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 #72 in Penguins’ history.
Five players in franchise history have worn #72. Alexei Kovalev wore it during his brief second stint with the Penguins in 2011, and Anthony Beauvillier wears it now.
But this one belongs to a Cup hero for the Penguins. The best #72 in Penguins history is Patric Hornqvist.
In the summer of 2014, the Penguins made a controversial trade, dealing James Neal to the Nashville Predators for forwards Nick Spaling and Hornqvist. Neal was an elite goal-scorer and sniper, and many criticized the move.
But it ended up being one of the most impactful trades in recent memory.
Hornqvist came to Pittsburgh and played the type of hard-nosed, “sandpaper-style” game that the Penguins wanted more of in their lineup. His grit and willingness to cause havoc, frustrate opponents, and go to the dirty areas endeared him to Pittsburgh and his teammates very quickly – and it also bolstered some areas of the Penguins’ game that had been bit a bit lacking.
Hornqvist provided a much-needed net-front presence on the Penguins’ power play, which catapulted the team to the top of the league and helped shift momentum on a game-by-game basis:
In 407 regular season games with the Penguins, Hornqvist registered 132 goals and 264 points. But, although he made an impact during the regular season, his real impact occurred in the playoffs for the Penguins.
In the 2016 playoffs, Hornqvist had nine goals and 13 points in 24 games. And one of his biggest came in Game 3 against Washington, when he scored the overtime winner to put the Penguins up 3-1 in the Eastern Conference Semifinal series:
The Penguins went on to win the Stanley Cup in 2016, but the biggest goal of Hornqvist’s career came in the 2017 Stanley Cup Final. The Penguins were leading the Nashville Predators in the series, 3-2, and Game 6 had no score heading into the final two minutes.
And Hornqvist is the one who delivered.
The Penguins went on to secure back-to-back Stanley Cup championships, and Hornqvist was a huge part of that.
He remained with the Penguins until the end of the 2019-20 season in which he played in only four games. He was traded to the Florida Panthers for defenseman Mike Matheson and forward Colton Sceviour during the 2020 offseason, and he played there through the end of 2023.
Over the course of his NHL career, Hornqvist registered 264 goals and 543 points in 901 games.
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