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 #38 in Penguins’ history.
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Eleven players have worn #38 for the Penguins, and there is really only one name on this list worthy of this honor.
That would be “X-Generation” forward Jan Hrdina.
Hrdina, a Czech forward who was drafted in the 5th round by Pittsburgh in 1995, had a sneaky good career for the Penguins. During his first season in 1998-99, he registered a respectable 13 goals and 42 points in a full season.
And the parts of five seasons he spent with the Penguins – including with Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr – were the best seasons of his seven-year NHL career. His top season came in 2001-02, when he scored 24 goals and 57 points in 79 games.
But Hrdina wasn’t just known for his complementary offensive ability. He was also known for being a strong faceoff man as well as a sound defensive forward, which contributed to some strong work on the penalty kill:
Over the course of his Penguins’ career, Hrdina put up 79 goals and 227 points in 366 games. He was traded to the Phoenix Coyotes during the 2002-03 season, where he spent one more season before finishing off the last two years of his NHL career with the New Jersey Devils and Columbus Blue Jackets.
Hrdina retired due to complications from hip injuries. He finished his career with 101 goals and 297 points in 513 games.
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