Lemieux to announce retirement

[pldhockey4 0]

you need money when a desease like cancer hits, its VERY expensive to deal with. he may of retired because he didnt know he was going to recover, its a scary situation for those around you. his agents may of told him to, yet then he recovered and came back.

retired or not, m. jordan is the greatest ever, and lemieux can still be one of the best even if he retired 3 times.

[43%burnt 0]

with the retirement of both mario and ziggy, how much are the pens saving in contract/cap money? wasn't mario making 5 min and ziggy something like 2-3? i wonder if patrick will try to unload as many big contracts as he can or may try to pick someone up?

it sucks to see mario retire, but even when he was playing this year he just didn't have the legs. he became a pp specialist. one of my favorite players on ice of all time. the pens stanley cup runs got my into hockey. super mario will be missed.

[Chadd 916]

Mario: $3.0M

http://www.nhlpa.com/WebStats/PlayerBiography.asp?ID=3246

Palffy: 3 year 13.5M

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060119/ap_on_...penguins_palffy

[DarkStar50 679]

Walk a mile in Mario's shoes, see what its like to battle cancer, back surgery, now a serious heart condition, have a team you saved go bankrupt and owe you $30 million in deferred salary(and the first person who continues to say he bought the team to get his $, tell me what you would do if it was you, like you would walk away from the $ owed you), have a natural gifted talent for a game he did love, and then have a career that was only a half of what it could have been and then we can talk. All this conjecture and speculation about Mario and his dedication is bullshit on everyone's part who posts that garbage. Try to imagine living one day in his life, you pick the year and the day, when he battled cancer or spent three months in a hospital after back surgery on rehab, and tell me you could have done the things he has done and come out on the other side. Now is the time to admire and respect the man for what he has accomplished not only in his professional hockey career, but his life.

[Fury of One 6]

Well said. It's very easy to criticize when you don't know what they go through or just see on TV.

[DarkStar50 679]

Theo,

Some day down the road you will be older and a lot more wiser. It is then that you will realize that your anti-Mario stance was all a waste of time and energy. Honestly, you and the others(whoever they may be) are really wasting a lot of negative energy on something that could easily be turned into positive energy for you. I say this because I have already been 21 years old, you have not been 49 years old. I used to waste the same time and energy at your age on certain players and teams and then others showed me, too, what a waste of time and energy it was. Revel in Mario for what he was, not for what you thought he should be!!

[PJLime 0]

I didn't get turned on to hockey until after college, growing up in the midwest and just being a baseball fan. I wish I could have seen him in his prime years. Just seeing what he did in his "off-years" was spectacular.

Thanks, Mario.

[Fire0nIce228 1]

I'm not going to get into what he did or why he did it, all I'm going to say is thank you Mario for the on ice memories and your off ice efforts to keep the pens in pittsburgh.

I will definatly be at the game when they put that 66 back in the rafters for all time.

[hip check 0]

Mario has been said to be the most gifted, most talented player in hockey. That does not automatically make him the greatest ambassador for the game. It would be tough to keep up with Gretzky there! His quiet personality (and a language barrier early in his career) didn't lend to him being too sociable with the media.

It does not automatically make him the greatest player. Gretzky put up the same per-game numbers over a greater number of games. Orr changed the way the game was played. Howe could beat you on the scoreboard - or in the penalty box.

I hope he gets his money out of the Penguins. I hope he stays involved in hockey.

Mario will be missed. Sadly, his health never let him play in the league he wished for, a new NHL without clutching and grabbing.

Thanks for the memories.

[Eazy_b97 1]

I had no idea his PPG was so close to Gretzky's.

Mario

GP: 889 Pts: 1701 = 1.913

Wayne

GP: 1487 Pts: 2857 = 1.921

[gee2626 0]

I had no idea his PPG was so close to Gretzky's.

Mario

GP: 889 Pts: 1701 = 1.913

Wayne

GP: 1487 Pts: 2857 = 1.921

Well Mario was ahead of Gretz before his first retirement. Just the last few seasons has lowered his PPG average.

[J-Shera 0]

I think your stats might be off Eazy, today on tv I seen mario was at 1.88 while grets was at somewhere around 1.92. I belive it was on sportsnet.

[Eazy_b97 1]

I think your stats might be off Eazy, today on tv I seen mario was at 1.88 while grets was at somewhere around 1.92. I belive it was on sportsnet.

I'm going off tsn.ca, I guess they didn't update this seasons stats.

Wayne

Mario

[hip check 0]

Those stats are interesting, but Gretzky did play 500+ more games... Longevity, declining skill in the twilight - still pretty good numbers, I think.

If Mario had only been healthy for all of his seasons. I bet a 225 pt. season wouldn't have been out of reach for him.