It is hard for many fans of the Pittsburgh Penguins to imagine this now but for many years in the pre Mario Lemieux era Western Pennsylvania did not have a very good professional hockey team and they almost lost their franchise.  One of the few bright spots of the Pens was Rick Kehoe who was a two time All Star (1981 & 1983), a former 50 Goal scorer and a three-time franchise leader in Points.  The Lady Byng Trophy winner in 1981 would score 767 Points over his career and would have had an outside shot at 1,000 had he not suffered a career ending neck injury in the 1984/85 season.

Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team.  We have a new one to unveil today, that of the Pittsburgh Penguins. 

The Pittsburgh Penguins were part of the first wave of expansion in 1967, and they were off to a horrible start.  When they did make the playoffs, they were often bounced early, and fans grew tired. By 1983, the Penguins were close to folding or relocation, but then the words happened: 

Mario Lemieux.

Lemieux became an instant superstar and a must-watch team.  His existence saved the franchise, and with the addition of Jaromir Jagr and other stars, the Penguins won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1991 and 1992. 

Years later, with the Penguins in financial trouble again, Lemieux would buy the team and save it the organization from the same fate it had years before.  With the top pick in 2005, they chose Sidney Crosby, and with him and later Evgeni Malkin, the Penguins would win the Stanley Cup in 2009, 2016 and 2017.

As for all of our top 50 players in hockey we look at the following: 

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2. Traditional statistics and how they finished in the NHL.

3. Playoff accomplishments.

4. Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

Remember, this is ONLY based on what a player does on that particular team and not what he accomplished elsewhere and also note that we have placed an increased importance on the first two categories.

This list is updated up until the end of the 2018-19 Season.

The complete list can be found here, but as always we announce our top five in this article.  They are:

1. Mario Lemieux

2. Sidney Crosby

3. Jaromir Jagr

4. Evgeni Malkin

5. Marc-Andre Fleury

We will continue our adjustments on our existing lists and will continue developing our new lists.  

Look for our All-Time Top 50 Chicago Cubs coming next!

As always we thank you for your support.

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