The Pittsburgh Penguins‘ organizational history has a plethora of great players, and we’ve decided to go through the best Penguins’ players to wear each jersey number. Today, we continue the list by naming the best #66 in Penguins’ history.
There has been only one player in Penguins’ history to wear #66, and this one doesn’t require explanation.
Here is your tribute to “Super Mario.”
If there was ever a true “tank” in Penguins’ history, it was during the 1983-84 season leading up to the NHL Entry Draft in 1984. The Penguins – and many other teams – vyed for last place to draft a once-in-a-lifetime phenom out of Montreal.
Many teams tried offering the Penguins a lot of shiny toys for that draft pick. But they weren’t giving up the chance to draft “Le Magnifique,” Mario Lemieux.
And Lemieux didn’t take long to make an impact: He scored on his very first shot on his very first NHL shift, and he went on to register 43 goals and 100 points in 73 games during his rookie season:
Lemieux went on to achieve great things with Pittsburgh. As a team started to build around him in the late-80s and early 90s, he only got better and better.
He led the Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1991 and 1992, with moments that included his iconic goal against the Minnesota North Stars in 1991 and this one from 1992, which was the game-winner in Game 1 against the Chicago Blackhawks. The Penguins went on to sweep the series:
Over the course of both playoff runs, Lemieux registered 32 goals and 78 points in just 38 games.
Unfortunately for Lemieux, his health did not hold up in the years following the Cup runs, and even during the Cup years, as he missed 50 games during the 1990-91 season because of a herniated disk in his back. Then, on January 12, 1993, he revealed his diagnosis of Hodgkin lymphoma, causing him to miss two months because of radiation treatments. He returned at the end of the season on his final day of treatment against the Philadelphia Flyers and got an ovation from the rival crowd:
He had another back surgery in the summer of 1993, and he ended up missing significant portions of that season as well as the entire 1994-95 season. He finally announced his retirement at the end of the 1996-97 season to focus on his health and his family.
However – as all Penguins fans know – he was determined to come back. After four years, he returned to the NHL on December 27, 2000, and made a statement in typical Lemieux fashion:
After the lockout, Lemieux got the chance to play with new phenom Sidney Crosby briefly before retiring for good on January 26, 2006, due to an irregular heartbeat. As a player and as an owner – he became majority owner of the team in 1999, saved the team from bankruptcy and moving cities twice, and sold the team to Fenway Sports Group in 2021 – Lemieux has won five Stanley Cups.
Over the course of his storied, remarkable NHL career, Lemieux registered 690 goals and 1,723 points in just 915 games.
