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 #42 in Penguins’ history.
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Just six players have worn #42 for the Penguins, and all of them have been since 1998. And as we climb higher and higher in terms of jersey numbers, that number is going to continue to shrink. But there is a pretty clear winner in this group.
The best #42 in franchise history is forward Kasperi Kapanen.
Kapanen had a bit of an unusual track to begin his Penguins’ career. He was selected 22nd overall by the Penguins in 2014, but he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs on July 1, 2015 as part of the deal that brought forward Phil Kessel to Pittsburgh. He was then dealt back to Pittsburgh over the summer of 2020.
In his first NHL look with the Penguins, Kapanen impressed. He recorded 11 goals and 30 points in 40 games during the 2020-21 season – mostly alongside Evgeni Malkin – and earned himself protection by the Penguins from the Seattle Expansion Draft in 2021.
The Penguins had hoped that the chemistry he found with Malkin would translate into future seasons, so they took a gamble on keeping him around.
He netted two pretty impressive hat tricks for the Penguins, with the second one (almost) featuring three power play goals:
Unfortunately for Kapanen and the Penguins, he could just never find the consistency that the organization expected when they traded back for him and protected him from expansion. He was placed on waivers by Pittsburgh on Feb. 25, 2023, and he was claimed by the St. Louis Blues, who just re-signed him to a one-year, $1 million deal during the 2024 offseason.
Over the course of his nine-year NHL career, Kapanen has recorded 84 goals and 208 points in 460 career games. He earned 70 goals and 172 points in 364 games with the Penguins.
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