Conor Sheary played the last game of his first stint with the Pittsburgh Penguins on May 7, 2018.

Evgeny Kuznetsov scored about five minutes into overtime of Game 6 of a second-round series, and the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions were defending no more.

Sheary’s first game of his second stint with the Penguins was a 2-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Feb. 26, a little less than 21 months later.

Not counting Sheary, 19 Penguins players suited up for that fateful playoff loss to the Capitals. Only eight were left when Sheary got back less than two years later.

That illustrates how quickly rosters are flipped in the modern NHL. It also perhaps gives a glimpse into why most players who return to the Penguins for a second stint with the team don’t recapture the magic of the past. They’re not coming back to the same team.

Despite the turnover, Sheary said he didn’t feel like he was being thrust into an unfamiliar environment when he returned to the Penguins.

Perhaps that’s because many of the holdovers were the team’s top players and emotional leaders – Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Patric Hornqvist – or some of Sheary’s pals who came up from Wilkes-Barre at roughly the same time he did – Matt Murray and Bryan Rust.

“The transition itself was fairly easy,” Sheary said. “There was a lot of turnover in terms of players, but I think the core group of guys was still there. Obviously, (Mike Sullivan) was still there. (Mark Recchi) was there when I left. Jacques (Martin) and (Sergei Gonchar). So most of the coaching staff was all the same.

“Obviously, they’ve interchanged a lot of players throughout the years. But it was nice to come back. A lot of the guys that I was with my last year (in Pittsburgh) were still here and a lot of my friends. So I was able to come back to that. Different in terms of players but as far as the system and the culture and everything like that, not much has changed.”

The ending for Sheary’s second stay with the Penguins hasn’t been written, of course. It could still be a blockbuster or a flop.

With that in mind, former beat writer Jonathan Bombulie came up with a list of the top five Penguins who thrived in their second stay with the team, and beat writer Seth Rorabaugh compiled a top five list of players who fizzled upon their return.

The best returns

1. Martin Straka (1992-95, 1997-2003)

Getty Images In 560 career games with the Penguins, forward Martin Straka had 442 points (165 goals, 277 assists).  

Straka has the unique distinction of scoring 30 goals in a season for the Penguins, wandering the NHL wilderness for a few years, returning to Pittsburgh and having another 30-goal season. The first 30-goal campaign came as a 20-year-old in 1993-94. He stumbled in a lockout-shortened season the next year and was sent all over the place in exchange for a cast of characters – Norm Maciver, Troy Murray, Wade Redden, Damien Rhodes – before returning to the Penguins as a free agent in 1997. He scored 35 goals in 1998-99 and ended up 11th on the franchise’s all-time scoring list.

2. Mark Recchi (1988-92, 2005-06, 2006-07)

Recchi is a rare character who had multiple stints with each of Pennsylvania’s NHL teams. Pittsburgh, though, is where he got his start and where he currently resides as one of the team’s assistant coaches. Recchi’s arrival as a full-time NHL player in 1989-90 – a 30-goal scorer at that – helped boost the Penguins into the ranks of Cup contenders. He returned as a free agent in 2004, then again in 2006 after a brief detour to Carolina. He had back-to-back 24-goals seasons in his late 30s in his second stint with the team.

3. Ben Lovejoy (2008-13, 2014-16)

Philip G. Pavely | Tribune-Review Defenseman Ben Lovejoy was a member of the Penguins’ Stanley Cup championship team in 2016.  

No player on this list had his second stint with the Penguins begin with such negativity. Lovejoy came up with the Penguins as an undrafted free agent out of Dartmouth, became a solid depth defenseman and was traded to Anaheim for a fifth-round pick in 2013. When general manager Jim Rutherford got him back from the Ducks in exchange for defenseman Simon Despres in March of 2015 – thought at the time to be a massive overpayment – he was pilloried. Fifteen months later, Lovejoy was an integral part of a Stanley Cup team and Rutherford laughed last.

4. Rob Brown (1987-91, 1997-2000)

Brown’s first stint with the Penguins was the one that grabbed the headlines. He scored 49 goals in his second pro season, grew out a legendary mullet, dated Alyssa Milano and got chased by stick-swinging maniacal goalie Ron Hextall. Good times. Badger Bob Johnson wasn’t a big fan, though, and he was traded to Hartford for Scott Young in 1990. Brown’s return to the team as a free agent in 1997, however, might have done more to help his reputation as a solid NHL player who was more than a Mario Lemieux sidecar. He recorded 38 goals over three seasons as a dependable secondary scorer.

5. Andy Bathgate (1967-68, 1970-71)

AP Hockey Hall of Fame forward Andy Bathgate’s final NHL season came with the Penguins in 1970-71.  

His time with the Penguins is an interesting sidebar to Bathgate’s Hall of Fame career. Consensus was that his knees were shot at age 35 and he made too much money ($75,000!), but at the urging of State Sen. Jack McGregor, the team’s founder, the Penguins picked Bathgate in the 1967 expansion draft. It was a good call. He led the team in scoring and netted 20 goals, including the first in franchise history. He left the Penguins the following season and had two big years in the WHL in Vancouver. At age 38, now with a bad back added to his knee troubles, Bathgate was talked into returning to the Penguins by Red Kelly in 1970-71. He finished third on the team in scoring.

The worst returns

1.) Alex Kovalev (1998-03, 2011)

Chaz Palla | Tribune-Review The Penguins reacquired forward Alex Kovalev at the 2011 trade deadline.  

Alexei Kovalev might have been the coolest player in franchise history. First, he flew his own plane! Second, he had a hat trick-specific celebration of moonwalking anytime he scored three goals. And his nickname was just lethal. AK27. So, when he came back in 2011 as Alex Kovalev and took on No. 72 (incumbent forward Craig Adams already inhabited No. 27), it just was so … not cool. And the results were lukewarm. Brought in at the 2011 trade deadline to boost a hobbled club missing the talents of injured superstars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, Alex Kovalev and his worn out knees just didn’t have the same magic as Alexei Kovalev. In 20 games, he only produced seven points (two goals, five assists).

2. Rob Scuderi (2004-09, 2013-15)

After losing Scuderi to free agency following the 2009 Stanley Cup title, general manager Ray Shero tried to replace the defensive acumen “The Piece” possessed by pursuing Jay McKee, Zbynek Michalek and Dan Hamhuis. Ultimately, Shero felt the only player who could replace Scuderi was Scuderi himself and signed him to a hefty four-year contract with a salary cap hit of $3.375 million. But at 34, Scuderi, who was never confused with Johann Olav Koss, was a step slower at a time when the game becoming a several parsecs faster. A broken ankle in October of 2013 did nothing to improve Scuderi’s velocity. Shero was fired less than a year after re-signing Scuderi and by December of 2015, new general manager Jim Rutherford dealt Scuderi to the Chicago Blackhawks.

3. Warren Young (1983-85, 1986-88)

Aside from perhaps a handful of bean counters, few people in the Penguins’ organization realized the immediate impact of Lemieux’s arrival in 1984 more than Young. A journeyman who had all of 20 NHL games before Lemieux was drafted, Young was placed on the superstar’s wing and erupted for 40 goals while also making the NHL’s All-Rookie team at the ripe age of 29. That success prompted the Red Wings to sign Young to a four-year contract for what was then an astounding $1 million in 1985. Failing to enamour Detroit coach Jacques Demers, Young was traded back to the Penguins in 1986 but failed to recapture the rapport he had with Lemieux. By 1988, he was out of the NHL.

4. Joe Mullen (1990-95, 1996-97)

Getty Images Hockey Hall of Fame forward Joe Mullen’s final NHL season came with the Penguins in 1996-97.  

One of Craig Patrick’s first trades as Penguins general manager was to acquire veteran scoring winger Joe Mullen from the Calgary Flames in June of 1990. Mullen’s experience on a mostly younger roster was a vital component in helping the Penguins win the Stanley Cup in 1991 and 1992. After spending the 1995-96 season with the Boston Bruins, Mullen returned to Pittsburgh as a free agent in 1996. By that point, 39-year-old “Slippery Rock” Joe’s body had betrayed him as he was limited to 54 games and 22 points (seven goals, 15 assists) in 1996-97. Despite his struggles in his final NHL season, Mullen did become the first United States-born player to reach the 500-goal mark during that campaign.

5. Denis Herron (1972-75, 1976-79, 1982-86)

To be clear, Herron’s second stint with the Penguins was actually pretty good. His third tour was pretty lousy. A third-round pick in 1972, Herron made the team out of training camp that same year but never established himself on the NHL level. Traded to the Kansas City Scouts in 1974, he re-signed with the Penguins by 1976 and enjoyed two 20-win seasons, including in 1978-79 when he finished seventh in voting for the Hart Memorial Trophy. The Penguins traded him again in August of 1979, to the Montreal Canadiens, before acquiring him yet again in September of 1982. Serving as little more than a human sacrifice for some intentionally woebegone Penguins teams, Herron had a 23-67-10 record in his final four NHL seasons.

Jonathan Bombulie is assistant sports editor for the Tribune-Review. You can contact Jonathan at jbombulie@triblive.com or via Twitter @BombulieTrib. Seth Rorabaugh is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Seth by email at srorabaugh@triblive.com or via Twitter @sethrorabaugh.

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