'Burgh’s Best to Wear It, No. 25: Kevin Stevens excelled as power forward for Penguins' first 2 Cup teams

The Tribune-Review sports staff is conducting a daily countdown of the best players in Pittsburgh pro and college sports history to wear each jersey number.

No. 25: Kevin Stevens

When it comes to naming the best Pittsburgh athlete to wear No. 25, the decision is akin to picking your favorite child.

There’s no way to select one without slighting the others.

No runaway winner emerged from a group of candidates that included:

• A seven-time Pro Bowl cornerback who is ticketed for the Hall of Fame once he becomes eligible.

• A six-time Pro Bowl running back who is ranked No. 22 on the NFL’s all-time rushing list and has a chance to move up higher this season.

• A four-time All-Star and three-time Silver Slugger who was a key component of the Pirates’ resurgence three decades ago.

• A No. 4 overall pick in the WNBA and a sharpshooter who scored 2,631 points at Duquesne.

The winner by a razor-thin margin in polling by the Tribune-Review sports department was none of the above, but rather a sniping left wing and three-time All-Star who helped the Pittsburgh Penguins win the Stanley Cup for the first two times in franchise history.

Kevin Stevens was a cut above.

A 6-foot-3, 230-pound forward who started his career and ended it with the Penguins — playing 10 years with the organization — Stevens scored 260 goals and had 555 points during his two stints in Pittsburgh.

A two-time Stanley Cup champion, Stevens had four consecutive seasons of 40-plus goals and 80-plus points for the Penguins (1990-94), and he totaled 54 goals and 123 points, the most by an American-born player/left wing, in the 1991-92 season. Stevens followed with a 55-goal, 111-point season in 1993, the year in which he was knocked out in Game 7 of the Patrick Division final against the New York Islanders. Stevens underwent reconstructive surgery on his face.

Stevens scored 41 goals the next season before his production started to wane, and he was traded to Boston in 1995.

The injury that precipitated his downfall also contributed to Stevens’ 25-year battle with drug addiction.

Two of the most productive players this century for the Pitt football team also wore No. 25.

Aliquippa’s Darrelle Revis was a two-time All-Big East cornerback before jumping to the NFL after his junior season in 2006. A first-round pick of the New York Jets, Revis quickly emerged as arguably the top shutdown corner in the NFL, earning the nickname “Revis Island” for his coverage abilities.

Revis spent 11 seasons in the NFL and was a four-time, first-team All-Pro selection.

After Revis left Pitt, running back LeSean McCoy grabbed the No. 25 jersey and became just the third player in school history to record multiple 1,000-yard rushing seasons. He ranks eighth on the school’s all-time list with 2,816 yards.

A second-round pick by the Philadelphia Eagles and two-time, first-team All-Pro pick, McCoy is entering his 12^th NFL season. He has four 1,000-yard rushing seasons, and he led the NFL with 1,607 yards in 2013.

For the Pirates, Bobby Bonilla played with swagger as the franchise returned to prominence in 1990 when they won the first of three consecutive division titles. Bonilla was gone after the second playoff trip, signing with the New York Mets, but he hit 114 home runs and drove in 500 runs while playing for the Pirates. (He switched to No. 23 in 1991, his final year in Pittsburgh).

The switch-hitting outfielder/third baseman had three seasons with 24 or more homers and drove in 100 runs on three occasions.

In her four years with the Duquesne women’s basketball team (1994-98), Korie Hlede not only scored the most points in school history — men or women — she set program records for steals, assists, 3-pointers made and 3-point shooting percentage. She led the Atlantic-10 in scoring all four years and was two-time conference player of the year.

Others worth mentioning include:

• Ricardo Greer played 117 games in four years with the Pitt basketball team (1997-2001) and ranks No. 8 on the school’s all-time scoring list with 1,753 points while averaging 15.0 points per game.

• Bruce Kison earned World Series rings with the Pirates after the 1971 and 1979 seasons. He spent nine years with the team, compiling an 81-63 record and 3.49 ERA.

• A starter on the Super Bowl XLIII championship team, safety Ryan Clark spent eight seasons with the Steelers and totaled 12 interceptions.

• Ray Mathews was the Steelers’ leading rusher in 1952, then led the team in receiving from 1954-56. He was named to the franchise’s Legends Team in 2007.

• Max Talbot scored 52 goals in six seasons with the Penguins, but he is known as the hero of Game 7 of the 2008-09 Stanley Cup Final against Detroit when he scored both goals in a 2-1 victory that brought the franchise its third championship.

• Randy Carlyle was a two-time All-Star defenseman in six seasons with the Penguins (1978-84) and had 66 goals and 323 points in 397 games with the franchise.

Check out the entire ’Burgh’s Best to Wear It series here.