The Pittsburgh Penguins’ organizational history has a plethora of great players, and we’ve decided to go through the best Penguins’ players to wear each jersey number. Today, we continue the list by naming the best #18 in Penguins’ history.
There are several talented players who wore #18 for the Penguins, including Craig Simpson and the “Real Deal” James Neal. Although both of those players had good careers for the Penguins, we have to trace back to the mid-1970s to highlight the player who not only had the best seasons of his career with the Penguins, but who also had the longest tenure.
That would be native Nova Scotian Lowell MacDonald.
© Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame
MacDonald, undrafted, played his first NHL game in 1961-62 with an Original-Six team in the Detroit Red Wings. That ended up being his only game that season, and it took until he went to the expansion Los Angeles Kings in 1967 to truly have an extended opportunity to break out. After scoring 35 goals and 73 points over two seasons with the Kings, he moved on to Pittsburgh in 1970.
And Pittsburgh is where he was at the top of his game:
MacDonald was one of the three working parts of one of the best lines in Penguins’ history, “The Century Line.” He, Syl Apps, and Jean Pronovost were given that moniker because they produced over 100 goals and 200 points combined for four straight seasons from 1972-76. And because of the 200-point thing, they were also known as the “Bicentennial Line.”
In a time when the Penguins weren’t winning too many games and trying to find their footing in Pittsburgh as an expansion team, The Century Line gave people something to watch and root for. It also helped get the team on the radar from a national perspective.
During those four seasons, MacDonald, a sniper, scored 134 goals and registered 290 points in 296 games and was a two-time All-Star. He also took home the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy in 1972-73 and scored six goals and 10 points in 15 career playoff games for the Penguins, including this one:
MacDonald retired a Penguin in 1978. Over the course of his 13-year (basically 12) career, he registered 180 goals and 390 points in 506 games.
Honorable Mention: Craig Simpson, James Neal
Related: Best Penguins by Jersey Number: #17
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