When preparing to open the facility in 2016, the Penguins wanted to honor Lemieux, with his name being on the building. Since so much had been done on his NHL career, they thought focusing on Lemieux’s youth hockey career would be special, since youth hockey is at the core of what the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex is all about.
Lemieux responded to that idea with unbridled enthusiasm, unlike anything McMillan had ever seen from the Hall of Famer.
“He was really into it, it blew me away,” McMillan said. “Probably because it was fresh to him, as he had talked about his NHL career forever. This was going back to his roots. I think he appreciated the fact that UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex was going to be a youth hockey center. This was really important to him in a place with his name on it.”
It became a passion project of sorts for Lemieux, who began collecting his memorabilia. Whenever Lemieux returned home to Montreal, he’d go to his parents’ old house or talk to somebody from his youth hockey days, and come back to Pittsburgh with another item for the display case.
“He'd say, I got my skates from when I was 12. I got my youth hockey uniform. I found the stick where I scored 50 goals in Midget AAA,” McMillan said. “It was inspiring to do it because he was so interested in it. A guy like that who’s honored so much, he was always respectful and courteous whenever somebody would honor him, but this was one where he was really into it. It was like he was reliving his childhood.”
Lemieux even showed McMillan a scrapbook that his mother Pierrette had kept the clippings from every time Mario had appeared in the newspaper, just like most proud hockey moms. A couple of photocopies made it into the display, as did pictures from different teams Lemieux played for over the years.
A few were provided by Lemieux’s childhood friend Marc Bergevin, former GM for the Montreal Canadiens, who is now senior advisor to Los Angeles Kings GM Rob Blake. Lemieux and Bergevin’s neighborhood team, the Ville-Emard Hurricanes, also featured J.J. Daigneault, who played 899 games as a defenseman in the National Hockey League.
Ultimately, everything Lemieux had or was able to find from his youth hockey career went into the case, covering every level up through junior hockey and representing Canada at the World Junior Championship. But he had never been able to find that jersey, despite looking for it.
Seven years later, it finally turned up, with Lemieux’s older brother Richard discovering it and letting Mario know. He, in turn, made sure it got to Cranberry.
“The fact that it remains important to him after all these years, to add this to the piece, I think he views it as part of his legacy – because it’s a Penguins practice rink, but it’s also a youth hockey center,” McMillan said. “It’s important for kids to see yeah, even a guy like Mario was where you were. He was little, he played on neighborhood teams, he played on obviously elite teams, but every step of the way he had to come up. Guys like Mario and Wayne Gretzky come up through the ranks, too."
