Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby just turned 37 on August 7. He’s about to skate in his 20th NHL season and continue to pile up on his 592 goals, 1004 assists, and 1,596 points, all of which rank among the all-time greats.
For 18 years, Crosby has skated alongside Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin, the latter of whom will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer when he retires. Additionally, Crosby spent much of his career with Marc-Andre Fleury, the second-winningest netminder in NHL history.
It is safe to say that no matter what Sid the Kid does for the remainder of his career, he’s already considered an all-time great and achieved all these accolades without a cast of Hall of Famers at his side.
In 19 seasons, Crosby has only skated with four members of the Hockey Hall of Fame, with a handful of past and present teammates who may be eligible in later years.
Who are those players?
Mario Lemieux (2005-06)
Mario Lemieux retired in 1997 and immediately entered the Hockey Hall of Fame, bypassing the committee’s mandatory three-year waiting period.
A few years later, he bought the team from bankruptcy and staged a comeback for the ages in 2001. However, the Penguins entered a dark period and continuously finished as a last-place team, winning the 2005 Draft Lottery and selecting Crosby.
Even though Lemieux took a young Crosby into his home, the duo only played together 26 times before Le Magnifique had to retire a second time. However, that didn’t stop the pair from enjoying three Stanley Cup titles together as players and owners in 2009, 2016, and 2017.
Mark Recchi (2006 – 2008)
Mark Reechi began his Hall of Fame career with the Penguins, winning the Stanley Cup with the team in 1991. Eventually, he left town and played for many franchises before returning after the NHL lockout in 2005.
He played 63 games in 2005-06 before a deal with the Carolina Hurricanes gave him a second championship ring that spring. Immediately following the parade, Recchi returned to Pittsburgh and stayed for another season and a half.
After 22 seasons, including 1,652 games with seven franchises, Recchi retired after winning his third Stanley Cup with the Boston Bruins in 2011. Interestingly, he became a development coach with the Penguins in 2014, working his way up to assistant coach from 2017 to 2020, working side by side with Crosby.
Marian Hossa (2007-08)
Marian Hossa came to the Penguins at the 2008 trade deadline and helped the team reach their first Stanley Cup Final since 1992. Unfortunately, the series ended with a defeat at the hands of the Detroit Red Wings in six games, but Hossa had 26 points in 20 playoff games to finish second in scoring behind Crosby.
After losing in the Final, he jumped ship to the Red Wings, which the Penguins eventually defeated in Game 7 of the 2009 championship series. In 2010, as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks, Hossa finally won the Stanley Cup in his third straight Final appearance. In the end, he’d win again in 2013 and 2015.
Jarome Iginla (2012-13)
After 16 years with the Calgary Flames, the organization moved Jarome Iginla, who wound up with the Penguins at the 2013 trade deadline. In 13 regular season games, he tallied 11 points before collecting an additional 12 in 15 playoff games.
However, Iginla and the Penguins ran into a better team in the postseason, getting swept by the Bruins, who would go on to lose to the Blackhawks and Hossa in the 2013 Stanley Cup Final.
In the offseason, Iginla relocated to Boston and never won a championship before retiring with 625 goals. Despite not winning a championship together, Iginla and Crosby will forever be linked because they brought Olympic gold back to Canada in 2010.
