The Pittsburgh Penguins‘ organizational history has a plethora of great players, and we’ve decided to go through the best Penguins’ players to wear each jersey number. Today, we continue the list by naming the best #8 in Penguins’ history.
There were several great players who wore #8, so this was a tough decision. For example, Brian Dumoulin was one of the best defensive defensemen in Penguins’ history and was instrumental in the team’s back-to-back Stanley Cup Championship runs in 2016 and 2017.
But this one had to go to the “Recchin’ Ball,” Mark Recchi.
Recchi played parts of seven seasons with the Penguins. He was drafted 67th overall in 1988 by Pittsburgh and stayed there until midway through the 1991-92 season. He later had two more stints in Pittsburgh, one in 2005-06 and the other from summer 2006 to when he was claimed off waivers by Atlanta on December 8, 2007.
He scored two goals during Game 5 of the 1991 Stanley Cup Final, but perhaps his biggest goal in a Penguins’ uniform came in Game 6 against the Boston Bruins in the 1991 Wales Conference Finals, which ended up being the game-winner and series-clincher. Recchi finished the 1991 playoffs with 34 points in 24 games to help the Penguins win their first Cup.
The cool thing about Recchi is that he was around for the early 90s during Lemieux’s prime and the first Cup run, and then he came back to Pittsburgh just in time for Sidney Crosby to debut and Lemieux to retire. Recchi assisted on Crosby’s first goal in the National Hockey League:
He was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes during that 2005-06 campaign and ended up winning another Cup. He took home one more in his final NHL season with the Boston Bruins in 2010-11.
Recchi finished his 22-season NHL career with 577 goals and 1533 points. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2017, and he coached for the Penguins from 2014-20.
He was, most recently, an assistant coach for the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2023-24.
Honorable Mentions: Brian Dumoulin, Terry Ruskowski, Rick Kehoe
Related: Best Penguins by Jersey Number: #7