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| Birth Name(s) : Mario Lemieux |
Date of Birth: N/A |
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Full Mario Lemieux Biography
Mario Lemieux (born October 5, 1965) is a retired professional ice hockey centre who played 17 seasons for the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League (NHL) between 1984 and 2005. He is also the Penguins' principal owner and chairman of the board, having bought the team out of bankruptcy in 1999.
Lemieux was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame immediately after his first retirement, waiving the normal three-year waiting period; upon his return in 2000, he became the third Hall of Famer (after Gordie Howe and Guy Lafleur) to play after being inducted.. Lemieux's impact on the NHL has been significant: Andrew Conte of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review called him the "savior" of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and after Lemieux's retirement, Wayne Gretzky commented that "You don't replace players like Mario Lemieux The game will miss him". Bobby Orr called him "the most talented player I've ever seen"; Orr, along with Bryan Trottier, and numerous fans, speculate that had Lemieux not suffered so many injuries, his on-ice achievements would have been much greater. Lemieux has won two Stanley Cups, an Olympic gold medal, and two World Cups of Hockey (one while it was still the Canada Cup). In 2004, he was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.
At the start of Lemieux's career, the Penguins were in financial turmoil and there were rumours of relocation. The team declared bankruptcy after the 1974-75 season, and by 1983, they were averaging less than 7,000 fans per game — less than half of their arena's capacity.
The next season, Lemieux finished second in league scoring with 141 points, behind Wayne Gretzky's NHL-record 215 points. He won the Lester B. Pearson Award as the NHL's best regular-season player as voted by his peers. Lemieux missed 17 games of the 1986-87 NHL season — his point production slipped, and the Penguins once again failed to make the playoffs. However, he played in the Canada Cup during the summer of 1987 and set a tournament record 11 goals in 9 games; his last goal, which clinched the Canadian victory, came against the Soviet team with 1:26 remaining in the third period. Lemieux cited his Canada Cup experience as the reason for his elevated play later on, stating, "Remember, I was only 21 years old at the time. To be around guys like Wayne and Mark Messier and Paul Coffey was a tremendous learning experience".
Lemieux also scored a single-season record 13 shorthanded goals. Also, Lemieux scored 50 goals in 50 games, an exclusive club occupied at the time only by Gretzky, Mike Bossy, and Maurice Richard. Perhaps the defining moment of Lemieux's season was on December 31, 1988, in a game against the New Jersey Devils. In that game, Lemieux scored eight points and became the only player in NHL history to score a goal in all five possible game situations in the same game: even-strength, power-play, shorthanded, penalty shot, and empty-net.
Lemieux also won his third All-Star Game MVP with a four-goal performance. He would only play 59 games in the season due to a back injury, and the Penguins did not make the playoffs.
Lemieux and the Penguins started the 1992-93 season well, and Lemieux was on pace to challenge Gretzky's records of 92 goals in a season (1981-82) and 215 points (1985-86). He also set an NHL record with goals in 12 consecutive games; his twelfth game was a 5-4 overtime win over the Montreal Canadiens.
At this point, Lemieux stepped in with an unusual proposal. Years of deferred salaries had made him one of the Penguins' largest creditors. He sought to recover this money by converting it into equity and buying the team. He also promised to keep the team in Pittsburgh. On September 3, 1999, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court approved Lemieux's reorganization plan to save the Penguins. This made the then-retired star, who had deferred millions in salary, the first former NHL player to become majority owner of his former team.
Lemieux led the Penguins in the postseason and led in playoff scoring for much of it. His team surprised many by going to the Eastern Conference finals, knocking off the higher-seeded Washington Capitals and Buffalo Sabres along the way in six and seven games, respectively. The Penguins lost in five games to the New Jersey Devils.
By agreement with the NHLPA, Lemieux was paid the average league salary of about $1.4 million and it was from this amount that his union dues are calculated and deducted. He did not vote in owners' meetings, delegating this role to a Penguins vice-president.
On January 24, 2006, Mario Lemieux announced his second and permanent retirement from professional hockey at the age of 40. This followed a half-season in which he struggled not only with the increased speed of the "new NHL" but also with yet another threatening physical ailment, a heart condition called atrial fibrillation that caused him to experience irregular heartbeats.
Some consider Lemieux to be the most dominating hockey player ever. Unlike Wayne Gretzky, whose greatness was due to his reading of the game and timely anticipation of players when passing (physically, Gretzky was not impressive, not being a fast skater or possessing a hard shot), Lemieux was big, strong, and skillful and was cited as often having a unique combination of the three attributes. Lemieux was able to successfully meld grace with aggression and played with a tough streak that had other players in fear of a physical encounter with the forward who was the size of a defenseman. |
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