Pittsburgh Penguins

Lore & Background

Founded during the 1967 expansion, the Penguins have qualified for six Stanley Cup Finals, winning the Stanley Cup five times – in 1991, 1992, 2009, 2016, and 2017. Along with the Edmonton Oilers, the Penguins are tied for the most Stanley Cup championships among the non-Original Six teams and sixth overall. With their Stanley Cup wins in 2016 and 2017, the Penguins became the first back-to-back champions in the salary cap era. Several of the team's former members have been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, including co-owner Mario Lemieux, who purchased the Penguins in 1999 and brought the club out of bankruptcy. Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Sidney Crosby, and Evgeni Malkin have won the Hart Memorial Trophy while playing for the franchise.

In Their Own Story

The arena lights hum to life over a sea of black and gold. A Blue Jackets fan in the third row, scarf pulled tight, watches the Penguins warm up on the ice. Crosby skates in a slow figure-eight, stick dragging, the blade whispering against the frozen surface. The crowd noise swells—not a roar, a low, sustained pressure, like a furnace banked and waiting. The Jackets' captain drops the puck at center ice, and for two minutes the game is a war of elbows and board checks, the kind of physical chess match that only a Metropolitan Division rivalry can produce. A Penguins winger goes down, gets up, spits, and goes again. The Jackets' fan lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding. This is what it means. Not the score. The fact that they are in the same fight, on the same ice, and neither side will blink first.

Reader's Guide

The Penguins' early years (1967–1984) included their first playoff berth in 1970, led by rookie Michel Briere, who suffered a fatal car crash shortly after the playoffs. The team faced bankruptcy in the mid-1970s. The franchise's history includes playing at the Civic Arena from 1967 to 2010 before moving to PPG Paints Arena.

Did You Know?

• The Penguins' nickname was chosen from 26,000 entries in a contest; the winning entry was inspired by the team playing in the 'Igloo' (Civic Arena).
• Michel Briere's number 21 jersey was never reissued after his accident and was formally retired in 2001.
• The Penguins became the first back-to-back Stanley Cup champions in the salary cap era, winning in 2016 and 2017.