List of Pittsburgh Penguins draft picks


The Pittsburgh Penguins are a team in the National Hockey League.

First-round selections

became the first of 20 players selected by the Penguins in the 1967 NHL Expansion Draft on June 6, 1967. The next day, the Penguins participated in their first amateur draft, where they selected Steve Rexe second overall.
The Penguins obtained the first-overall pick in 1984, and selected Mario Lemieux from the Laval Voisins of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Lemieux won the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL's best rookie in 1985. He went on to win six Art Ross trophies as the NHL's leading scorer, captained the team to Stanley Cup championships in 1991 and 1992, and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1997 following his first retirement. He later came back to play in another five seasons for the Penguins, and in 1999, became chairman and co-owner of the team. As owner, Lemieux negotiated an agreement to construct a new arena, the Consol Energy Center, ensuring the team's future in Pittsburgh. After the Penguins' 2009 Stanley Cup victory, Lemieux became the first person to win a Stanley Cup as both a player and an owner.
In 1990, the Penguins drafted Czechoslovakian Jaromir Jagr with the fifth overall pick. Following the Velvet Revolution of 1989, Jagr was the first Czechoslovak to attend the NHL Draft with the government's permission, becoming the first drafted without having to defect to the West. Jagr was also the first European drafted in the first round by the Penguins after selecting only Canadians in their first 23 years. He was the first of four consecutive first round Europeans, and eight in ten years from 1990 to 1999.
Artem Kopot, and up-and-coming Russian defenseman with the Soviet under-18 team who had also played 28 games with his hometown Traktor Chelyabinsk in 1991–92, was the first Russian player to be drafted by the Penguins, selected in the sixth round, 139th overall, of the 1992 NHL Entry Draft. Less than a month after being selected by the Penguins and five days before his 20th birthday, Kopot was involved in a fatal one-car accident in his hometown of Chelyabinsk. Kopot was the only person in the vehicle.
Brooks Orpik was the first American drafted by the Penguins when he was selected in 2000 from Boston College. Along with Ryan Whitney in 2002 and Beau Bennett in 2010, the Penguins have only selected three Americans in the first round as of 2011.
The Penguins traded for another first overall pick for 2003, which they used to select goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. Fleury was the third goaltender selected first overall behind Michel Plasse and Rick DiPietro. Pittsburgh's first-round selection, second overall, in 2004, Evgeni Malkin, was the Penguins' second Calder Trophy winner. The Penguins earned another first overall selection in 2005 and selected Sidney Crosby in what was nicknamed the "Sidney Crosby Sweepstakes."
Through 2014, of the 43 players were drafted in the first round by the Penguins, there are 13 centers, 15 wingers, 11 defenders and four goaltenders. The large majority of the players come from Canada with 29. The United States and Czechoslovakia have three; Russia, Sweden and Finland have two drafted players, while Belarus and Slovakia each have a single player drafted.

List

The 1967 NHL Expansion Draft

Pittsburgh's first players were selected from these Original Six Teams

Chicago">Chicago Blackhawks">Chicago

  • Roy Edwards
  • Art Stratton
  • Billy Dea
  • Mel Pearson

    Boston">Boston Bruins">Boston

  • Bob Dillabough
  • Jeannot Gilbert

    Detroit">Detroit Red Wings">Detroit

  • Joe Daley
  • Ab McDonald
  • Leo Boivin
  • Val Fonteyne
  • Andy Bathgate

Montreal">Montreal Canadiens">Montreal

  • Noel Price
  • Keith McCreary
  • Tom McCarthy
  • Bobby Rivard

    New York">New York Rangers">New York

  • Earl Ingarfield
  • Al MacNeil
  • Ken Schinkel
  • Les Hunt

    Toronto">Toronto Maple Leafs">Toronto

  • Larry Jeffery

Penguins selected in the Amateur/Entry Draft

[1967 NHL Amateur Draft]

[1992 NHL Entry Draft]