With the upcoming NHL draft in a couple of weeks, what better time to look back at the past then now? The Pittsburgh Penguins have built the NHL’s top team in terms of playoff wins and Stanley Cups in the salary cap era. A lot of that success can be traced back to the draft day decisions. This week, a multi-part look at how the modern day Penguins were built.
2001-02 was a painful season for the Pens, they had traded Jaromir Jagr for $5 million and three young players and didn’t qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 1990.