Welcome to our series on who wore each number best for the Penguins.
The idea is being openly borrowed from our new hockey writer, Cody Tucker, and his project at the Lansing State Journal covering all the uniform numbers worn through Michigan State football history, one that's been well received by their readers and prompted heavy discussion and debate.
Under the organization of Taylor Haase, and following the voting of a big chunk of our staff, we'll publish one new one each day until completion, which should be right around the start of training camp.
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Name: Joey Mullen
Number: 7
Position: Right wing
Born: Feb. 26, 1957 in New York
Seasons with Penguins: 1990-95, 1996-97
Statistics with Penguins: 379 games, 133 goals, 172 assists in regular season, 40 games, 16 goals, 15 assists in playoffs
WHY MULLEN?
His is simply one of the most remarkable and inspiring stories in NHL -- or sports -- history. Mullen was raised in a tenement in Hell's Kitchen, a rough-and-tumble neighborhood on the West Side of Manhattan, and only learned to play the game on roller skates. When he did play on ice, it was on a rink on the 16th floor of a New York skyscraper. But he was good enough to earn a partial scholarship to Boston College where he starred and, later, turned down a spot on the 1980 U.S. Olympic team because he needed the money that pro hockey afforded. Once deemed too small (5-foot-9) and too slow (a choppy skating style owing to his roller hockey background), Mullen was able to establish himself as one of the best pure goal scorers of the 1980s with the Blues and Flames, helping Calgary to the Stanley Cup in 1989. In June of 1990, the 33-year-old was traded to Pittsburgh and became a key component of the first two championships in Penguins history. In 1991-92, he scored 42 goals, second only to Kevin Stevens and Mario Lemieux, 14 of them coming on the power play. Mullen left the Penguins following the 1994-95 season, signing as a free agent with Boston, but returned the following season when he became the first U.S.-born player to score 500 career goals on March 14, 1997 at Colorado:
In 2000 he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, one of just seven modern-era players who went undrafted.
WHAT'S HE DOING NOW?
Mullen, 61, is currently out of hockey after serving as a coach the previous 17 years. He got into coaching in 2000 as an assistant coach on Ivan Hlinka's staff in Pittsburgh and was held over during the reigns of Rick Kehoe and Ed Olczyk. When Olczyk was fired, he was named interim head coach at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and went 28-16-3-5 to close out the 2006 season. He then moved on to be an assistant for the Philadelphia Phantoms and was promoted after one season to Flyers assistant coach. He helped Philadelphia to the 2010 Stanley Cup Final, coaching the Flyers power play. He was let go following the 2016-17 season.
IT WAS SPOKEN
"What sets him apart is that he doesn't get his goals from a first effort, he gets them from second and third effort. How many times did you see Mullen lying on the ice, sweeping the puck with his stick into the net?" -- Terry Crisp, coach of the Cup-winning 1989 Flames, on Mullen.
"I'd go to war with Joe Mullen." -- Bob Johnson, coach of the Cup-winning 1991 Penguins.
HONORABLE MENTIONS AT NO. 7
Bryan Hextall
Steve Durbano
Rod Buskas
Andrew Ference
Paul Martin
Matt Cullen
Any debate?
Matt Cullen garnered some consideration. Like Mullen, the Minnesota native won two Stanley Cup rings with the Penguins at the end of his career and though Cullen was a valuable contributor on those teams, he didn't have quite the impact that Mullen did.
Tomorrow: Chris Bradford has No. 8.
Yesterday: Trevor Daley
