PITTSBURGH — Mario Lemieux was evasive about his plans for next season, even as fans called for him to return during a town hall meeting for Pittsburgh Penguins' season-ticket holders Thursday night.
"We'll see about that," Lemieux said, a day after Colorado goalie Patrick Roy announced his retirement.
Lemieux, who came out of retirement 2 1/2 years ago, led the Penguins with 91 points this season — almost double the number of the team's second-leading scorer, Martin Straka. Still, Pittsburgh missed the playoffs for the second straight season and won only twice in the last 21 games.
He urged fans to support the team's younger players.
"This is no longer about myself. I am not the future of this franchise. Maybe 20 years ago, when I was 18 and young and my whole career was in front of me," Lemieux said. "We have great young players who are going to be here a lot longer than I will as a player and this is really a new era for the Pittsburgh Penguins."
Pittsburgh won only 55 of 164 games over the past two seasons. Last season was the Penguins' worst since Lemieux's rookie year in 1984. The bad news is that half of the starting lineup from the beginning of this season will be gone.
General manager Craig Patrick has largely put the Penguins' future in the hands of prospects and young players, many whom spent most of last season playing for Pittsburgh's farm team in Wilkes-Barre or elsewhere. He said he hopes stockpiling young players — the Penguins have 40 players in the system between 19 and 24 — will pay off.
"We don't know which ones are going to be the great ones, or which ones are going to be the really good ones, or which one are going to be the average ones," Patrick said. "But if we have enough people, we are going to get good ones and great ones."