Missed this last week, but huge shoutout to reddit user Ugluk4242 for this outlook of the Penguins’ all-time performance. Inspired by the Buccos getting to (and eventually falling under) .500 on July 19th, they scoped out the Pens all-time performance.
This chart does well to visualize that it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows from the moment the team drafted Mario Lemieux in 1984. Pittsburgh was still outright bad for each of Lemieux’s first four seasons from 1984-88, before finally making the playoffs in 1989. Even that progress was not linear, the team missed the playoffs again in 1990 and weren’t considered an overwhelming favorite to win the Stanley Cup when they first did.
The 1990’s were a period of good times for the Pens, but then they gave just about it all back up in the early 2000’s. Of course, everything changed with the addition of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, sending the team on a rocketship, the team has an 862-531-174 record since Crosby joined the team in 2005).
However, that was barely enough to undo all the cumulative damage suffered to the record in the first 30ish years of the franchise. The Pens peaked with on 34 games above .500 in 2022, and since 2022 the team has been in decline. They will enter 2025-26 only six games above .500 for their cumulative franchise record.
Then again, each and every of the five times the Pens have won a Stanley Cup, they have had a record under .500. It looks like in the future that could sure be the case again, as the team is likely looking at slipping back under .500 and could be staying there for a bit.