Mario Lemieux

Mario Lemieux is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player born October 5, 1965, in Montreal, Quebec. The youngest of three brothers in a working-class family, he learned to skate on a backyard rink his father built in their Ville-Emard neighborhood. He played junior hockey for the Laval Voisins of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, where he scored 133 goals and 282 points in his final season.

The Pittsburgh Penguins selected Lemieux first overall in the 1984 NHL Draft, and he scored on his first shift in his first game. He won the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year, then captured the Art Ross Trophy as scoring champion six times and the Hart Trophy as Most Valuable Player three times. He led the Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 1991 and 1992, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP both years.

Lemieux was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in January 1993. He completed his final radiation treatment on the morning of March 2, flew to Philadelphia, and scored a goal and an assist that night. He retired in 1997, was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame the same year with the customary waiting period waived, and returned to play in 2000 as a player-owner after leading a group that bought the bankrupt Penguins.

His ownership group secured a new arena and oversaw the Penguins' 2009, 2016, and 2017 Stanley Cup wins. He sold the team to Fenway Sports Group in 2021.

The name Mario is the Italian and Spanish form of the Latin Marius, a Roman family name possibly linked to the god Mars or to mas, meaning "male."