The 4 Big Turning Points of the Penguins Core Three

For nearly 20 years, the Pittsburgh Penguins core has come to define the franchise. Perhaps even more so than former owner Mario Lemieux and the near-dynasty of the early 1990s, the core three has built a multi-generational fanbase, beginning with parties surrounded by a renewed and young fanbase that fell in love with the team and the game after paying $10 for tickets as part of a student rush program. The Penguins’ trio has forged a cast iron fanbase that is not dependent on a star player.

In his early days, even Sidney Crosby made the occasional appearance to hang out with the party crowd at Mario’s Saloon on the Southside.

Make no mistake, the acquisition of the players was more luck or fate than shrewd scouting. The team had to stink to get the high picks, but the ping-pong balls of the NHL Draft Lottery also bounced the right way. The team had a less than 7% chance of getting the first overall pick in the 2005 Draft to select Crosby.

And when the Penguins didn’t have luck, they made their own. Former GM Craig Patrick swung a draft-day deal with the Florida Panthers in 2003, moving up from the third overall pick to first overall to snag goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who became the organization’s original cornerstone.

A year later, the Penguins lost out on first-pick Alex Ovechkin, instead getting Evgeni Malkin at No. 2. The sharp piece of drafting came in 2005 when Patrick used his third-round selection to draft a small defenseman who had wowed Team Canada: Kris Letang.

Crosby, Malkin, Letang, Fleury, and 2006 second-overall pick Jordan Staal were barely or not yet 21 and surrounded by fans, rock-ribbed veterans, and a few guys who very much enjoyed the raucous communion with fans (we’re looking at you, Max Talbot). On the ice, the game was evolving away from the grotesque clutch-and-grab era of large, cement-headed, and slow-footed defensemen, and there was no better team to take advantage of the explosive new hockey era.

Where has the time gone?

After being lost to the Expansion Draft in 2017, Fleury is preparing for his final season, dressing for his fourth franchise, the Minnesota Wild. After requesting a trade in 2012 to get a greater role with a new team, Staal is winding down his career with the Carolina Hurricanes. But Crosby, Malkin, and Letang are still together and are the longest-serving trio in North American pro sports history.

Crosby, Malkin, and Letang amassed three Stanley Cups (all with Fleury), a trophy cabinet full of individual awards, and have otherwise been Penguins for so long that even some of the paying faithful are wistfully looking forward to the next rebuild.

As the 2024-25 NHL season approaches, it will be Crosby’s 20th campaign, one more than Malkin, who bolted Russia via a Finnish airport escape and clandestine operation to play in the 2006-07 season.

“Three years, Super League” is why Malkin famously follows Crosby as the last out of the tunnel for warmups.

Not every collection of high draft picks becomes great players. See also: Edmonton Oilers. And not every collection of great players who comprise the core of a franchise wins Stanley Cups. See also: Edmonton Oilers. Yet this Penguins’ core got to the promised land thrice.

From there to here, as Penguins and president of hockey operations/GM Kyle Dubas straddles the line between supporting the current roster and rebuilding, there have been more than a few twists and pivotal moments without which the next steps would have been very different.

From the fortuitous draft days to the seminal moments that changed hockey history, these are the four moments that changed the Penguins’ core and franchise.

Penguins Core Turning Points

1. Bill Guerin

Something weird happened at the 2008-09 NHL trade deadline. The year before, then-GM Ray Shero pulled a master stroke and acquired All-Star and future Hall of Fame winger Marian Hossa. There could be no greater get at the trade deadline, but the group was slow to form, and the Penguins lost in the Stanley Cup Final to the Detroit Red Wings.

Hossa left via free agency, breaking hearts as he signed with … Detroit.

At the 2009 deadline, Shero acquired aging winger Bill Guerin, who was on his final tour of the league after 16 seasons spread over numerous teams, including Edmonton, Boston, and St. Louis. He sported a shiny Stanley Cup ring from the 1994-95 New Jersey Devils but was at the end of his career, and his offensive totals were dropping fast with the New York Islanders.

The Penguins got him for merely a conditional fifth-round pick.

Guerin was a major factor in the roster revitalization. The season was a slog as friction with head coach Michel Therrien led to a coaching change, and it seemed the Penguins had missed their chance.

However, fans instinctively embraced Guerin as a missing piece, holding signs and rocking the arena for him immediately upon his arrival. He wasn’t treated as a washed-up veteran but as one of the core. Guerin didn’t just provide a spark. It was a fireworks show.

And you know the rest. It wasn’t a placid Hall of Famer the core needed to reach the pinnacle; it was a chop-busting, big-personality winger who found his stride and the adoration of fans for one more moment in the sun.

2. Firing Dan Bylsma … to Hiring Mike Sullivan.

After the Penguins’ first Stanley Cup victory, many more were assumed. But those never came. The upstart Montreal Canadiens upset them in the 2010 second round. After their 2009 Cup, they didn’t reach the Eastern Conference Final again until 2013, when the Boston Bruins rudely swept them.

The core and team had become petulant. Bad penalties and frustration were common. Despite a roster worthy of more, the team self-destructed, including a wild playoff loss to the Philadelphia Flyers in 2012 and ultimately blowing a 3-1 series lead to the New York Rangers in 2014.

They were aimlessly adrift, slipping further and further away from the Cup, yet Bylsma remained behind the bench through the inexplicable losses and vexing disappointments.

The Penguins battled themselves as much as they battled opponents. The situation wasn’t resolved immediately, but the first and most important step was taken after the 2013-14 season when Shero and Bylsma were terminated. The team struggled to find a general manager before Carolina Hurricanes president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford stepped forward. And they struggled to find a coach, famously making an offer to a candidate (Willie Desjardins) who promptly left town to accept the Vancouver Canucks job.

Eventually, Portland Winterhawks coach and former NHL assistant Mike Johnston was tabbed. He did little to solve the problems, but a bit more than a year later, he gave way to current coach Mike Sullivan.

Sullivan commanded the roster, including the core. No one will ever forget Sullivan bellowing to Malkin to “Shut the f*** up” during a game later in the 2015-16 season, as Malkin was whining to the referees.

Sullivan got the group in line, revitalized the team, and changed the league with his tactical speed game. Two Stanley Cups quickly followed.

2. Trading MA Fleury

After back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016 and ’17, it was the end of the core four. Young goalie Matt Murray was elbowing past Fleury on the depth chart, and Sullivan liked Murray’s cool demeanor. Murray held the net for all but one game in the 2016 run and took over in the Conference Final of 2017.

Technically, the Penguins traded Fleury to the Vegas Golden Knights by attaching a second-round pick to ensure Vegas would select him in the Expansion Draft.

Fleury was inexorably tied to the locker room and the core group. He was instrumental in the 2017 Cup run, perhaps stealing the Round Two series against the Washington Capitals.

With him went a big piece of the Penguin’s heart. Statistics and logic don’t really apply here. The Penguins have won just one playoff series since they traded Fleury. He led the expansion Vegas team to the Stanley Cup Final in 2018 and became the face of the franchise, quickly establishing a rabidly loyal and loud fanbase for the entire team.

The Penguins have struggled to replace that heart … seven years running.

1. Ron Hextall and Contracts

The final turning point in the core three was, ironically, the few weeks and the GM who kept them together.

With the biggest breakup looming since the Beatles walked out of the Abbey Road Studios for the final time (Ok, slight exaggeration), then-GM Ron Hextall and the organization buckled in the final weeks before free agency. Hextall delivered a six-year deal to the 35-year-old Letang and a four-year deal to the soon-to-be 36-year-old Malkin.

The deal for Malkin was weeks in the making, and it seemed both sides had given up. Sources told multiple outlets, including Pittsburgh Hockey Now, that Malkin would become a free agent.

Letang later admitted, with some help from his young son, whom he brought to the press conference, that his family had been evaluating new cities.

The end of the core was at hand. The contracts were poorly structured, at least for the organization, as Hextall made the deals ironclad 35+ contracts by including signing bonuses at the beginning of the deals and including full no-movement clauses.

The group has performed remarkably over the past few seasons. Crosby and Malkin have played in all 82 games for two seasons running, which is the first time in their careers that has happened. Yet the team has floundered, missing the playoffs in consecutive seasons.

One wonders what would have happened if Malkin or Letang had not signed, where they would have gone, and what the team would have felt like without them.

Of course, there remains one more contract to sign to keep all three together.