Mario Lemieux biography
Mario Lemieux, (born Oct. 5, 1965, Montreal, Que., Can.), Canadian skilled ice hockey participant who is taken into account one of many best gamers within the historical past of the game.
Lemieux starred within the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League as an adolescent, setting a league file by scoring 282 factors in 70 video games through the 1983–84 season. He was chosen by the Pittsburgh Penguins with the primary total choice within the 1984 National Hockey League (NHL) draft. Lemieux had an excellent rookie season: he scored 100 factors, was named to the All-Star group, and was awarded the Calder Memorial Trophy because the NHL’s rookie of the yr. He scored greater than 100 factors in every of his first six years in Pittsburgh and was named NHL Most Valuable Player (MVP) for the 1987–88 season, however the Penguins solely certified for the play-offs as soon as throughout that interval and had been eradicated within the second spherical.
Lemieux missed 54 video games of the 1990–91 season after present process again surgical procedure within the low season, however a reconfigured Penguins group that includes future Hall of Famer Paul Coffey and rookie sensation Jaromir Jagr completed a shocking first of their division. Lemieux returned for all however certainly one of his group’s play-off video games and led the Penguins to their first Stanley Cup championship, incomes play-off MVP honours within the course of. The Penguins repeated as champions the subsequent season, and Lemieux earned a second play-off MVP award.
Lemieux led the NHL in scoring through the 1992–93 season and was named league MVP regardless of a midseason prognosis of Hodgkin illness that induced him to overlook 20 video games for radiation remedy. Fatigue from the remedy and a recurrence of his again ache pressured Lemieux out of all however 22 video games the next season. Lemieux skipped the 1994–95 NHL season to recuperate from his radiation remedy, however he returned at full energy in 1995–96, main the league in all scoring classes on his method to a 3rd profession MVP award. He captured his sixth profession scoring title the next season, however the results of his most cancers remedy and his dissatisfaction with the type of play within the NHL led Lemieux to announce his retirement in 1997 at age 31. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame later that yr.
The small-market Penguins’ long-standing monetary struggles worsened in Lemieux’s absence, and the group declared chapter in 1998. In 1999 Lemieux transformed years of his unpaid Penguins wage to fairness and led a bunch of buyers that collectively bought the group. He got here out of retirement and returned to the Penguins through the 2000–01 season, changing into the primary player-owner in NHL historical past. Though not as dominant as he was in his earlier stint with the Penguins, Lemieux was named to the NHL All-Star group in his first season again, and he led his group on an surprising run to the convention finals within the play-offs. In 2002 he captained the Canadian Olympic hockey group to a gold medal on the Salt Lake City (Utah) Games. Health issues pressured Lemieux out of a lot of video games throughout his final seasons within the NHL, and he retired for a second and ultimate time halfway by way of the 2005–06 season. Despite lacking 5 full seasons for his most cancers remedy, his first retirement, and the 2004–05 NHL labour lockout, Lemieux positioned ninth on the NHL’s all-time objectives scored record, tenth all-time in assists, and seventh all-time in whole factors on the time of his second retirement. The Penguins received their third Stanley Cup in 2008–09, and Lemieux grew to become the primary particular person to win the cup as each a participant and an proprietor.