to date and a style they would wear for the next 16 seasons, winning the
Stanley Cup twice in the process. When the colors were swapped from blue and white to black
and gold in 1980, the uniform patterns themselves remained unchanged. This was likely due to the fact that the change was made in
the middle of the season. From the 1981-1982 season to the 1984-1985 season, the team had a gold "Sunday" jersey, called
as such because the team only worn them on Sundays. This was a rare example of an NHL team having a third jersey before the rule allowing such jerseys was officially implemented in 1995.
After winning their second Stanley Cup in 1992, the team completely redesigned their
uniforms and introduced the "flying penguin" logo. The team's away uniforms were somewhat of a throwback to the team's first
season, as they revived the diagonal "Pittsburgh" script. In 1995, the team introduced their second alternate jersey, which was a black Penguins jersey with the team's logo and had blue accents, an obvious
throwback to the original team colors. This jersey would prove to be so popular that the team adopted it as their away jersey in
1997.
In 2000, the team unveiled yet another alternate jersey, the aforementioned black jersey
featuring the revival of the "skating penguin" logo. This would later prove to be a test to see how the revived logo would do
with fans, and the following season became the team's away uniform with a white version as the team's home jersey. (The jerseys
would swap places in 2003 as part of the league's initiative to have teams wear their darker jerseys in home games.) When the
Rbk Edge jerseys were unveiled for the 2007-2008
season leaguewide, the Penguins made some minor striping pattern changes and quietly removed the "flying penguin" logo
from the shoulders. They also added a "Pittsburgh 250" gold circular patch to the shoulders to commemorate the 250th birthday of
the city of Pittsburgh.
Season-by-season record
This is a partial list of the last five seasons completed by the Penguins. For the full season-by-season history, see
Pittsburgh Penguins seasons
Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime Losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA =
Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes
Records as of March 7th, 2007.[1][2]
| Season |
GP |
W |
L |
T³ |
OTL |
Pts |
GF |
GA |
PIM |
Finish |
Playoffs |
| 2001-02 |
82 |
28 |
41 |
8 |
5 |
69 |
198 |
249 |
1248 |
5th, Atlantic |
Did not qualify |
| 2002-03 |
82 |
27 |
44 |
6 |
5 |
65 |
189 |
255 |
1125 |
5th, Atlantic |
Did not qualify |
| 2003-04 |
82 |
23 |
47 |
8 |
4 |
58 |
190 |
303 |
1270 |
5th, Atlantic |
Did not qualify |
| 2004-05 |
Season cancelled due to 2004-05 NHL Lockout |
| 2005-06 |
82 |
22 |
46 |
— |
14 |
58 |
244 |
316 |
1539 |
5th, Atlantic |
Did not qualify |
| 2006-07 |
82 |
47 |
24 |
— |
11 |
105 |
277 |
246 |
|
2nd, Atlantic |
Lost in Conference Quarterfinals, 1-4 (Senators) |
- 1 As of the 2005-06 NHL season, all games will have a winner;
the OTL column includes SOL (Shootout losses).
Notable players
Current roster
As of October 4, 2007. [3]
|
Forwards
|
| # |
|
Player |
Position |
Shoots |
Acquired |
Place of Birth |
| 8 |
|
Mark Recchi – A |
RW |
L |
2006 |
Kamloops, British Columbia |
| 10 |
|
Gary Roberts – A |
LW |
L |
2007 |
North York, Ontario |
| 11 |
|
Jordan Staal |
C |
L |
2006 |
Thunder Bay, Ontario |
| 12 |
|
Ryan Malone |
LW |
L |
1999 |
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| 16 |
|
Erik Christensen |
C |
L |
2002 |
Edmonton, Alberta |
| 17 |
 |
Petr Sykora |
C |
L |
2007 |
Pilsen, Czechoslovakia |
| 18 |
|
Adam Hall |
RW |
R |
2007 |
Kalamazoo, Michigan |
| 20 |
|
Colby Armstrong |
RW |
R |
2001 |
Lloydminster, Saskatchewan |
| 25 |
|
Maxime Talbot |
C |
L |
2002 |
LeMoyne, Quebec |
| 27 |
|
Georges Laraque |
RW |
R |
2007 |
Montreal, Quebec |
| 37 |
 |
Jarkko Ruutu |
LW |
L |
2006 |
Helsinki, Finland |
| 71 |
 |
Evgeni Malkin |
LW |
L |
2004 |
Magnitogorsk, U.S.S.R. |
| 87 |
|
Sidney Crosby – C |
C |
L |
2005 |
Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia |
Hall of Famers
- Players
- Andy Bathgate, RW, 1967-71, inducted 1978
- Leo Boivin, D, 1967-69, inducted 1986
- Paul Coffey, D, 1987-92, inducted 2004
- Ron Francis, C, 1990-98, to be inducted 2007
- Tim Horton, D , 1971-72, inducted 1977
- Mario Lemieux, C, 1984-97 & 2000-06, inducted 1997
- Joe Mullen, RW, 1990-95 & 1996-97, inducted 2000
- Larry Murphy, D, 1990-95, inducted 2004
- Bryan Trottier, C, 1990-1992, 1993-94, inducted 1997
- Builders
- Scotty Bowman, Director of Player Development & Head Coach, 1990-1993, inducted
1991
- Bob Johnson, Head Coach, 1990-1991, inducted 1992
- Craig Patrick, GM & Head Coach, 1989-2006, inducted 2001
- Herb Brooks, Head Coach, 1999-2000, inducted 2006
- Other
Team captains
Retired numbers
- 21 Michel Briere, C, 1969-70, taken out of circulation following his death
(1971) but not officially retired until January 5, 2001
- 66 Mario Lemieux, C, 1984-94, 1995-97 & 2000-06, number retired
November 19, 1997; his number was "unretired" when he began
his comeback on December 27, 2000; number re-retired
October 5, 2006
- 99 Wayne Gretzky's number was retired league wide, by the NHL, February 6 2000
First Round Draft Picks
Franchise scoring leaders
These are the top-ten point-scorers in franchise history. Figures are updated after each completed NHL regular season.
Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games Played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game; * = current
Penguins player
