'Burgh's best to wear it, No. 72: Patric Hornqvist gave Penguins something they didn't have

The Tribune-Review sports staff is conducting a daily countdown of the best 100 players in Pittsburgh pro and college sports history to wear each jersey number.

No. 72: Patric Hornqvist

The evening of June 27, 2014, Nashville Predators general manager David Poile was holding court with reporters in an auxiliary storage room in Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center, which had been cleared out to stage interviews during the NHL’s Draft.

He was asked to explain the player he had just traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“A heart-and-soul player,” Poile said. “Plays hard every night game-in, game-out. Goes to the dirty areas. Goes to the hard areas. Takes physical abuse.

“He’s really a different type player that the Penguins don’t have.”

Truth be told, Patric Hornqvist is a player most NHL teams don’t have. That’s why he was Jim Rutherford’s first major acquisition a few weeks into his tenure as Penguins’ general manager.

The trade itself illustrated the type of team Rutherford wanted to craft. Hornqvist and fellow forward Nick Spaling, who was included in the transaction to aid the Predators’ salary cap situation, were acquired in exchange for talented but flawed scoring winger James Neal, a player who could be selfish on the ice far too often.

In Hornqvist, the Penguins acquired something of a modern-day Kevin Stevens. That’s to say he is rambunctious on the ice and rousing in the dressing room. And while he wasn’t nearly as physically imposing as the 6-foot-3, 230-pound “Artie,” the 5-11, 189-pound “Horny” has willed himself into ignoring countless cross-checks to the back and slap shots to the shins to become one of the NHL’s most dangerous — and, not coincidentally, detested — net-front presences.

Upon his arrival in Pittsburgh, Hornqvist switched from No. 27 he wore in Nashville (incumbent forward Craig Adams already inhabited No. 27) to No. 72. In many ways, donning a number fitting of a run-blocking right tackle is appropriate for a right winger who has illuminated many red lights more through his bellicose nature than his puck-handling abilities.

Nearly six years later, the acquisition of Hornqvist has paid off handsomely. A member of the franchise’s Stanley Cup championships in 2016 and ’17, Hornqvist’s signature moment of his NHL career came in Game 6 of the 2017 Final when he scored the Stanley Cup-clinching goal in a 2-0 road win against his former team.

With the contest scoreless, Hornqvist fought free of Predators defenseman Ryan Ellis, collected a loose puck off the end boards and banged in an ugly shot off the left elbow of Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne to give the Penguins the first lead of the contest with 1 minute, 44 seconds left to play.

You wouldn’t expect anything different from Hornqvist.

Other 72s of note:

• Gerry “Moon” Mullins spent nine years as an offensive lineman for the Steelers. A third-round pick in 1971, he was a vital component of all four of the team’s Super Bowl victories that decade. His block on Minnesota Vikings linebacker Wally Hilginberg led to Super Bowl IX’s first touchdown, a 9-yard run by Franco Harris.

• Leon Searcy was a first-round pick in 1992, the team’s first under coach Bill Cowher. Named as starting right tackle in 1993, Searcy was a member of a dominant offensive line for three seasons, including the 1995 campaign that ended in Super Bowl XXX.

• Ernie Borghetti was an All-American tackle (offense and defense) for Pitt during the early 1960s. In 1963, Borghetti helped lead Pitt to a surprising 9-1 record as well as a No. 3 ranking in the Associated Press’ final poll. In 1964, he was picked by the Cleveland Browns in the sixth round of the NFL Draft.

Check out the entire ’Burgh’s Best to Wear It series here.