Mario Lemieux

NHL Hall of Fame Center

Career Highlights: Considered one of the greatest hockey players of all time, Mario Lemieux was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1997…Lemieux led the Canadian Olympic Hockey Team to victory over the United States in the gold-medal game at the 2002 Winter Olympics… A 17-year veteran with the Penguins, Lemieux finally retired in January 2006 due to back injuries...During his stellar career, he won six Art Ross Trophies as the NHL’s leading scorer…He scored 690 goals and posted 1,033 assists for a total of 1,723 points in 915 games…On October 29, 2003 Lemieux became only the sixth player in NHL history to record 1,700 points…Named a six-time NHL First-Team All-Star, Lemieux topped the 100 point mark in a season 10 times…He led the Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cup Championships in 1991 and 1992…Lemieux was Rookie of the Year in 1985, in addition to being a two-time Conn Smythe Trophy winner as playoff MVP and three-time Hart Trophy winner as the MVP in the NHL…Retired prematurely in 1997 at the age of 31 due a series of medical setbacks, including a batter with cancer and two back surgeries…Re-entered the NHL in December 2000 after a three and a half year retirement, during which time he became owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins franchise…He deferred much of his salary from his contract to help assemble a group of investors to buy the financially troubled franchise and bring it out of bankruptcy and restore its financial health...In March 2007, Lemieux’s ownership group announced a final agreement for a new multi-purpose arena to be built across from the current Mellon Arena, thus keeping the Penguins in Pittsburgh for at least 30 years… Lemieux won the 1998 Celebrity Golf Championship at Edgewood Tahoe where he shot 76-67-69 and birdied two of the last three holes to beat Billy Joe Tolliver by one stroke.

Updated: May, 2008
Courtesy NBC