page_title: Pittsburgh Penguins
section_title: Lemieux's retirement and return (1997–2001)
hierarchical_section_title: Pittsburgh Penguins / Team history / Lemieux–Jagr era (1984–2005) / Lemieux's retirement and return (1997–2001)
caption_attribution_description: English: Ice hockey player Mario Lemieux in 2001. Français&#160;: Le joueur canadien de hockey sur glace Mario Lemieux en 2001
context_page_description: The Pittsburgh Penguins are a professional ice hockey team based in Pittsburgh. They compete in the National Hockey League as a member of the Metropolitan Division of the Eastern Conference. The club is owned by Mario Lemieux and Ronald Burkle, who purchased the Penguins in 1999 and brought the club out of bankruptcy.
  The franchise was founded in 1967 as one of the first expansion teams during the league's expansion from six to twelve teams. The Penguins played in the Civic Arena, also known as The Igloo, from the time of their inception through the end of the 2009–10 season, when they moved to the Consol Energy Center, which was later renamed PPG Paints Arena. The 1992–93 Penguins won the franchise's first-ever Presidents' Trophy for being the team with the most points at the end of the regular season. In addition to their eight division titles, they have qualified for six Stanley Cup Finals, winning the Stanley Cup five times – in 1991, 1992, 2009, 2016, and 2017. Along with the Edmonton Oilers, the Penguins are tied for the most Stanley Cup championships among non-Original Six teams and sixth overall.
context_section_description: The franchise was rocketed forward on April 6, 1997, when Mario Lemieux, citing ongoing health concerns, and disapproval with the way NHL hockey was being officiated, announced that he would retire at the conclusion of the 1997 playoffs. Lemieux was so respected in the NHL, and his achievements over the course of his career were so great, that he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in the same year as he retired, the three-year waiting period being waived. His departure would essentially be the first in a series of events that would lead the Penguins once again into regular season stagnation, and to the brink of financial ruin.
  The team was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in 1998 by the Montreal Canadiens, despite being the second-seeded team in the East. The following year, their playoff run ended in the second round when they lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs in six games. In 2000, the Penguins stunned the highly touted Washington Capitals 4–1 in the first round only to fall to the Philadelphia Flyers 4–2 in the second round. At this point, the lofty contracts handed out during the early 1990s were beginning to catch up with the franchise. Their free-spending ways culminated in the team owing in excess of $90 million to various creditors. Then-owners Howard Baldwin and Morris Belzberg (who bought the Penguins after their first Stanley Cup win) asked the players to defer their salaries to help pay the bills. When the deferred salaries finally came due, combined with other financial pressures, the Penguins were forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 1998. At this point, Lemieux stepped in with an unusual proposal to buy the team out of bankruptcy. The Penguins owed Lemieux $32.5 million in deferred salary, making him the team's largest individual creditor. He proposed to recover this money by converting it into equity—enough to give him controlling interest over the team. He also vowed to keep the team in Pittsburgh. The NHL and the courts agreed, and Lemieux (with help from supermarket tycoon Ronald Burkle) assumed control on September 3, 1999, thus saving the franchise for the second time.
  Lemieux once again shocked the hockey world by announcing at a press conference on December 8, 2000, his intentions to return to the Penguins as an active player. On December 27, 2000, Lemieux stepped onto NHL ice for the first time in 44 months, officially becoming the first player–owner in NHL history. Lemieux helped lead the Penguins deep into the 2001 playoffs, highlighted by an overtime victory against the Buffalo Sabres in Game 7 of the second round. Darius Kasparaitis scored the series-clinching goal to advance the Penguins to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they lost in five games to the New Jersey Devils.
caption: Lemieux with the Penguins during the 2000–01 season, his first season back after unretiring.
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