In a recent article, I looked back at the offensive behemoth that was the 1995-96 Pittsburgh Penguins. To recap, that was a special team led by greats like Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, and Ron Francis. It was a team that scored 362 goals, won 49 games, and ripped 109 power-play goals in the regular season. It was also a team that unfortunately succumbed to the clutching and grabbing game of the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference Final, a style of play that in the following season would mark – or in some fans’ eyes, mar – the game for almost a decade.
On a team with six 20-goal scorers and five players who scored at a point-per-game clip, there are plenty of recognizable names. Some were all-time greats or Hall of Fame-bound stars. Two players stick out on that roster, not because of the massive point production, but because they were two players who aren’t normally associated with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Those two players were Sergei Zubov and Bryan Smolinski.
Before They Were Penguins
Between the two of them, Zubov is obviously much more well-known, and for good reason. He was a member of the New York Rangers team that won its first Stanley Cup in 54 years back in 1994. It’s easy to forget that with a roster with Mark Messier and Brian Leetch, it was Zubov who led the team in regular-season scoring with 77 assists and 89 points. His assist total led NHL defensemen in 1993-94 and ranks 12th all-time among blueliners.
His regular season performance earned him fourth place in Norris Trophy voting, and he didn’t let up in the playoffs. Zubov collected 14 assists and 19 points in the playoffs en route to winning the Cup. A year later, in the lockout-shortened 1995 regular season, he maintained his scoring with 26 assists and 36 points in 38 regular season games.
It was his strong offensive flair that had the Penguins calling, when they traded for Zubov in the 1995 offseason to replace Larry Murphy, who they had traded a month earlier to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Related: Penguins Are a Top 4 Team in the Metro Division
As for Smolinski, he, unlike Zubov, isn’t exactly a known commodity nowadays. A native of Genoa, Ohio, a village suburb east of Toledo, Smolinski was named a member of the NHL’s All-Ohio team here at The Hockey Writers. He did carve out a solid journeyman career with over 1000 games played in the NHL.
In his rookie season with the Boston Bruins in 1993-94, Smolinski ranked third behind Adam Oates and Cam Neely in goals with 31 while tying Ray Bourque for the team lead with three short-handed goals. However, not only outshined by his teammates, but Martin Brodeur and Jason Arnott also outshined him for any Calder Trophy consideration for Rookie of the Year.
In 1995, he enjoyed a solid sophomore season in which he trailed only Neely for second in Bruins goals with 18. He joined the Penguins with Glen Murray in the trade that sent Kevin Stevens and Shawn McEachern to Boston.
Zubov and Smolinski as Penguins
Zubov proved to be an effective replacement for Murphy, as he picked up 55 assists and 66 points in only 64 games played. On the power play, he set up 29 goals behind the trio of Lemieux, Francis, and Jagr. Those totals would be among the best of his career, and his plus-28 plus/minus was his career high.
As for Smolinski, he was a supplemental, middle-six forward but did his job well. His 40 assists and 64 points were both career bests. Though he didn’t log as much time on the power play as the other, more terrifying Penguins forwards, Smolinski chipped in eight of his own goals with the man advantage. He also was an effective penalty killer, picking up two short-handed goals along the way.
In the playoffs, both were solid through the first two rounds. Zubov scored only one goal but set up 14 others, second only to Lemieux for the team lead. Smolinski contributed five goals, nine points of his own. Both played all 18 games of the 1996 playoffs, but like the rest of the team, they were stymied by the Panthers’ brand of clutching and grabbing and were dispatched in seven games in the Eastern Conference Final.
Life After Pittsburgh
Their time as Penguins was brief, but both Zubov and Smolinski would play long after the 1996 season. Zubov was the first to leave Pittsburgh, traded to the Dallas Stars straight up for Kevin Hatcher, a deal that would bear fruit for the Stars. The Russian defenseman would play 839 games in Dallas over 13 seasons, winning a Stanley Cup in 1999 and reaching the Final a year later. Ultimately, Zubov would be enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame in the 2019 class.
Though Smolinski didn’t enjoy the success of his former teammate, he would play until the 2007-08 season. Unfortunately, he was known more for the guys he played with or for those he was traded for. He left Pittsburgh in November 1996 in the trade that made Darius Kasparaitus a Penguin.
Smolinski was productive even during the Dead Puck era, scoring 28 goals in 64 games with the New York Islanders in 1996-97 and 27 with the Los Angeles Kings in 2000-01. In both of those years, he played with Zigmund Palffy, and in 2001, the Kings played spoiler, knocking the heavily favored Detroit Red Wings out of the playoffs in the first round.
They were different players whose careers were on very different trajectories. But even though they were with the Penguins for a short amount of time, they did contribute to the success, however fleeting, of the team for one brilliant season.
