By Brian Kopycinski
Pro hockey has been a part of Pittsburgh’s sports legacy since the 1920s. For nearly forty years, the Pittsburgh Penguins, founded in 1967, skated in black and gold (and once, powder blue) without ever dressing a player born in the city. That all changed at the start of the 2003-04 season as Ryan Malone, a 23-year-old forward from the South Hills, made his NHL debut against the Los Angeles Kings at Mellon Arena. At long last, the Penguins had a hometown kid in the lineup.
While the Pens lost their season opener, it was just the beginning of a promising career for the young left winger Malone. The son of a Penguin, Ryan was born in 1979, during a rough stretch in franchise history before Mario Lemieux came into the picture. His father, Greg, a gritty center from New Brunswick, Canada, spent seven seasons in Pittsburgh, scoring a career high 35 goals in ‘78-’79, and later went on to become a respected scout. Ryan grew up in the shadow of Civic Arena, watching his dad on the ice, and dreamed of doing the same.
His path to the league wasn’t a straight one. After two years at Upper St. Clair, Malone transferred to Shattuck-St. Mary’s in Minnesota for his junior year, the same prep powerhouse that Sidney Crosby would later star for. Malone finished high school in Omaha while tearing up the USHL with the Lancers, a junior hockey team that would soon produce future Penguins defenseman Alex Goligoski. Pittsburgh liked what they saw in Malone took a chance on the hometown kid, drafting him in the 4th round of the 1999 NHL Draft. Four solid years at St. Cloud State followed, then a brief stint with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
When Malone finally cracked the big club in ‘03-’04, he wasted no time. 22 goals, the most on the team. 43 points, good for third. An All-Rookie Team nod, and votes for the Calder Memorial Trophy. For a season in which Mario Lemieux managed only ten games, the kid from Pittsburgh helped carry the offense, alongside other notable rookies Marc-André Fleury and Brooks Orpik. The lockout wiped out 2004-05, but when play resumed, Malone continued to produce and eventually found himself on Sidney Crosby’s wing with veteran Marc Recchi. The chemistry was there. On December 15, 2006, at the Igloo, he recorded his first career hat trick against the New York Islanders, joining an exclusive club of father-son duos to accomplish the feat that includes the legendary pair of Bobby and Brett Hull.
2007-08 was arguably Malone’s finest year on the ice, with 27 goals and 51 points in the regular season, and a standout performance in the playoffs, 6 goals and 16 points in twenty games. That year, the Pens went on a run that ended in the Stanley Cup Finals, falling to the Detroit Red Wings in six games. Pittsburgh would have to wait a bit longer to hoist Lord Stanley’s cup once again. Unfortunately for Malone, this would come without him. He would be traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning not long after the Penguins lost to the Red Wings, on June 28, in a package with Gary Roberts in exchange for a 3rd round pick in the 2009 draft. Ben Hanowski, who the Penguins would later select with this pick, never played a game for Pittsburgh. He himself was a part of another big trade that saw the Pens acquire Jarome Iginla in 2013.
Malone would sign a seven year, $31.5 million deal with Tampa Bay, leaving home after four memorable seasons. This move didn’t slow him down, not in the slightest. Malone posted back-to-back 20 goal seasons, helping lead the Lightning to the Eastern Conference finals in 2011. The Boston Bruins won the series in seven games, and later the Stanley Cup in the same fashion over the Vancouver Canucks. Malone also earned a silver medal with Team USA in the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver that year, watching his old lineman Crosby score the winning goal in overtime to claim gold for Canada.
The later years were quieter. A 2014 arrest for a DUI and cocaine possession led to his release by Tampa in August. Malone then signed with the New York Rangers in September, appearing in just six games for them that season. After a year off from hockey came a failed comeback attempt with the Minnesota Wild, and a final twelve game cameo in the AHL with the Iowa Wild, before Malone hung up his skates for good.
Ryan “Bugsy” Malone never lifted a cup in Pittsburgh, yet no one can take away what he gave the team and the city in those early Crosby years. His career stands as proof that you don’t have to come from a hotbed of talent to make it in the game. Malone served as a bridge between the Lemieux and Crosby eras as the local heartbeat on rosters filled with imports.
More than twenty years after his debut, the city of Pittsburgh has produced plenty of NHL talent, such as J.T. Miller and Brandon Saad, but Ryan Malone will always be the first to wear the Penguins black and gold. He is the first “Pittsburgh” Penguin.