Tribute What would your all time Penguins team look like?

[Peat]

Maybe I'd feel different if I knew my history better, but I find the lack of Dumoulin disturbing.

 

[Al Smith]

I’ve got him on third pair. What I consider top 4 are a level above him. On the others, I’d put Dumo ahead of Zubov because Z wasn’t here very long before Mario supposedly ran him out of town. I’d also put him ahead of Carlyle because I just never was that impressed with him on the defensive side, although the media gave him the Norris (he wasn’t close to Potvin or Robinson). I’d also put Dumo ahead of Ulfie, who really had that iconic series in 91 against the Bruins, but wasn’t Dumo good otherwise, at least in my opinion.

 

[The Great Mighty Poo]

Kevin Stevens-Mario Lemieux-Jaromir Jagr
Evgeni Malkin-Sidney Crosby-Mark Recchi
Bob Errey-Ron Francis-Joe Mullen
?Chris Kunitz I guess?-Bryan Trottier-Alexei Kovalev

Paul Coffey-Larry Murray
Ulf Samuelsson-Kris Letang
Darius Kasparaitis-Sergei Gonchar
Extras:
F: Tomas Sandstrom, Patric Hornqvist, Ryan Malone
D: Kjell Samuelsson, Brian Dumoulin
Goalies:
Matt Murray
?Kenny Wregget?

3rd Goalie:
?Johan Hedberg or Tristen Jarry I guess?

Solid mix of skill and sandpaper on every line. And some of my favorite guys to pass through town.

HM to Marty Straka.

 

[The Great Mighty Poo]

Wregs gets my nod on any all time list just due to his Batman Returns mask, also was probably the best back up we ever had, also him coming off the bench cold in the 4 OT game while stopping a frigging penalty shot in the 2nd OT, not many goalies can say they've done that.

 

[ziggyjoe212]

Stevens Lemieux Jagr
Recchi Crosby Kessel
Tocchet Malkin Kovalev
Kehoe Francis Mullen

Letang-Carlyle
Coffey- Murphy
Gonchar- Dumoulin

Fleury
Murray

This is an incredible amount of high end talent considering almost all of them played here in the last 30 years.

HM to Kovalev, Straka, Kunitz, Pronovost, Guentzel, Barrasso

 

[NeedleInTheHay]

It’s pretty incredible our current 40 goal scorer doesn’t even sniff most of these lists.

 

[The Great Mighty Poo]

It’s pretty incredible our current 40 goal scorer doesn’t even sniff most of these lists.

In about 5 or 10 more years, it'll be really interesting to see where Jake fits in all time lists. Of course you'll have the outsiders ' HURRRRRRRRRRRRR DUUUUUUUUURRRRRR HE PLAYED WITH TEH CROZBY ANDZ MALKINZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111111111" crowd.

 

[Pens1566]

In about 5 or 10 more years, it'll be really interesting to see where Jake fits in all time lists. Of course you'll have the outsiders ' HURRRRRRRRRRRRR DUUUUUUUUURRRRRR HE PLAYED WITH TEH CROZBY ANDZ MALKINZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111111111" crowd.

Right. He's still missing either the longevity or league-wide recognition to pass some of the other more obvious candidates everyone is listing. Could have made an argument for Robbie Brown after 4 years too. Not that I think Jake == Brown.

 

[dogthateats]

Kevin Stevens-Mario Lemieux-Jaromir Jagr
Evgeni Malkin-Sidney Crosby-Mark Recchi
Bob Errey-Ron Francis-Joe Mullen
?Chris Kunitz I guess?-Bryan Trottier-Alexei Kovalev

Paul Coffey-Larry Murray
Ulf Samuelsson-Kris Letang
Darius Kasparaitis-Sergei Gonchar
Extras:
F: Tomas Sandstrom, Patric Hornqvist, Ryan Malone
D: Kjell Samuelsson, Brian Dumoulin
Goalies:
Matt Murray
?Kenny Wregget?

3rd Goalie:
?Johan Hedberg or Tristen Jarry I guess?

Solid mix of skill and sandpaper on every line. And some of my favorite guys to pass through town.

HM to Marty Straka.

Are you related to Bob Errey?

 

[The Great Mighty Poo]

Are you related to Bob Errey?

I just liked him as a player, small, speedy little pest, I too was that when I played in high school.

 

[The Great Mighty Poo]

Also as a little guy I have a soft spot for the little guys.

 

[The Old Master]

I’ve got him on third pair. What I consider top 4 are a level above him. On the others, I’d put Dumo ahead of Zubov because Z wasn’t here very long before Mario supposedly ran him out of town. I’d also put him ahead of Carlyle because I just never was that impressed with him on the defensive side, although the media gave him the Norris (he wasn’t close to Potvin or Robinson). I’d also put Dumo ahead of Ulfie, who really had that iconic series in 91 against the Bruins, but wasn’t Dumo good otherwise, at least in my opinion.

zubov is a tough one..... hard to rate a guy that flat out refused to shoot the puck.

 

[The Great Mighty Poo]

zubov is a tough one..... hard to rate a guy that flat out refused to shoot the puck.

...Didn't he also refuse or just not use the showers at the Civic Arena, or some bizarre thing like that? I vaguely remember hearing that somewhere.

 

[Crosbyfan]

The issue is are we saying “any player that played with the Pens at their prime” or are we saying “any player playing the way they did as a Penguin” that really changes a ton of the arguments.

Agree. If not the guy in my avatar should be on everyone's list.

 

[Al Smith]

Agree. If not the guy in my avatar should be on everyone's list.

Yeah, Bathgate had an awesome career. But the Pens got lots of over-the-hill guys like him. Just start with the list of over-the-hill players the Flyers sloughed off on us, like Orest Kindrachuk (although he was OK with the Pens), Ross Lonsberry, and Dave Schultz, predominantly for high draft picks if I remember correctly. Then there was Bathgate, Eddie Shack, Pete Mahovlich, the list goes on. Man, the 70s and early 80s were some dark days.

 

[Doctor Talbotnik]

Kevin Stevens | Mario Lemieux | Jaromir Jagr
Evgeni Malkin | Sidney Crosby | Mark Recchi
Alexei Kovalev | Ron Francis | Joe Mullen
Martin Straka | Bryan Trottier | Phil Kessel

Paul Coffey | Larry Murray
Sergei Gonchar | Kris Letang
Darius Kasparaitis | Ulf Samuelsson

MAF
Barrasso

 

[gopens66]

Penguins are a cup team so I'll build my all-time-team for one that competes in the playoffs.

Lemieux - Crosby - Recchi
Stevens - Malkin - Jagr
Guentzel - Bonino - Kessel
Cooke - Staal - Hossa
Francis

Samuelsson - Scuderi
Orpik
.

I don't mean to be harsh, buuuttttt ........there is no universe where Francis should be sitting for Bonino or Staal. Ever. Ron Francis is the smartest player I've ever seen and has boatloads of more talent than either of those guys. He's a far better scorer and 200' player. It's just frankly unthinkable. I don't know your age, but I guess there's a chance you never really got to watch him play each night.

Ditto with Brooks and Scuds over Larry Murphy. Murphy is the most reliable defenseman the Pens ever had. He's also quite possibly the most under-hyped player in NHL history.

As far as moving Mario to wing, I just think that's absurd! He's arguably the best player to ever play and at the time he moved to wing he was not exactly in his prime. Still tremendous, but I want him at center. Lemieux, Sid, Geno, and Francis, you just can't go wrong there. lol

We have enough quality wings where by our centers wouldn't get short changed. And yes you can't leave Kovalev or Hossa out.

I get where you're coming from and it's hard to argue with. However, the Skyline was freaking awesome. Lemieux and Francis were both excellent at face-offs and it afforded Lemieux to basically play his PP spot in the o-zone. Francis handled the defensive responsibilities as well as being a great finisher himself. Oh, and then there's prime Jagr over there.

I'll give it my shot:

Lemieux-Francis-Jagr
Stevens-Crosby-Tocchet
Mullen-Malkin-Kovalev
Kunitz - Trottier- Recchi

13th F- Barnaby (just for entertainment value)

Coffey-Letang
Gonchar-Murphy
Samuelsson-Carlyle
Dumoulin (I know, a bunch of lefties at the bottom)

Barrasso
Fleury (either order)

 

[888 98 twins]

Picking the team, based on their time spent here, I'd go into a playoff series with:

Stevens-Lemieux-Jagr
Malkin-Crosby-Hossa
Kessel-Francis-Tocchet
Recchi-Trottier-Mullen
Straka-Lang-Kovalev (Only carry 6 D so I can have this all-time great line on speed dial)

Coffey-Murphy
Carlyle-Letang
Orpik-Gonchar


Murray
Barrasso

 

[JTG]

As far as moving Mario to wing, I just think that's absurd! He's arguably the best player to ever play and at the time he moved to wing he was not exactly in his prime. Still tremendous, but I want him at center. Lemieux, Sid, Geno, and Francis, you just can't go wrong there. lol

We have enough quality wings where by our centers wouldn't get short changed. And yes you can't leave Kovalev or Hossa out.

No one is really "moving" him to wing. He played a ton of wing because it was easier on his back and his production never dipped because of it. Every player would want to be a centerman because you are all over the ice, but it never seemed like Lemieux minded playing wing because he would see the puck a ton and he never had to hump back to play defense and he could cherrypick a bit. Then you give him Jagr and it was like a day at the playground for him.

 

[JTG]

The only player I feel somewhat conflicted leaving off of my list is Joe Mullen, but if it is between Recchi and Mullen, I have to take Recchi as much as it hurts.

 

[JTG]

Maybe I'd feel different if I knew my history better, but I find the lack of Dumoulin disturbing.

I agree with that for the people who are putting Ulf.

 

[BHD]

Has Dumo been that good to be mentioned in the OP? Seems like recency bias to me.

 

[Scandale du Jour]

I want Coffey/Letang as my top pairing. I think it's an ultimate pairing. Letang can shut down. Coffey can control play. I want to see those 2 together 100%.

Then easily run your Centers:
Lemieux
Crosby
Malkin
Francis


Build around there - you will dominate.

I might be late to the party, but any other franchise has that kind of center depth? OMG!

We have like 3 top 20 centers of all time... and another HOFer

 

[Don'tcry4mejanhrdina]

Has Dumo been that good to be mentioned in the OP? Seems like recency bias to me.

Ask (knowledgable) fans of other teams how they feel about Dumo. He's legitimately a very, very good shutdown D. If he was physical he'd get a lot more praise league wide. There's no way a guy like Kasparaitis should be on the list over him. He plays against the top competition and how often have you said to yourself "what an awful play by Dumoulin" during an entire season? It's pretty rare.

 

[Peat]

Has Dumo been that good to be mentioned in the OP? Seems like recency bias to me.

To me, Dumo is the beau ideal of a shutdown dman right now. There's a very short list of dmen playing today I'd rather have in front of him in a defensive situation. There's a pretty legit question about whether he has the offensive chops to be considered for an all-time team ahead of more all round dmen but I think that a) he's demonstrated the ability to make the simple clever plays to more offensively gifted guys that means his own lack of high end skill never holds the team back and b) I've seen a few d-first guys in various people's teams and I'm not sure they were better in their era than Dumo was in his.

While I'm advancing the case of recency bias, nobody's been a better 5v5 goal scorer as a Penguin in the last decade than Jake Guentzel (and I do mean nobody) and while I have no way of easily measuring that against all Penguins ever, I'm guessing he's top 5 at worse. He's also top 3 for goals per game in the playoffs as a Penguin ever, behind only Mario and Hossa. Maybe we've really had 4 better left wingers but I doubt it, particularly if you stop thinking of it as "best players ever" and more as "best possible team", because once you do the latter I'm guessing the Power Play accomplishments of everyone other than Mario, Jagr, Sid and Geno are borderline irrelevant