Eddie Johnston, the general manager who drafted Mario Lemieux 40 years ago this month, had only one concern when he announced the historic selection at the Old Montreal Forum One question — not whether Lemieux would put a Penguins jersey over his head.
Lemieux didn’t.
Ironically, one of Lemieux’s first acts with the Penguins was to distance himself from the franchise he would personify, influence and own on and off the ice for the next four decades. Team.
“It was his agent, not Mario – he didn’t want to do it,” Johnston said. “Mario and I never talked about it. Not that day. Not to this day.
“I’ve done my homework. Now, you heard about the prospect of a generation. No, Mario is not a generation. He comes once in a lifetime, and not just as a player, but as a person.
“Without Mario, we (the Penguins) wouldn’t be here.”
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NHL 99: Mario Lemieux can ‘do things no one else can’
Maybe you’ve heard something similar before. For those unfamiliar, consider what Lemieux was like before he arrived in Pittsburgh in 1984:
- The Penguins were nine years away from bankruptcy.
- In the 1982-83 season, they averaged fewer than 8,500 fans per game, and although they scored 81 power-play goals, finishing sixth, they finished with just 45 points and a goal difference of 137.
- They practiced at a suburban high school rink, one of only a few around Pittsburgh at the time.
- They never made it past two rounds in the playoffs, and are best known for two brutal playoff losses to the New York Islanders — leading 3-0 in the 1975 series in overtime in the third period. Leading 3-1.
- Their owner, Edward DeBartolo, Sr., favored selling the franchise in favor of the then more successful and popular Pittsburgh Spirit, a team that also Indoor soccer team playing at Civic Stadium.
“When I played for the Oilers, we loved coming to Pittsburgh,” Paul Coffey said. “It was a great sports town. There were Steelers shirts and Buccaneers hats everywhere. The colors were all the same, black and gold. We would play the Penguins, and to be honest, the games were not competitive. It was strong, and after the game when we had some pop, I would tell the guys, ‘Man, this is going to be a destination if they can figure out the hockey thing here.
“Well, they figured it out. The answer is Mario. I don’t think any player in our game means more to a city or a team.
That’s a big statement, even though it’s coming from a former teammate of Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky and Steve Yzerman — so Coffey, a Hall of Famer like those three, is a Qualified experts. Coffey is not alone in this view.
Scotty Bowman, the NHL’s most accomplished coach, won one of nine Stanley Cup championships in 1992 with Lemieux’s Penguins behind the bench. won their first championship, while Lemieux underwent back surgery in 1990, which diminished his cachet – and boy, was he so crafty that he played in at least 70 games in just two more seasons. , known as the new “Mr. Trump.” He averaged 2.05 points per game and won consecutive Stanley Cup/Conn Smythe Cup championships, and was named “Hockey’s Best” by Sports Illustrated.
“This is what people call Gordie Howe,” Bowman said. “Give this to Mario, he deserves it, it’s special.”
He’s arguably in his prime with the Penguins, despite his back injury. He started the 1992-93 season with 39 goals and 104 points in 40 games, but missed two months after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease (now called Hodgkin’s lymphoma) .
After eight weeks of treatment, he saw little playing time but scored 30 goals and 56 points in his final 20 games.
“He wanted Wayne’s (single-season scoring) record,” former Penguins great Kevin Stevens said of Gretzky’s 215 points. “If you ask anyone on our team, he kills it.
“If Mario hadn’t had cancer that season, he probably would have scored 100 goals and scored 230 points. I’m not kidding. We won the trophy again and he became the greatest player of all time – even more than Wayne.
In the decades-long debate between Gretzky or Lemieux, Gretzky won almost everywhere except Montreal and Pittsburgh. In Pittsburgh, Lemieux is universally considered the greatest, and not because of his three Hart Trophies, six Art Ross Trophies and two Cup titles.
“He’s the Paul Bunyan of Pittsburgh,” Brian Trottier said. “I mean, Mario’s story is so rich that you can’t believe it’s real.
“When I got to Pittsburgh (in 1990), he was never healthy. He had a back. He had cancer. His hip was a mess. He couldn’t tie his skates. Through it all, he was still in the league. The best player, but Mario transcends that.
“He really made the Penguins what they are today.”
Then again, maybe you’ve heard something similar before. For those unfamiliar, consider the situation in Pittsburgh following Lemieux’s diagnosis of Hodgkin’s disease in 1993:
- He played only 22 games in the 1993-94 season and missed the 1994-95 season.
- He returned and won another Hart Trophy, his third, and two more Art Ross Trophies, his fifth and sixth, but in 1996-97 He retired after more than three seasons.
- Due to financial issues with ownership, he was not paid the majority of the then-record contract.
- Due to ownership disputes and a heavy debt burden, the Penguins declared bankruptcy for the second time in the late 1990s and faced the risk of relocating or disbanding, with Lemieux being their largest debtor.
“The Canadiens and Rangers were willing to pay him $25 million to play for them for a season,” Johnston said. “He could have done it and made most of the money. But there was no chance. Not Mario.
“The Penguins mean a lot to him.”
So Lemieux ended the season by forming an ownership group to buy the Penguins out of bankruptcy in the early 1990s after achieving what was once thought to be an impossible feat with the Steelers and Buccaneers. ten years. It’s a feel-good story — except that previous ownership took funding for municipal stadium renovations instead of participating in the sports facility legislation passed by Pennsylvania politicians for teams in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Lemieux owns the Penguins, but their financial situation remains dire, especially with Jaromir Jagr’s massive contract and Arena’s unfavorable revenue schedule.
“Even after he took control of our team, things weren’t good,” said Mike Langer, the Penguins’ longtime spokesman. “I tell you, if Mario hadn’t come back in 2000, I don’t know if we would have had Kid coming many years later.”
Lange means Sidney Crosby – “Sid the Kid” – whom the Penguins first drafted in 2005. This is nothing compared to the requirements.
“It’s not even close,” Crosby said in 2016.
“I mean, when you think about everything we have here — this (training) facility, the (current) arena, the expectations — it all comes from what he’s done for the Penguins. For Mario and this series It’s something special. I don’t know if people outside of Pittsburgh really appreciate what it is. You just don’t see it that often.
Michael Farber, who frequently writes about Lemieux for Sports Illustrated, said Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees and Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics are the only players who can rival Lemieux in terms of impacting their teams. An athlete comparable to Mieux. Unlike Lemieux, both have worked elsewhere – Ruth as a player with the Boston Warriors and Russell as coach/general manager of the Seattle SuperSonics.
Lemieux remains a minority owner of the Penguins.
His ownership group was sold to Fenway Sports Group a few years ago, but Lemieux retained some shares. He is not involved in any day-to-day decisions. However, as he showed when he returned to Jagr’s jersey retirement this past February, there is one Penguin who matters most.
The Penguins orchestrated Lemieux’s attendance at Jagr’s jersey retirement ceremony. He didn’t want to take away Jagr’s big night. Still, when Lemieux was introduced to a sold-out crowd at PPG Paints Arena that night, Penguins game-night operations staff expected fans to give Lemieux a lengthy standing ovation and scheduled extra time.
They did it. They always do this.
“Of course they know,” Trottier said. “For Pittsburgh fans, Mario was more than just a great player. They saw him dealing with health issues. They saw his charity work with local hospitals. They know he saved the team twice.
“And, honestly, the reason the Penguins are the Penguins — with big, high-flying, high-scoring stars like the Jaguars, Crosby and (Evgeny) Malkin — is because of Mario. The team ‘s identity is still based on his past and what he’s done.
Mario Lemieux waves to the crowd during Jaromir Jagr’s jersey retirement ceremony in February. (Justin Bell/Getty Images)
Forty years after drafting Lemieux, Johnston shared a concern he had that day at the Montreal Forum. He had planned to announce the choice in his native French, but feared his excitement would “mess up things.”
He didn’t.
“I spent a lot of time telling Mr. DeBartolo how special Mario was. He ended by saying, ‘Eddie, he’s just one person — no one can do what you’re telling me,'” Johnston said.
“I told him, ‘Watch it. Mario is going to be the best thing to ever happen to this team. They’re going to be talking about him long after we’re gone.
They are, and perhaps no one understands Lemieux’s importance to the Penguins better than Faber.
“Ruth and Russell were great partners,” Farber said. “Even if you just want to watch hockey, you see Wayne, like you always do when you discuss Mario. But Wayne belongs to this sport.
“Mario belongs to the Penguins. Ever since he finally put on that jersey, he’s done it.
Lemieux did wear the Penguins’ crest a few days after the 1984 NHL Draft. Inside is a photo of him standing atop Mount Washington, with the Pittsburgh skyline in the background.
Johnston liked that photo.
“Mario, wearing our jersey, our city – that’s what you see, and it’s perfect,” he said.
(Above: Allsport/Getty Images)
