Mario

After suffering a heart scare Monday night, Penguins C and owner Mario Lemieux retired for the second time.

I would say that when he was healthy, Lemieux was the most dominant player of the 90s. He was in a class all of his own. This guy really grew into himself. Early on in his career, he was compared to Gretzky both on and off the ice, and it was always Mario who fell short. While he was a great, great, player, fans didn't have the same affection for #66 as they did for #99 because he wasn't as strong an ambassador for the game as Gretzky was. However, after he won two Cups with the Pens in 91-92 and then returned from treatment for Hodgkin's and played at almost a three-point a game pace, he entered the upper echelon of hockey greats, without question.

After coming out of retirement at 35 as a player/owner of the Pens, he quickly regained his old form and was still able to lead a declining franchise into the conference finals as recently as 2001. Now, he'll have his hands full getting healthy and trying to manage the affairs of the Penguins franchise without losing any more cash before he inevitably sells it.

If he fades away into the background after giving up ownership of the team, no one can fault him because he has done more than enough for the game of hockey at much personal and professional risk.

To Mario.