Sidney Crosby Has a Chance to Catch Mario Lemieux's Franchise Goals Record

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Ryan Fiore
April 6, 2023 (5:27 PM)

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When you think of the greatest Pittsburgh Penguin of all time, who is the first name that comes to mind? Mario Lemieux, right? If not, you'd likely have to say captain Sidney Crosby.

While it's unlikely that Crosby's name would come to mind over Lemieux's, the current captain definitely makes a case to be considered the second greatest Penguin of all time.

Catching Lemieux's Record

If you compare their goal stats side by side, Crosby only measures higher than Lemieux in terms of game-winning goals, and overtime goals. Crosby has also played over more than 100 games than Lemieux, and he's still going.

But there is Penguins record that Crosby has a chance of catching: all-time regular season goals in the Penguins franchise.

In 915 regular season games, Mario Lemieux has scored 690 goals. Crosby, who has played in 1,186 regular season games so far, sits at 548 regular season goals.

Crosby became the second player in Penguins history to reach 500 goals in February 2022.

Crosby also has a chance to catch Lemieux's playoff goals record. Lemieux has a total of 76 playoff goals, while Crosby has 71 playoff goals.

Setbacks

It is certainly possible that Crosby could've caught up to Lemieux's goals by now, but injuries and several concussions over the years caused the Penguins captain to miss playing time.

Lemieux's total certainly would've been higher had he not been diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1993, missing two months of the the 1992-93 season. He also could've made the total higher in the 3 years he remained retired before coming out of retirement in 2000.

So what do you think? Can Sidney Crosby make Penguins history?