Nathan MacKinnon Sparks Debate Over Greatest Penguin of All Time

In a recent video with the NHL, Colorado Avalanche superstar Nathan MacKinnon was asked to choose between several players, and early on, he had some tough choices to make, taking Jaromir Jagr over both Mark Messier and Alex Ovechkin.

That's where things got tough however, as Sidney Crosby was the next name up, eventually being matched up with 'Super Mario' Mario Lemieux, where unsurprisingly, MacKinnon chose his fellow Nova Scotia native and Team Canada teammate.

Given his close relationship with Crosby, it's no surprise that MacKinnon chose him over Gordie Howe, Jaromir Jagr, Bobby Orr and Lemieux, but it was the latter that drew the most attention in the comment section.

This all comes back to a major debate between Penguins fans of who is the greatest player in franchise history, and in the comments, fans were clearly siding with Lemieux, calling out MacKinnon for choosing 87 over 66.

While Crosby may be seen as the better player by plenty of younger fans that never saw Lemieux growing up, for those that have seen both, there's truly no debate about who the more prolific talent was, with many believing that if not for injury and health concerns, Super Mario would be seen as equal to Wayne Gretzky.

Ultimately though, MacKinnon sided with his friend, one that, as some in the comments noted, he would love to play with at the NHL level, and while most respected that, it's clear that in the mind of hockey fans, Lemieux is still the far greater player and the best to ever don the Penguins uniform.