Who wore it best: No. 92, Rick Tocchet

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 will be around the start of training camp.

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Name: Rick Tocchet

Number: 92

Position: Right wing

Born: April 9, 1964, in Scarborough, Ontario

Seasons with Penguins: 1992-1994

Statistics with Penguins: 150 games, 76 goals, 103 assists in regular season; 32 games, 15 goals, 22 assists in playoffs.

WHY TOCCHET?

There are few things, if any, that unite hockey fans across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: A love for Rick Tocchet is one exception.

Though the Penguins' identity was -- and is -- that of a highly-skilled superstar-based team, Tocchet's no-nonsense, physical brand of hockey appealed to blue-collar Pittsburgh as much as it did in Philadelphia, where he'd been a rock star his first eight seasons with the Flyers.

Without the February 19, 1992 blockbuster three-way trade that brought Tocchet, along with Kjell Samuelsson and Ken Wregget from Philly for Mark Recchi and sent Paul Coffey to Los Angeles, it's hard to envision the Penguins winning their second Cup.

Much like Craig Patrick's trade deadline deal the year earlier for Ron Francis and Ulf Samuelsson, Tocchet proved to be the perfect tonic that pushed the slumping Penguins over the top. The defending champions were a pedestrian 27-24-7 when Tocchet was acquired, but finished 12-5-1 to close out the regular season.

Though not the best skater, Tocchet made an immediate impact on the Penguins by scoring 30 points  (14 goals, 16 assists) in 19 games and displayed the toughness that made him one of the toughest power forwards of his generation. Despite breaking his jaw after a puck hit it, Tocchet still took on all comers, including Washington defenseman Kevin Hatcher:

That spring, Tocchet scored 19 points in 14 playoff games despite missing time with a separated shoulder. In the Cup Final against Chicago, he recorded eight points, three of them (a goal and two assists) in the Cup-clincher in Game 4:

That performance earned Tocchet his only Cup ring as a player after falling twice to Wayne Gretzky's dynastic Oilers in the mid-'80s with Philadelphia.

The ill-fated 1992-93 season was Tocchet's most productive in black and gold as he put up career-highs in goals (48), assists (61) and points (109) to go along with a staggering 252 penalty minutes. He then pumped in seven goals in a dozen playoff games, but the Penguins were stunned by the upstart New York Islanders in the second round.

A back injury suffered while training the following season limited him to just 51 games as his production plummeted to just 14 goals and 40 points.

In the summer of '94, Patrick dealt Tocchet along with Pittsburgh's second-round pick in the '95 draft to Los Angeles in exchange for future Hall of Fame left wing Luc Robitaille.

Tocchet went on to play another eight seasons in the league, before hanging up his skates in 2002 at age 37 back where it all started for him, Philadelphia. He retired 10th all-time in penalty minutes (2,970) and is one of five players to score 400 goals with 2,000-plus PIMs along with contemporaries Pat Verbeek, Gary Roberts, Brendan Shanahan and Keith Tkachuk.