PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Only Mario Lemieux has won the award more, Sidney Crosby named the Pens Most Valuable Player for the 11th time.
The vote comes from his teammates as the 35-year-old leads the Pens in scoring with 91 points (33 goals). If he does finish first in scoring, Evgeni Malkin is second with 82 points, it will be 13th time in his career he’s done so-even Mario didn’t do that. Crosby became the 15th player to surpass 1500 career points Saturday in Detroit. The next two on the all-time list are also former Penguins, Paul Coffey (1531) and Mark Recchi (1533). Lemieux has the most in Penguins history with 1,723 points.
A trio was named the Players’ Player award winners-Crosby, Jason Zucker and Kris Letang. The award goes to the player or players who the team feels best exemplifies leadership on and off the ice and is dedicated to teamwork. Finally, for the 31-year-old Zucker he was able to play the majority of the season. At least eight times Zucker dealt with injuries in his 3.5 seasons with the Pens and finally an opportunity to show why former GM Jim Rutherford traded for him. Zucker has 27 goals (career-high 25 even strength) and 21 assists in 76 games.
Letang became the third Penguin to play in 1,000 career games and he leads team defensemen with 11 goals and 28 assists this year.
Defenseman PO Joseph named the Pens Rookie of the Year. The 23-year-old played in 73 games with five goals and 16 assists. He’s just the 11th Pens rookie defenseman to amass 20 or more points in his first season.