NHL Unveils Penguins Quarter-Century Team: Who Made Cut?

The NHL is honoring its best players over the last 25 years by selecting a Quarter-Century team for each franchise. The Pittsburgh Penguins’ lineup was revealed by the league on Thursday night.

Featuring a first- and second-team of three forwards, two defensemen and one goalie, all players considered had to have appeared in a game for their respective franchise since Jan. 1, 2000.

Here’s who made the cut for the Penguins.

FIRST TEAM
Forwards: Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel, Evgeni Malkin
Defensemen: Sergei Gonchar, Kris Letang
Goalie: Marc-Andre Fleury

SECOND TEAM
Forwards: Phil Kessel, Chris Kunitz, Mario Lemieux
Defensemen: Brian Dumoulin, Brooks Orpik
Goalie: Matt Murray

Crosby and Malkin headlining the first-team’s forwards was pretty much a given. The two franchise generational players guided the Penguins to three Stanley Cup titles in 2009, 2016 and 2017. They’ve suited up for a combined 2,501 games for Pittsburgh and rank second and third all-time in goals and points in franchise history.

Along with the future Hall of Famers Crosby and Malkin, Letang is the other Penguins player who is a pillar for the franchise. Letang has been manning the blue line for 19 seasons and leads all defensemen in franchise history in games played (1,124), goals (173), assists (585) and points (758).

While it’s hard to argue with the names on the list, Lemieux being second-team in anything feels off the mark. Lemieux played in just 170 games from 2000, when he came out of retirement, through 2005-06, Crosby’s rookie year. Over that span, he scored 77 goals with 152 assists, averaging 1.35 points.

Lemieux is the leader in goals (690) and points (1,723) in franchise history. It’s odd that Guentzel, with just 466 points across eight seasons with the Penguins would be on the first team instead of Lemieux. Maybe being a two-time 40-goal scorer made the difference in the league’s eyes.

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