Mario Lemieux (1965- )

• professional hockey player, led the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Stanley Cup championship title in 1991 and 1992
• born in Montreal, Quebec
• dropped out of school at age 16, a year after joining Montreal's Laval Voisin junior hockey team
• in 1984 the Pittsburgh Penguins, then in last place, made Lemieux the first selection in the National Hockey League (NHL) draft.
• in his first year with the Penguins, Lemieux won the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL rookie of the year and his first most valuable player (MVP) award in the NHL All-Star game
• in the 1987-1988 season Lemieux overtook Canadian hockey star
• Wayne Gretzky as the NHL's high scorer, either scoring or assisting in more than half of his team's 319 goals
• won the Hart Trophy for that season's most valuable player in the NHL and was Sporting News's Player of the Year.
• repeated as scoring champion in 1989.
• in 1991 and again in 1992, the Penguins won the Stanley Cup, and Lemieux was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy two years in a row as the most valuable player in the playoffs
• in the 1991-1992 season, he led the league in scoring, totaling 44 goals and 87 assists
• February 1993, Lemieux left the team to undergo treatment for Hodgkin's disease, a form of cancer. He rejoined the Penguins in March and, despite missing 24 of the season's 84 games, he won the Art Ross Trophy as leading scorer for the season.
• Lemieux returned to the Penguins, due to his illness he could only play every other game, but in 1996 still led the league in scoring
• retired for a second time Jan. 25, 2006

back to the Well Known Canadians Page