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: Jake Guentzel
Number: 59
Position: Left wing
Born: Oct. 6, 1994, in Omaha, Neb.
Seasons with Penguins: 2016-current
Statistics with Penguins: 122 games, 38 goals, 43 assists in regular season; 37 games, 23 goals, 19 assists in playoffs.
WHY GUENTZEL?
If you could go back in time and re-do the 2013 NHL Draft, there's just no way that Guentzel would fall to the third round, 77th overall.
Yet that is exactly where the Penguins selected Guentzel, taking a flier on a 5-foot-11, 180-pound (soaking wet) kid from the University of Nebraska-Omaha, a 15-year-old program which has produced just a handful of NHL players, few notable.
The Minnesota-raised and trained Guentzel, the son of a college hockey coach, dominated at UNO, but no one could have foreseen what was to come.
After scoring 21 goals in just 33 games in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in 2016-17, Guentzel was called up to Pittsburgh on Nov. 21, 2016 and made an immediate impact, scoring two goals in his NHL debut against the Rangers with his parents and older brother in attendance:
No, Guentzel didn't keep up that kind of pace ... at least for a while anyway. He scored 16 goals in 33 regular-season games but forged his name in playoff history in the spring of '17 by recording an NHL-best 13 goals in 25 postseason games as the Penguins captured their second straight Stanley Cup.
Three of those goals came in Game 3 of the first round against Columbus, including the game-winner in overtime:
Though not blessed with great size or a particularly hard shot, Guentzel has a nose for the net and puts himself in position to score goals with regular centerman Sidney Crosby. He's also proven quite durable. He appeared in all 82 games in 2017-18, and though he posted a rather pedestrian 22 goals and 48 points, he took it to the next level, yet again, in the playoffs.
The 22-year-old proved himself to be no fluke by scoring an incredible 10 goals and 21 points in just a dozen playoff games as the Penguins' Cup run ended in the second round against Washington.
WHAT'S HE DOING NOW?
All eyes will be on Guentzel this season as he looks to merge his remarkable postseasons with his average regular seasons. If he can do that, Guentzel could be a legitimate superstar in the NHL. He has spent his off-season back home in his native Minnesota, playing in Da Beauty League, a summer league for NHLers in the Twin Cities.
IT WAS SPOKEN
“We talk a lot as a coaching staff about players that have ‘it,’ that I-T. It’s hard to explain in words what that ‘it’ is, but you know it when you see it, and I think Jake is one of those guys. No stage is too big. He’s a real competitive kid. He’s got a high hockey IQ, and he’s one of those guys that’s just gotten better every day that he’s spent with the Pittsburgh Penguins. So you can see the impact that he had throughout the course of this playoffs. I think that’s an indication of what he’s capable of, and I believe that he’s only going to get better.” -- Mike Sullivan, on Guentzel after winning the 2017 Stanley Cup.
“It’s crazy to think. You never would’ve thought that coming into the year. What a year it’s been.” -- Guentzel, on his rookie season.
HONORABLE MENTION AT NO. 59
Michel Ouellet
ANY DEBATE?
Not really. Besides Guentzel and Ouellet, only three other players wore 59 and they were the highly-forgettable Robert Dome, Carl Sneep and Jayson Megna. Those three players had 12 combined goals with the Penguins, or one fewer than Guentzel had in the 2017 postseason alone. So, no.
Tomorrow: No player has worn No. 60, so we skip ahead. Taylor Haase has No. 61.
Yesterday: Kris Letang