Lemieux Retiring Today

Randy Orton

WC's Resident Alchoholic

One of the greatest NHL players in history is calling it a career.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have called a press conference where Mario Lemieux will announce his retirement. TSN and TSN.ca will carry the announcement live at 2pm et/11am pt.

Lemieux, 40, has not played since Dec. 16 because of problems caused by an irregular heartbeat. He had been working out regularly and seemed determined to play again this season.

Lemieux first retired in 1997 following years of back pain, a rare bone infection and a bout with cancer. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame later that year, when the Hall waived the three-year waiting period.

Related Info
Mario Lemieux Career Bio
Lemieux assumed ownership of the team when it came out of bankruptcy in 1999. He then unexpectedly came out of retirement on Dec. 27, 2000, and helped the Penguins advance to the Eastern Conference final in the spring of 2001.





He did not play a full, injury-free season upon his return, missing most of two seasons with hip problems and another full season when the NHL shut down last year.

Lemieux recorded seven goals and 15 assists for 22 points in 26 games this season with the disappointing Penguins.

Lemieux is seventh on the all-time NHL scoring list with 690 goals and 1,033 assists in 915 career games.

He won the Art Ross Trophy - which is given to the NHL playoff MVP - twice, in 1991 and 1992, the years Lemieux lead the Penguins to their back-to-back Stanley Cup wins.

Over his 17-season career, Lemieux won the Art Ross Trophy - which is given to the NHL's scoring leader - six times. He won the Hart Trophy - which is given to the regular season most valuable player three times. He was also named rookie of the year in 1985, winning the Calder Trophy.

More details to follow.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=152104&hubname=nhl

Blitzkrieg

Administrator

Pens are my team. Almost 2.0 PPG for his entire career. Best player I've ever seen outside of The Great One. He will be missed..again. Wasn't much of a factor these past two years though. I will always remember the Pens going back-to-back, awesome team they were..

Oh well. You guys think he's the 2nd best player ever? I do.

Randy Orton

WC's Resident Alchoholic

I'd agree. but there might some players like orr that may be better. i can't really say though because i never saw orr or any of the old time guys ever play.

Spinoff90

If he didn't miss so many games he might have been able to have a better career than Gretzky since some of his averages were higher. But since that didn't happen I have to say Gretzky is the best and Lemieux had a great career.

As for him retiring it was only a matter of time with the heart problems. Don't need to have another Jiri Fischer incident.

Bouchie

That sucks. I like Mario.

Miakal

I like Lugi.

I couldn't help it.

I haven't been a massive fan of hockey for years, though I've been watching it more lately. It does suck. His goodbye was pretty emotional.

Mr. Kennedy

I'm not really a fan of hockey, but I do know how big he was and how much he did for hockey. Hope he enjoys retirement, at least from playing.

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ICEMAN

I think Lemieux would've gone down as the best player of all-time had he not missed nearly 5 years of his career due to various injuries and one prior retirement. The dude came back from cancer and still lit up the league like nobody's business, then his back decided to go out on him. He sat out a few years and returned and was still scoring points like crazy. Just think of what his stats would've been had he not missed those years, plus last year's lockout.

I've always been a big Super Mario fan and wish him well. It's sad that he had to retire but at least he's still owner of the Penguins so he'll still be involved in hockey in some way.