Penguins Quarter-Century Team Announced; Debate Begins

A couple names are obvious, by any measure, but surely there is at least some room for debate about who should be on the Pittsburgh Penguins’ quarter-century teams.

In fact, the NHL — which released its picks for those players Thursday as the league rolls out quarter-century teams for all its franchises in an exercise to celebrate the top players who have played in games since Jan. 1, 2000 – said in its original press release that it expects and encourages fan debate.

Each club’s picks include first and second teams, each consisting of three forwards, two defensemen and one goaltender, as selected by a panel of local and national media, retired players and executives. Dave Molinari of Pittsburgh Hockey Now was among those asked to vote for players for the Penguins’ quarter-century teams.

Without further delay, here are the Penguins’ quarter-century teams:

First team – Forwards Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jake Guentzel; defensemen Kris Letang, Sergei Gonchar; goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.

Second team – Forwards Mario Lemieux, Phil Kessel, Chris Kunitz; defensemen Brian Dumoulin, Brooks Orpik; goaltender Matt Murray.

OK, we all knew Crosby would top the list. Beyond that, what do you think of the picks? You can read the NHL’s analysis of the choices here.

Is there any player who got left out? Bryan Rust, Pascal Dupuis, Jordan Staal, Patric Hornqvist, Bill Guerin among the forwards? Marcus Pettersson among the defensemen? If you think someone was left off, who would you omit from the teams that were named?

Should Lemieux be on the first team? The bulk of his career was before 2000. Lemieux came out of retirement in December 2000 and played in 170 games before retiring for good during 2005-06, Crosby’s rookie season. Lemieux had 77 goals, 229 points in this century.

You can use the comments section below to offer your take and let the debate begin.

The team-by-team rollout of quarter-century teams is the first step in the NHL’s initiative. From Feb. 12-26, there will be a league-wide fan vote to determine the league’s overall top 25 players, regardless of position, from the past 25 years. The voting will take place on nhl.com and on X (formerly Twitter).

Only players selected for the teams’ quarter-century teams will be eligible for the league-wide vote. The 25 players that make the NHL all-quarter-century club will be unveiled at a date to be determined.