When the Penguins took Mark Recchi in the fourth round of 1988 Entry Draft, it was hardly a lock he’d make the team, let alone go on to a Hall-of-Fame career.
Despite scoring 61 goals during his final season of junior hockey, he was passed over by the 21 NHL teams—including the Pens—not once, but three times.
Too small, the scouts whispered.
The rejections made Recchi, generously listed at 5’10” and 185 pounds in an era when behemoths ruled, all the more determined to succeed.
“I wanted to prove I could play no matter what size I was. And that sometimes the heart is bigger than how tall you are,” he said.
Mission accomplished.
By the time Recchi hung up his skates in 2011 following a stellar career that spanned 22 seasons, he’d compiled some truly astonishing numbers. Ranked 12th on the all-time NHL scoring list, the feisty British Columbia native racked up 577 goals, 956 assists and 1533 points.
Dubbed the “Recchin’ Ball” by Pens announcer Mike Lange for his scrambling, flat-out style, he reached 100 points three times and 40 goals four times, including a career-best 53 with the Flyers in 1992-93. He earned seven All-Star game berths, was named a Second Team NHL All-Star (1991-92), and played on three Stanley Cup winners.
Only four players—Gordie Howe, Mark Messier and former Pens teammates Ron Francis and Jaromir Jagr—skated in more NHL games than Recchi (1652).
A darling of the Steel City fans, the hustling winger burst into prominence as a member of the popular “Option Line” with pals John Cullen and Kevin Stevens. Often firing the puck off the rush while perched on one leg a la present Pen Phil Kessel, Recchi notched 40 goals and paced the locals with 113 points in ’90-91.
A driving force behind the Pens’ first Stanley Cup triumph, the sharpshooter was dealt to Philadelphia the following season in a blockbuster three-team trade that netted power forward Rick Tocchet, hulking defenseman Kjell Samuelsson and goalie Ken Wregget.
Recchi, who bled black and gold, was shocked. So were his teammates.
“We definitely needed some help somewhere,” lamented his good buddy Stevens, “but I don’t know if this is the way we should’ve gone about it.”
While his friends captured another Cup, Recchi—stung to the core—established himself in Philly. Determined to prove his worth, he responded with a monster season, piling up 53 goals and 123 points for the Flyers in ’92-93 while skating alongside rookie phenom Eric Lindros.
Following stints in Philadelphia, Montreal and Philly again, at long last he returned to the Pens as a free agent in 2004. Recchi played parts of three seasons in the ‘Burgh before moving on to Atlanta, Tampa Bay and Boston, where he won his final Cup.
Through it all he maintained a special bond with the city and fans.
“Pittsburgh became my home,” said Recchi, who currently serves as the Pens’ director of player development. “I pretty much stayed here through all the times, wherever I was. … I didn’t foresee seven teams I played for and bouncing back and forth in between with Pittsburgh, but I think Pittsburgh is a great place to live and a great city to be in and a great place to raise my kids.”
The feeling’s mutual, Recchs. We were blessed to have you.
Penguins Extend Qualifying Offers
Pens GM Jim Rutherford made qualifying offers to seven of the team’s restricted free agents yesterday. Receiving offers were forwards Josh Archibald, Jean-Sebastien Dea and Conor Sheary and defensemen Frank Corrado, Brian Dumoulin, Derrick Pouliot and Justin Schultz.
Qualifying offers allow the Pens to maintain exclusive negotiating rights with the seven RFAs beyond the start of free agency. Archibald, Dumoulin, Schultz and Sheary have until July 5 to accept their offers or file for salary arbitration. Corrado, Dea and Pouliot aren’t arbitration eligible.
Defensemen Tim Erixon and Stuart Percy did not receive qualifying offers and will become unrestricted free agents on July 1.
The 26-year-old Erixon, who played 93 NHL games with four different clubs from 2011-15, was acquired from Toronto as part of the Kessel trade. Percy, a former first-round pick of the Maple Leafs, signed as a free agent last summer.
Neither played for the Pens.
Sexton a Sabre
Randy Sexton, who served as the Pens’ director of amateur scouting since 2010, has joined former Pens assistant GM Jason Botterill in Buffalo. Sexton will double as Botterill’s assistant general manager and GM of the Sabres’ AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans.
Deal Me In
The expansion draft may be over, but Vegas continues to wheel and deal. Yesterday the Golden Knights sent veteran defenseman Marc Methot to Dallas for goalie Dylan Ferguson and a 2020 second-round pick.
Hey Rick and everyone;
My next question is do you trust in just going with Jarry as Murray’s back up? Trade for a back-up? Or sign a FA? I have seen some suggest that the Pens may go after Steve Mason (Phi), Jonathan Bernier (Ana), or Chad Johnson (Az)? I also saw some people think the Pens may go after Niemi.
I would think that since Az traded for Johnson, that they would go hard at signing him. Although I could also see them just wanting to get out frm under Smith’s contract too.
Personally, if given the choice between Jarry, Mason, or Bernier, I would lean toward just going with Jarry, unless I could get a really good, low price on Bernier. So if I don’t get a back up in a trade I am not really liking the realistic FA options.
That would really depend on how many games Sully plans on playing Jarry. If it is only in back to back situations then maybe the Pens look at a veteran. The problem is that I don’t believe the Pens should spend over $2mil a year to sign a guy. Most of the guys you have listed pulled in $4 a year last year.
If we said all of them would accept a 2yr @ $2mil a year then I would go after Mason. That would be a steal!
Alright, I was just reading an article on our friends from DC, the article starts off talking about how Was lost N Schmidt in the expansion draft. Then it talks about them not really going to try and sign Shattenkirk or Alzner.
At first I would think that would mean that Was was looking to reboot. However, if they were truly rebooting, I would think they would either have dealt or try to deal? Any thoughts?
Sorry, I edited something out and took too much, I meant to say I would have thought that the Caps would have dealt or try to deal Ovie. Any thoughts?
My guess is it’s probably much simpler, they just don’t have any cap space. Trades & free agent signings might be crazy this year with each team losing a player. Should be fun.
From the interesting timing catagory,.. The Avs Nathan MacKinnon & Tyson Barrie are at the Pens Cranberry practice facility right now.
Wow!!
I wish I could be there. Are you there or just reading reports?
If you are there, any other interesting tidbits?
Not there, just heard from a friend.
At the risk of stirring the pot, I just read an article about a possible Duchene for Maatta deal. Any thoughts?
Hey Other Rick,
I’ve pooh-poohed the notion of acquiring Duchene in the past, partly because the Penguins were stacked at center and I coveted his more physical teammate, left wing Gabriel Landeskog.
However, the Pens’ situation at center is likely to change dramatically, especially if Nick Bonino moves on as anticipated and/or Matt Cullen retires.
From what I’ve read about Duchene, he’s a dynamic, super-charged offensive talent who can also play wing. In many ways, the polar opposite of the grinding, subtle, defensively oriented Bonino.
Slotted behind Sid and Geno, his presence would cause a myriad of matchup problems for foes. However, it would also tilt the Pens into more of a run-and-gun mode and perhaps soften our ability to defend come crunch time.
In terms of who we’d need to part with, I wouldn’t be averse to dealing Maatta as part of a package (sorry Phil), as the writer of the article suggests. But as he wrote, we’d probably have to sweeten the pot with a reasonably skilled young forward. Not that I’m anxious to deal either of them, but perhaps Conor Sheary or Bryan Rust.
Given that we’re already in a bit of a scramble mode to flesh out our defense, I’m not sure I’d pull the trigger. Adding Duchene certainly is tempting, but it might also make us top-heavy while thinning out our defense and core of worker bees.
I’m reminded that we stopped winning Cups back in the ’90s when we lost Phil Bourque, Bob Errey and Troy Loney.
What do you think?
Anyone else have any thoughts?
Rick
Hey Rick,
As I wrote I am not averse to making the deal at all. For me it would depend on what the full deal looks like. With Duchene’s flexiibilty to play wing, the Pens could possibly pick up a couple of defensive centers to play more near the end of the season, shifting Duchene up to Malkin’s wing, where he could take the FOs while Malkin actually played Center. Duchene is a much better FO man. A possibility would be your suggestion of D Moore, with maybe Cullen if he wants another go. During the regualr season he could see spot duty so as to save his body the wear and tear and then come play-off time he could play more. I don’t know, I may already be a little bit past spit balling ideas since I brooched the subject a couple of days ago. I was just spit balling ideas back then and there are so many questions to be answered yet with RFAs, but I obviously think something could be worked out.
The biggest obstacle would be time. I would think that speed would be essential. I would try and workout the deal before FA starts as well as signing my RFAs, so that I know exactly who I need to target and how much $$$.
I do agree, that as much as I like Rust and Sheary, at least one of them would seem expendable. I would offer Sheary first. As much as he may have been the catalyst to the Phoenix (Pens) rising from the ashes of the MJ regime, he would seem the the more expendable. Particularly if Sprong does come into camp ready to take on an NHL role. I would think that Crosby – Guentzel – Sprong will be the line.
I also think that Aston – Reese’s development may be a good gauge for Hornqvist’s future. I like Hornqvist but if Aston – Reese is ready by mid season like Guentzel, it may be time to trade Hornqvist before next years free agancy. However, that may be to far ahead to be looking right now. Neither Sprong nor Duchene would make Hornqvist expendable for me.
interesting, but the Pens would have only two signed defensemen. I did look up Duchene’s stats. I was checking to see how many of his points came from the powerplay. the reason being he may not see much time there. The PP is a low portion of his points.
If there was a decent chance, the idiot PG guy probably ruined it by ripping Maatta a new one.
Colorado might be looking to up their younger guys and dump salary. Maatta fits the younger guy part but has a lot of salary. I would also bet that a Pouliot, Sprong for Duchene deal might work. Then maybe ship off Hagelin’s contract for a draft pick.
Any thoughts on picking up Thornton to replace Bonino or Cullen? If he would do a two year $2 mil a year, it would be same price as Cullen.
Hey Phil,
If you look up “stick-in-the-mud” in the dictionary, you’ll see my picture … 🙂
I’m just not a huge Thornton fan, at least not at this stage of his career. I know he can still distribute the puck. But to me, “Super Joe’s” become “Slow Joe.” He couldn’t keep pace in the 2016 playoffs against us, and I doubt if he’d be able to now.
Not that Bonino won many races, either. But he was kind of like Ron Francis in that he always seemed to get to where he needed to be.
I’m not necessarily wild about him, but I’d rather sign Dominic Moore than Thornton. He’s more of a Bonino-type…he’s got speed and some sand, wins faceoffs and can kill penalties.
Maybe I should change my PP name to Stand Pat … 🙂
Rick
Hey Rick,
The Pundits on the NHL website think like you, they are suggesting that the Pens may go after Dominic Moore as a FA C choice. They also suggest that the Pens may go after Brian Boyle, like you suggested a while back, as well as Sam Gagner from CBJ. However, Gagner may be way too expensive unless the Pens dump some salry somewhere.
Interestingly enough those same pundits are suggesting that the Pens aren’t really looking outside the organization for FA D. They are suggesting that Daley and Hainsey are the only D they may be looking at.
Hey Other Rick,
Mr. Excitement here. My sense tells me the Pens most likely will try to fill gaps from within as much as possible (Daley and/or Hainsey on d, etc.).
But…and it’s a BIG but…JR isn’t afraid to pull the trigger on a whopper, either.
Bottom line? You just never know …
Rick
PS–Crosby, Malkin and Duchene down the middle would be awesome. I just don’t want to give up anybody to get him.
I understand that, I, also, hate to give up anyone, but at $6mil/yr the Pens will have to give up someone and someone with a big salary. That is why I think Duchene is more likely to become a Pen than Gagner. The Pens won’t have room to sign him unless they dump some salary.
Above I mention reading about the Caps maybe in the Market for D with all of their losses in D to Vegas and the FA market. I stopped short of trying to shop Letang there. Mainly because I think Was not really trying to sign Alzner and Shattenkirk is a prelude to them shopping Ovie. So if they are in reboot mode they wouldn’t want him. That is the part I edited out.
But I really would love to free up his $7mil unless I was 100% sure he was coming back at or near 100% and would play 70+ games. That is why I keep thinking about who I could trade hm too
Did you read Phil’s comment about McKinnon and Barrie up in Cranberry at the Pens Developmental Camp?
Also I read somewhere else, that Daley has 10 suitors and since I read it on the internet you know it must be true.
Anyhow, it may be hard for the Pens to resign him. I actually love his shot and his skating ability (Although some times he has moments of what?) but his price may go above what I think his value to the team is.
Hey Other Rick,
Alzner interests me. Not flashy, but real solid. I haven’t seen any indication that the Pens might be looking at him.
Gagner had a really nice bounce-back season for Columbus, and he’s got some skill. But he’s probably in line for a sizeable boost in pay.
Yes, I did see Phil’s comment about MacKinnon and Barrie.
Things that make you go hmmm … 🙂
Rick
Hey Phil,
About Joe; I got the impression that he may try and stay in SJ. However, like I wrote the other day, it may be worth a discussion come FA time.
Do you think he would want a diminished role behind Crosby and Malkin or even further, behind Duchene as well?
About Maatta, I am not so sure that Col would really pay any heed to that article if they did read it. Seems to me the author was more of a Maatta hater whose opinions were over-dramatized. As you know, I am not the head of the Maatta fan club, but watching a little closer as you suggested over the last couple of PO games as well as looking at his statixtics over the last couple of years, he is +44, that aint too shabby.
Just read Thorton is talking to the Kings.
Hey all,
I’m sure everyone’s aware. But in case you haven’t heard, Marc-Andre Fleury wrote a really touching goodbye letter to Pens fans and the city of Pittsburgh.
It’s posted on The Players’ Tribune web site:
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/marc-andre-fleury-thank-you-pittsburgh/
I guess it’s ridiculously redundant to mention again what a great guy and class act Flower is, but I’ll do it anyways.
All our best, to you and your family, Marc-Andre.
Rick
Thanks for the heads up and link