To fill space and provide content during the suspension of its season, the NHL is releasing top-16 lists on its official website.
It should come as no surprise for an organization so synonymous with scoring that the Pittsburgh Penguins are well represented on the list of the game’s best centers of post-expansion era. Centers who played after the 1967 doubling of the NHL from six to 12 teams qualified.
Five current or former Penguins are among the top 14: Mario Lemieux is second to Wayne Gretzky, Sidney Crosby is fourth, Bryan Trottier No. 8, Ron Francis No. 10 and Evgeni Malkin 14th.
Who are the top 16 centers in the Expansion Era? The https://t.co/VUOdReGzoB staff makes its picks https://t.co/GjVxmFIqyS via @NHLdotcom
— Adam Kimelman (@NHLAdamK) April 9, 2020
Crosby and Malkin are in their 14th season together as Penguins teammates. Lemieux, of course, played 17 seasons for the Penguins between 1984-2005 and now is part of team ownership. None of those three has played for any other team.
Francis (1991-1998) played 7½ of his 23 NHL seasons with the Penguins. Trottier’s best days were while part of the New York Islanders’ dynasty in the 1980s, but he was part of two Stanley Cup championship teams over his final three NHL seasons with the Penguins.
