Pittsburgh Penguins Captain Sidney Crosby Chases Mario Lemieux

For almost two decades, Sidney Crosby has been the face of the Pittsburgh Penguins. But he hasn't been their all-time franchise leader in goals, assists and points.

After Crosby's 600th career NHL goal on Saturday, he could. He just has to pass one of the best hockey players ever, the man who let Crosby live with his family at the beginning of Sid the Kid's career.

Crosby is one step closer to Mario Lemieux, who leads the franchise in nearly every standard scoring category. Lemieux is the franchise leader in points, goals, assists, power-play goals and points, and even shorthanded goals and points.

Some records are simply out of reach. However, it’s not out of the question for Crosby to pass Lemieux in goals, assists and points.

Lemieux finished his career with 690 goals and 1,033 assists for 1,723 points in just 915 games. At 37 years old, Crosby is in the later stages of his playing career. That said, he’s often proven that age is just a number with his production.

In his last two seasons, Crosby scored more than 90 points with the Penguins despite missing the playoffs in both those campaigns. Now in his 20th NHL season, he’s on pace to score more than 70 points – 74, to be exact. He has eight goals and 13 assists for 21 points in 23 games.

Crosby’s current career totals are 600 goals and 1,017 assists for 1,617 points in 1,295 games, 380 more games than Lemieux.

If Crosby keeps up with this season’s scoring pace, he could break more franchise records very soon. He only needs 16 more helpers to pass Lemieux. That could be accomplished in a matter of months, likely before the 4 Nations Face-Off in February.

It may take a little longer to catch ‘Super Mario’ in the goals and points department, as Lemieux leads by 90 goals and 106 points. If Crosby can remain healthy, those are records he can break in the next two seasons after 2024-25.

As for special teams points, don't expect Crosby to catch Lemieux in those categories. If he continued to produce at his career pace, Crosby would need 452 games to catch Lemieux in power-play goals and 304 games for power-play points. The Penguins haven't used Crosby on the penalty kill, which explains why he would need more than 14,500 games at his current pace to tie Lemieux in shorthanded goals.

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Outside of franchise records, Crosby is making noise in the NHL records book.

On Nov. 19 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Crosby surpassed Joe Sakic on the all-time assists leaderboard, climbing to 13th. Next up on that list is Lemieux.

He is also one goal behind Jari Kurri on the all-time goals list. Once he passes Kurri, that will slot him in the 20th spot among all-time goal-scorers.

Related: As Crosby Nears 600 NHL Goals, How Many Tallies Did Injuries And Shortened Seasons Prevent?

Aside from the difference in career totals, Crosby and Lemieux have a lot in common. They are the only two Penguins to score 600 career goals and 1,000 assists for the team. Both have won multiple Stanley Cups, including back-to-back titles. The two centers also took the QMJHL route to the NHL and dominated.

They both could have produced much more as well.

In the first half of Crosby’s career, he missed more than 100 games due to concussion-related injuries.

As for Lemieux, he announced he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1993 and was out of action for a few months before scoring in a historic return on March 2, 1993.

He also dealt with back surgeries and the side effects of radiation therapy, including fatigue and anemia. Lemieux missed the entire 1994-95 season to recover.

Lemieux then announced his retirement after the 1996-97 season due to the physical and mental toll and was done for three seasons before the Hockey Hall of Famer returned in 2000-01. He retired for good in 2005-06 after being diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat.

While Lemieux missed a lot more time than Crosby, they have a combined total of 3,340 points and are among the NHL's top 10 scorers ever. Whether Crosby ends up higher than Lemieux on that list by the end of his career will be worth following from now on.

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