SIDNEY CROSBY JOINED THE NHL WHEN HE WAS 17 YEARS OLD | PHOTO COURTESY OF PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

Since they were drafted this week in 2005, Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang have been key figures in bringing the Stanley Cup to Pittsburgh three times. The upcoming 2024-25 season will be their 20th year as Pittsburgh Penguins, marking two decades of dedication and skill to professional hockey.

Sidney Crosby, the 36 year-old world-renowned center, was selected first overall in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft by the Penguins at a mere 17 years old. Raised in Cole Harbour, Canada, Crosby came to the Penguins from Rimouski Océanic, a Canadian junior ice hockey team, a part of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

Despite Crosby’s young age, expectations of the future super star were high. He was dubbed “The Next One,” a play on Wayne Gretzky’s “The Great One.”

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“With that jersey comes a heavy burden of expectations,” a TSN reporter told him at the time. “Here you are, still 17 years old, and they’re hailing you as the savior of the franchise. How do you deal with those expectations?”

“I’m not really thinking about it right now,” Crosby replied. “I want to come play in the NHL next year, that’s my goal, that’s my focus right now. So, I’m going to put everything into that and try to move on from there.”

He recorded 102 points during his first season, making him the youngest player to date to reach 100 points in an NHL season. The following 2006-07 season, he reached 120 points and won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league’s most valuable player.

Crosby has played 19 seasons for the Penguins, achieving 592 goals and 1,004 assists. He has won two Hart Memorial trophies and two Conn Smythe trophies.

Letang was the Penguins’ third-round pick that year — 62nd overall. Letang grew up in Montreal and played juniors in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League for three seasons for the Val-d’Or Foreurs.

Letang has a total of 166 goals and 576 assists during his career so far. This past season, he played a record-breaking performance against the Islanders. By assisting on six goals, Letang became the seventh defenseman in the NHL to record six assists in a game and the first since Gary Suter of the Calgary Flames did in 1986.