MARIO LEMIEUX
Chairman and CEO

The greatest player in franchise history and already a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, Mario Lemieux enters his fourth season in the unique role as player-owner of the Penguins.

“I love the game, I love to play, and I’m looking forward to working with our young players,” Lemieux said in July, when he announced he would return to the ice for his 16th season as a Penguin. “I see a bright future for our franchise. It’s an exciting time.”

Lemieux’s name has become virtually synonomous with the Penguins franchise, and he established himself as one of Pittsburgh’s all-time sports legends even before he assembled a group of investors to buy the club out of bankruptcy in September, 1999.

The first pick overall in the 1984 draft, Lemieux scored more than 600 goals and 1,400 points and led the Penguins to two Stanley Cups during the “first portion” of his career from 1984-97. He won six NHL scoring titles, three league MVP trophies and two Conn Smythe Trophies as MVP of the playoffs in addition to the two Cups – all this despite a stunning series of medical setbacks, including a battle with cancer and two major back operations, that led to his premature retirement in 1997 at the tender age of 31.

In honor of his prodigious feats, the Hockey Hall of Fame waived its normal three-year waiting period and enshrined Lemieux in November, 1997, less than seven months after he’d played his “final” game.

But we hadn’t seen the last of him.

It was a unique and dramatic set of circumstances that led him back to the game – and the business – at the very highest level in the late 1990s. The Penguins, faltering under enormous debt and financial burdens, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October, 1998. And it was Lemieux, who’d agreed to defer much of the salary from his final contract, who was left as the largest unsecured creditor.

In a matter of months, he assembled and spearheaded a group of investors to buy the team out of bankruptcy and restore its financial health. They submitted a reorganization plan to U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Bernard Markovitz in March of 1999, had it confirmed in June and – after several months of intense negotiations with partners and vendors – received final approval on September 3, 1999.

“No one could have done this but Mario Lemieux,” said NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. “Our hats are off to Mario and his investors and his management team.”

Lemieux thus became the first former player to own a professional sports team in the modern era. In his first season of ownership, he led a tremendous financial renaissance that saw the Penguins break even on an operating basis after losing $13 million the previous year.

And although Lemieux’s background was on the ice, not in the boardroom, his stature in the community and deft touch in negotiations made him a major player on the corporate scene.

What no one knew at the time was that the competitive fires had started to crackle inside him again – and that Lemieux himself was seriously considering a comeback.

The seed was planted while he watched the Penguins’ 2000 playoff series against the Philadelphia Flyers from the owner’s box at Mellon Arena, and it continued to grow when he accompanied the team to Tokyo to begin the 2000-01 season with two games against the Nashville Predators.

By late November of 2000, several weeks after conducting private workouts with former teammate Jay Caufield, Lemieux had decided to make a comeback as a player.

The word leaked out in early December and became front-page headline news. The hockey world was abuzz. Lemieux targeted a Dec. 27 home game vs. Toronto for his return engagement, and the Penguins had to order extra phone lines to accommodate the ticket demand.

In his first game back, before a throbbing sellout crowd at Mellon Arena and a national television audience, Lemieux again displayed his amazing flair for the dramatic by recording an assist 33 seconds into his first shift (sports historians remembered how he’d scored a goal on his first NHL shot, on his first shift, as a teenager back in 1984). He finished with a goal and two assists in a 5-0 Penguins victory on that memorable night.

And he never let up. He rang up 12 points in his first four games and finished the 2000-01 regular season with 35 goals and 41 assists for 76 points in 43 games. Then, in the cauldron of the Stanley Cup playoffs, he paced the Penguins with 17 points in 18 games and led them to the Eastern Conference finals, where they finally were derailed by the New Jersey Devils. Still, it was the first time since 1996 that they’d reached the third round of the playoffs.

Lemieux had high hopes for a continuation of his success in 2001-02, but a hip injury suffered in training camp required surgery in late October and hampered him for the entire season. Although he was able to help Team Canada to a gold medal in the two-week Olympic tournament at Salt Lake City, he was able to play just 24 games for the Penguins, recording 31 points, and missed the final month and a half of the regular season.

He started strong in 2002-03 and led the league in scoring for much of the season before eventually finishing eighth with 28 goals and 63 assists for 91 points in 67 games.

Entering the 2002-03, his career numbers were 682 goals and 1,692 points in 879 games, and he was closing in on tantalizing career milestones of 700 goals and 1,700 points.

In addition to his feats in the hockey world, Lemieux continues to oversee the Mario Lemieux Foundation for cancer research and neo-natal research and hosts its annual celebrity golf tournament, which raises millions of dollars for charity.

In February 2001, Lemieux announced that the foundation was making a $5 million gift to the UPMC Health System to create the Mario Lemieux Centers for Patient Care and Research.

Mario, his wife Nathalie and their four children live in the Pittsburgh suburb of Sewickley.

KEN SAWYER
President and Governor

Ken Sawyer, a key member of the Penguins’ executive management team since 1999, was named president of the Penguins in March, 2003 adding to his previous responsibilities as president of Lemieux Group LP, the parent organization of the Penguins and related companies.

Sawyer now oversees all of the Penguins’ business operations, including corporate planning, marketing, ticket and corporate sponsorship sales, communications, finance and legal matters. In addition to spearheading the team’s bid for a new arena, he also represents the Penguins in all league matters and is a member of the NHL’s Board of Governors.

“Ken brings a tremendous amount of experience at both the NHL and team levels to this new position,” said team owner Mario Lemieux. “He already has done a great job of restructuring our organization on the business side, and I’ll rely heavily on his expertise during the coming season.”

Sawyer brought 20 years of professional sports experience to Pittsburgh when he arrived in 1999 – including 14 years as Chief Financial Officer of the National Hockey League (1979-93). From 1993-99, he operated his own financial consulting firm and served as a consultant to a number of professional sports organizations, including the Penguins.

A native of Montreal, the same hometown as Lemieux, he joined the Penguins as executive vice president and chief financial officer in September, 1999 and became president of Lemieux Group LP two years later.

Sawyer is a graduate of McGill University in Montreal and is a chartered accountant. He and his wife, Shirley, reside in Pittsburgh. They have two sons, Scott and Christopher.

CRAIG PATRICK
Executive Vice President/General Manager

One of the most respected executives in professional hockey and a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, Craig Patrick enters his 15th season as general manager of the Penguins.

Since taking over the hockey department in December, 1989, Patrick has led the Penguins to two Stanley Cups, five division titles and 11 playoff berths. And although the Penguins missed the playoffs in each of the past two seasons, Patrick is energized and optimistic about the club’s current rebuilding mode.

“We’ve got a lot of young talent in this organization, we’ve got a dynamic young head coach, we’ve brought in some quality veterans – and, obviously, we’ve got Mario back on the ice,” he said.

“We’re rebuilding, but we’re still setting high goals. We’ve always set our goals high here in Pittsburgh.”

The Penguins hadn’t won any championships before Patrick arrived on the scene, but he changed the mindset – and the track record – quickly. In his first full season, 1990-91, he led the club to its first of two straight Stanley Cups, and since then a steady stream of successful and highly skilled players have proudly worn the black and gold.

Under Patrick, the Penguins posted the second-best record in the NHL during the 1990s, trailing only the Detroit Red Wings. That success continued into the new millennium, as the Penguins advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2000-01.

And even after missing the playoffs last year, Patrick generated some unique excitement by trading up for the first overall pick in the 2003 entry draft – which he used to select goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.

As a testament to his skill and dedication, Patrick has been with his team longer than all but one current NHL general manager, Lou Lamoriello of the New Jersey Devils.

His induction to the Hockey Hall of Fame in the fall of 2001 made him the fourth member and third generation of his family to enter the Hall, joining his grandfather Lester, father Lynn and great-uncle Frank.

Craig was inducted for a lifetime of achievements in all facets and at all levels of the sport. And although he was a collegiate star and an NHL player, he has made his greatest impact as a manager in the NHL and on the international scene.

He was assistant coach and assistant general manager of the 1980 U.S. Olympic team that performed the “Miracle On Ice” and won an improbable gold medal, served as GM of the 1991 U.S. team at the Canada Cup and was GM of the star-laden 2002 U.S. Olympic team, which claimed a silver medal at Salt Lake City.

He parlayed his early Olympic service into a job as GM of the New York Rangers from 1981-86, leading the Rangers to the playoffs in each of his five seasons. But he is best known for his work with the Penguins since coming to Pittsburgh as general manager on December 5, 1989.

In addition to the two Cups and the five division titles, Patrick was named Sporting News NHL Executive of the Year in a vote of his peers in 1990-91, 1997-98 and 1998-99. He also won the 2000 Lester Patrick Award for contributions to hockey in the United States and was inducted to the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 1996.

Patrick played college hockey at the University of Denver and captained the Pioneers to the NCAA championship in 1969. He played eight NHL seasons with five different teams, registering 72 goals and 163 points in 401 games before retiring in 1979. He also represented the U.S. at the 1976 Canada Cup and appeared in numerous international tournaments.

Born in Detroit, Patrick grew up in Boston and New Haven and was immersed in hockey because of his family ties. His grandfather, Lester, one of the legendary builders of the game, served as head coach and general manager of the New York Rangers and led his team to three Stanley Cups. His father, Lynn, was an all-star winger for the Rangers, became head coach of the club from 1948-50 and later served as GM of the Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues. His uncle, Muzz, played defense for the Rangers and was GM/coach from 1954-64.

Patrick has four children - daughters Erin and Taylor and sons CJ and Ryan – and two grandsons, Ryan and Reed.