Ron Stackhouse played four and a half years in the NHL (with the California Golden Seals and Detroit Red Wings) before he was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins during the 1973-74 Season.  It was in Western Pennsylvania where he really found his groove.

Rick Kehoe was one of the few bright spots in some awful Pittsburgh Penguins teams of the late 70s and early 80s.

Kevin Stevens played the first half of his NHL career with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and it was in the Steel City where he easily had his best success.

Paul Coffey will always be known for what he did in Edmonton, but if you were to come up with a second team for Coffey (he actually played for nine NHL teams), it should be the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Tom Barrasso may not have been the most likable person, but make no mistake, this is a Goaltender who is Hall of Fame worthy, mainly due to his accomplishments in Pittsburgh.

Let's get this out of the way before we discuss more of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the pre-Mario Lemieux era: They were not very good.  They would struggle annually to make the post-season and did not elicit excitement among hockey fans anywhere in the country, let alone in Western Pennsylvania.

When Ron Francis retired, he was second all-time in Assists with 1,249.  It needs to be mentioned that 449 of them came as a Pittsburgh Penguin.

Alex Kovalev played 365 games with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and he first arrived when he was traded from the New York Rangers in November of 1998.  The Russian Right Winger would score 95 Points in 2000-01, which would be a career-high.  Kovalev followed that with a 76 Point campaign and then would have 64 Points in 54 Games before he was traded back to the Rangers.

Larry Murphy played for six teams in his career in the National Hockey League, and it was with the Pittsburgh Penguins where he had his biggest batch of success.

Rob Brown began his NHL career with Pittsburgh when the 4^th Rounder debuted for the big club the year after.  Brown had a good rookie year, scoring 44 points.  The following season, he was on a line with Mario Lemieux and took advantage of the golden opportunity.

The Los Angeles Kings claimed Lowell MacDonald in the Intra-League Draft, and realistically, there was no reason to believe that when the Penguins chose him, he would become a productive NHL player.  That being said, his was the strange expansion world of the 1970s, and that is precisely what he would become.  

Although he was a proven scorer with the Maple Leafs, he was not a fan-favorite in Toronto. As the Leafs were looking to rebuild anyway, Kessel was shopped around in the summer of 2015.  They found a taker in Pittsburgh, and it turned out to be one of the smartest transactions that the Penguins ever made.

Mark Recchi began his career with the Pittsburgh Penguins, where the fourth round pick immediately exceeded expectations.  The Right Wing would have 67 Points in his first full season with the Pens (1989-90) and would break out with a 113 Point campaign, helping Pittsburgh win its first Stanley Cup.  The following year was a little bittersweet as he was traded late in the season to Philadelphia in a blockbuster trade.  Recchi was named a Second Team All-Star that year, but the Penguins would win their second Stanley Cup that year.

Kris Letang has to date spent his entire professional hockey career with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the organization has to be thrilled with the return on their 2005 Third Round Pick.  

Placing Jaromir Jagr only at number three seems so strange considering all that he accomplished there, but don’t think of this as a slight on Jagr. We ask you to view it as a testament to what Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby accomplished over their careers, and Jagr was only with Pittsburgh for roughly half of his career.  But what a half it was!

The city of Pittsburgh should erect as many statues as possible of Mario Lemieux.  If it weren’t for him, there is a good chance that the Pittsburgh Penguins would not exist today.  The Penguins did not draw well, and they were more often than not on the losing end, but everything changed when "Super Mario" was drafted first overall in the 1984 Draft.

Marc-Andre Fleury, the First Overall Draft Pick of 2003, would actually start in net for the Pittsburgh Penguins that year as an 18-year-old, making him the youngest ever to jump in between the pipes.  He improved annually and became the starting Goalie in the Pens' Stanley Cup Championship in 2009.  While he was not a threat for the Vezina as a Penguin, he was a steady presence for Pittsburgh and a definite asset for them as they made their Championship runs.  He would help Pittsburgh win the 2016 Cup (though played sparingly due to post-concussion syndrome) and again in 2017, where he backstopped them to their fifth Championship.  

The Pittsburgh Penguins chose Evgeni Malkin with the second overall pick in 2004, but due to a transfer dispute between the NHL and the IIHF, Malkin could not report until the 2006/07 season.  The Russian star was worth the wait!

The Pittsburgh Penguins won the lottery to draft Sidney Crosby, who lived up to all of the enormous expectations that were placed upon him, and it took him no time to do it.  As a rookie, Crosby scored 102 Points and missed out on the Calder to Alex Ovechkin of the Capitals, a rivalry that still exists to this day.  Crosby would have no sophomore jinx with a 120 Point campaign, a Hart Trophy, A Ted Lindsay Award, an Art Ross Trophy, and, more importantly, a Stanley Cup Ring.