Yesterday we investigated the early beginnings of the second era of Penguins championships with the foundation picks from 2002-07 highlighted by drafting three future hall of famers in the first round of 2003, 2004 and one of the greatest of all time and certainly the greatest of his time in 2005.
And the team, who in their current young incarnation had only made the playoffs once (bowing out meekly in five games, at that) changed their tone, attitude, direction in a major way on February 26, 2008 by general manager Ray Shero.
“[Team owners] Ron [Burkle] and Mario [Lemieux] told [Shero] to go after the best player available, don’t worry about the money,” Penguins CEO David Morehouse said.