Pick the All-Time Penguins Broadcasters & Owners
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Thanks for picking the Pens all-time roster.
The 12 forwards are solid. Hard to argue with Sidney Crosby, Ron Francis, Mario Lemieux, Evgeni Malkin, Jaromir Jagr, Alexei Kovalev, Joey Mullen, Mark Recchi, Rick Tocchet, James Neal, Petr Nedved and Kevin Stevens.
No love for old timers like Syl Apps, Rick Kehoe, Martin Straka, Pierre Larouche or Jean Pronovost, however.
Jordan Staal fell just behind Markus Naslund as the alternate forward selection.
I have no problem with Naslund making the team for simulation games, but as for his actual Penguins career – just no.
Naslund came out to my hockey card stand at Century III Mall one time, looked through my albums and left without me ever realizing who he was. No one else recognized him either until later. He was quiet as a church mouse.
What a great career he later had for the Canucks. Naslund was traded for Alex Stojanov, who suffered an injury from a car wreck, I believe, and never did anything in the NHL.
Putting Petr Nedved on the Pens’ all-time team ahead of any of the “old timers” might be a reach, although his
fourth-overtime playoff game-winner against Washington remains fondly remembered.
James Neal on the team after seasons of one goal in 20 games and 40 goals?
Let’s hope he earns a spot on the all-time roster throughout the span of his six-year, $30 million contract extension (or whatever the owners cut it to after the new CBA).
The defensemen picks seem reasonable: Paul Coffey, Sergei Gonchar, Darius Kasparaitis, Kris Letang, Larry Murphy and Ulf Samuelsson. In a perfect word, where simulation league statistics don’t matter, Brooks Orpik and maybe even Rob Scuderi, would deserve better consideration.
Randy Carlyle was a really good player on an average team and would’ve fit right in on the all-time roster.
The lack of elite goaltenders show how barren the cupboards have been for Pittsburgh. Tom Barrasso and Marc-Andre Fleury are no-brainers. To think that Barrasso could skate off high-school ice and onto the Aud’s in Buffalo is pretty amazing. Craig Patrick served the team well trading up for Fleury. There was talk that Jack Johnson or Eric Staal might be a better choice at the time. It would’ve been interesting to have the Staals suit up in Penguins sweaters, but Fleury has done just fine – Flyers playoff series notwithstanding.
It’s one thing to critique a particular player’s up’s and down’s, as should be done with the Flower, but it’s another for a team to just outright miss on a draft pick. The 2003 draft was stacked but at least the Pens didn’t take Hugh Jessiman with their first pick, as did the New York Rangers.
Another Pittsburgh goalie worthy of nomination was Michel Dion. He had a great playoff run, but his best Penguin numbers were 25-24-12, 3.79 GAA and .879 save percentage in 1981-82.
It’s fair to suggest that elite goaltending, historically, has eluded the Penguins.
We'll pick the all-time coaches and general managers later this week.
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RIP Beano Cook
Beano Cook, who was best known for his decades of work inside college football, passed away last week at the age of 81. He was also a vice president for the Civic Arena when Edward DeBartolo Sr. owned the Penguins.
When I served as the Penguins’ Web site gameday editor back in 1996-97, I looked forward to pre-game pressroom buffets. It was impossible to attend one of these gatherings without seeing or at least hearing Beano Cook. I usually hid off to a corner, ate my food and looked over notes but there was always a big gathering of chairs pulled up around Mr. Cook’s table.
He was one-of-a-kind and Pittsburgh was lucky to have him.
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Treasure Life!
JT
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
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