Pittsburgh's NHL franchise, entered league 1967. Their logo is a skating cartoon penguin, holding a hockey stick. An experiment with an alternate, more dignified penguin logo was largely a bust.
The Pens were winners of 2 Stanley Cups in their first two finals appearances (versus the Minnesota North Stars in 1991 and the Chicago Blackhawks in 1992). The Penguins won the Presidents' Trophy for the 1992-93 season, but lost a shocking second-round upset to the New York Islanders in the 1993 playoffs. They lost to Detroit in the the 2008 finals, but got revenge against the Red Wings to win it all in Detroit in 2009. Most recently they returned to the finals during the 2016 NHL Stanley Cup playoffs and defeated the San Jose Sharks in 6 tightly contested games.
The team has also survived 2 near bankruptcies, most recently being rescued by former star Mario Lemieux, who converted deferred payments into team equity.
They play at the "Igloo" a.k.a. the Mellon Arena -- the oldest arena in active use in the NHL, with no luxury boxes and a seating capacity of just 17,537 for hockey.
They played in the NHL's Atlantic division, before a not-so-great renaming placed them in the Metropolitan division.
Hockey Hall of Fame members who had a big impact with the Pens include Player/owner Mario Lemieux, player Joe Mullen, player/coach Bryan Trottier, coach Scotty Bowman, and announcer Mike Lange.
Famous former players include: winger Jaromir Jagr, center Ron Francis, goalie Tom Barasso, and superstar Markus Naslund who was traded away early in his career, in one of general manager Craig Patrick's few truly bonehead deals.
Young goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury represents the Penguin's future foundation, if only they can resist the urge to play him too much, and too soon. Franchise cornerstone Sidney Crosby, drafted in 2005, assumed the team captaincy in 2007 and won the Art Ross Trophy the same season, while Evgeni Malkin won the Calder Memorial Trophy contemporaneously. Both are prolific scorers and make up a good portion of the face of the "new NHL."
Uniforms: White, gold, and black. Not bad, especially the third jersey.
Retired Numbers:
- #21 Michel Briere (Briere was fatally injured in a 1970 car accident)
- #66 Mario Lemieux (un-retired December 27, 2000, then re-retired October 5, 2006)
- #99 Wayne Gretzky (league-wide retirement)