Why the Pirates and Steelers Can’t Replicate the Pens

A lot of people will point to the Penguins and say they are model to follow for a professional sports franchise. In fact the Pirates, Steelers or any other pro team for that matter could not be able to duplicate what the Penguins have. It could be decades before we see a team with a similar make up.

Obviously the circumstances that came together to get Malkin, Crosby, Fleury, Staal on the same team were one in million. You can look at the lock-out, not getting Malkin for the first year, the Crosby pick, and the lack of current players impeding them. Beside that, NHL was the only sport were there was an opportunity for players in their first few seasons to clearly emerge as the best in the league. The NHL basically had a vacuum of talent, while most sports have great young talent, there normally is a few top class established superstars. Until Crosby, Malkin, and Ovechkin came into the league there was a lack of an iconic star in their prime. The best analogy I can give is having, Lebron, Carmello, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul on one team, without Kobe, Kevin Garnett even being in the league.

Another key factor is salaries, the Pens have Crosby, Malkin, Fleury and Staal locked in long term for less then a combined $30m a season. In another sport they would cost you triple that easy. Do you think Scott Boras would have let Crosby take $8.7m a season, heck no, he’d have him hold out for $150m contract from Montreal or Toronto. Lebron alone will probably make at least triple Crosby’s salary in the near future. Finally the core of players is young enough to still have the motivation to achieve, in most other cases a combo of superstars comes with baggage. Pittsburgh is lucky enough to have something in the Pens that might only come along every few decades.