Throughout the last several months, the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) has been counting down the top-50 players of the last 50 years who have played junior hockey in the Western Hockey League (WHL), the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), and the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL).
On Thursday, they finally reached No. 1 – and it is none other than the greatest Pittsburgh Penguin of all time.
Franchise legend Mario Lemieux, a QMJHL alumnus from the Laval Voisins, was given top honors as the greatest CHL player of the last 50 years, eclipsing current Penguins' captain Sidney Crosby (Rimouski Oceanic of the QMJHL) at No. 2 and Wayne Gretzky (Peterborough Petes and Soo Greyhounds, OHL) at No. 3.
“I'm honored to be chosen among this group of great players," Lemieux said. "My time at Laval and in the QMJHL played a big role in preparing me for an NHL career. We all appreciate what the CHL has meant to Canadian hockey and the development of our players through the years.”
CHL President Dan MacKenzie had some high praise for Lemieux in an official press release from the CHL.
“Mario Lemieux’s dominance with the Laval Voisins remains one of the defining achievements in CHL history,” MacKenzie said. “His 1983-84 season set a standard that has stood for more than 40 years, and the career that followed only strengthened his place among the greatest players our game has ever seen."
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The 1983-84 season that MacKenzie referenced was the greatest season in CHL history. Lemieux registered an astounding, unbeatable 282 points (133 goals, 149 assists) in only 70 games. In three QMJHL seasons with Laval, Lemieux registered a total of 247 goals and 562 points in 200 career games.
This preceded his all-time great NHL career that was, unfortunately, hampered by injuries, but in which he still managed to put up 690 goals and 1,723 points in only 915 NHL games.
Crosby – who, at No. 2, gave the Penguins the top-two spots on the list – spent only two seasons with Rimouski, amassing 120 goals and 303 points in 121 games. He beat out Gretzky and Erie Otters (OHL) alumnus Connor McDavid at No. 4 on the list.
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