Tracking the Penguins all-time scoring sheet

Looking at the calendar and it's September already. Soon enough the season will lurch to another start for the 50th anniversary of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Here are some franchise markers that could very well fall in 2016-17. All research from hockey-reference and of course with a respectful and healthy knock on wood. Take it for what it's worth, but a look at some of the players of today stand in comparison to

Sidney Crosby

• Games played. Currently 5th in team history all time (707). With 16 more Crosby passes Rick Kehoe for 4th. 47 more GP to pass Jean Provonost for 3rd place (trailing only Mario Lemieux [915]  and Jaromir Jagr [806]). With full health, Crosby would pass Lemieux in the middle of the 2018-19 season for first all-time.
• Assists. Crosby has 600, he's 40 away from tying Jagr for 2nd all-time. Lemieux (1033) is the leader and many years away from Sid.
• Power play goals. Crosby (101) is 5th in team history, could tie or pass Kevin Stevens and Jagr (both with 110). Malkin has 108, so it's likely Crosby gets to no higher than 3rd for club history this season.

Evgeni Malkin

• Games played. Currently 7th in team history (644). Malkin could be as high as 5th after this season, with Brooks Orpik (59 games head) and Kehoe (77) within reach.
• Goals. Malkin ranks 6th (295) in team history with a realistic shot to pass Kehoe (312, 17 ahead) and Pronovost (316, 21 ahead) this season to rank as high as 4th in this metric as well (placing him behind Lemieux, Jagr and Crosby [starts season with 338]). Malkin would have to outscore Crosby by 43 goals as a Penguin to pass his teammate, with the two several years from catching Jagr's 438 career goals in black and gold.
  
• Power play goals. As mentioned above, Malkin (108) is 2 Pittsburgh PPG behind Stevens and Jagr and probably passes both for 2nd place this season. With Lemieux at 236 career PPG, that's as high as Geno gets.

Kris Letang

Overall

• Games played. Currently 12th (562), could move up as high as 8th with Bob Errey (11 games to pass), Dave Burrows (12), Ron Schock (58) and Ron Stackhouse (60) all potentially catchable this season.
• Assists. Ranks 14th all-time with the following players fairly close: Stackhouse + Martin Straka (both 7 ahead), Schock (10), Pronovost (17), Stevens (25) to get up to 9th. 8th place Rick Kehoe (54) sits slightly ahead of Letang's last season assist total (51).
• Points. Letang is 18th (352) currently, assuming he scores as many points as last season (67) he would become 12th by the end of the season and will pass names such as Alex Kovalev, Chris Kunitz (assuming Letang outscores him by 8 points), Mike Bullard, Greg Malone and Mark Recchi.

Among defensemen

• Games played. Currently 3rd (562), Letang would move to 2nd if he passes Stackhouse (59 behind). Orpik, as mentioned above (703) leads all Penguin defensemen currently for career games played.
• Assists. Also currently 3rd, with Stackhouse (7 ahead) in 2nd. Still trails first place Paul Coffey (332) by more than a season's worth, with Coffey appearing in less career Pittsburgh games (just 331 to Letang's 562).

Chris Kunitz

• Games Played. 18th with 498 games in a Pens uniform, could climb as high as 11th place with a full 82 game season which would push him past Stevens, Troy Loney, Francis, Straka, Bob Errey and Burrows.
• Goals. Currently 11th all-time in franchise history (160) and is in-line to be 9th once he scores 5 goals to pass Ron Francis and 6 to pass Martin Straka. 8th place Bullard has 185 goals, so unless Kunitz reverses course and scores more than previous seasons, 9th is as high as he can get this season.
• Assists. 199 career Penguin assists (21st) will soon pass Kovalev (203) and Sergei Gonchar (205). 32 assists this season would tie Kunitz with Mark Recchi for 16th place all-time.
• Points. Currently 16th (359), will tie Bullard for 15th with one more point, and has a good chance to pass Recchi and move as high as 13th after this season after accumulating 27 more points.

Olli Maatta

• Games Played. Currently 165 games, ranking 52nd among Penguin defensemen all-time, with a full 82 games that jumps all the way to 22nd all-time among Pittsburgh d-men.

Matt Murray

• Games Played. Among 61 goalies in franchise history, Murray ranks just 40th in games played (13). If he appears in 33 or more games he rockets up to 22nd. (His boss Jim Rutherford, btw, is at 11th place with 115).
  
• Wins. Currently t-33rd with 9 wins, 20 wins this season would shoot Murray up to 17th place (with old friend Brent Johnson).
  
• Shutouts. 1 career shutout has him in a many-way tie for 23rd. If he records 3 this season he would be up to a tie for 9th, 4 shutouts is a tie for 8th and 5 SO is a tie for 5th. Probably won't take long to be on the heels of 2nd place Tom Barrasso (22) and leader Marc-Andre Fleury (43).