Pittsburgh Penguins History: Revisiting the 1995 Draft Class

A look back at the players the Pittsburgh Penguins took in the 1995 Draft.

This is the next installment in our series “Pens Draft Class Rehash” where we profile Pittsburgh Penguins draft choices by draft year that made the NHL.

We will be looking at the player’s time with Pittsburgh and try to dig up interesting facts and stats on the picks and recount interesting events that they may have been a part of.

Here is our rehash of the Pittsburgh Penguins 1995 Draft Class.

Alexei Morozov

The Penguins selected the Russian born winger with the 24th pick in the first round and when Morozov made his NHL debut on Oct. 1, 1997, he did so in a rather “magnificent’ fashion.

After burying a feed from Jaromir Jagr, Morozov scored his first NHL goal, on his first shift, first shot, and in his first game, as Mario Lemieux had done over a decade earlier.

Morozov finished his rookie campaign, scoring 13 goals (three game-winning goals) and 26 points in 76 games played.

Over the next several seasons, Morozov developed into one of the Penguins most productive forwards and eventually formed the KLM line, with Lemieux and Alex Kovalev.

Following the 2003-04 season, Morozov returned to Russia to continue his career.

Morozov finished his time with the Penguins, scoring 84 goals and 219 points in 451 regular-season games played and four goals and nine points in 39 postseason games.

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• Pittsburgh Penguins History: Revisiting the 2006 Draft Class
• Pittsburgh Penguins History: Revisiting the 1997 Draft Class
• Pittsburgh Penguins History: Revisiting the 1983 Draft Class

Jean-Sebastien Aubin

Aubin was taken by the Penguins with the 76th pick in the third round from the Sherbrooke Faucons of the QMJHL.

Aubin made his NHL debut on Oct. 21, 1998, in a 5-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning and earned his first win on Nov. 5, 1998, in a 4-2 win over the Ottawa Senators. Just two days later (Nov. 7, 1998), Aubin earned his first career shutout in an 18 save performance vs. the Boston Bruins.

Aubin finished his rookie season with a record of 4-3-6 in 17 games played with a goals-against-average (GAA) of 2.22 and two shutouts (SO).

Overall, Aubin earned a record of 63-72-11 in 168 games with a GAA of 2.96 and two SO with the Penguins from 1998-2004.

Jan Hrdina

Hrdina was selected with the 128th pick (5th round) in the draft, and made his NHL debut, in the Penguins 4-3 win over the New York Islanders, on Oct. 10, 1998. Hrdina spent 11 minutes and 39 seconds on the ice and took zero shots on goal.

On Nov. 5, 1998, Hrdina scored his first NHL goal in his 11th game and finished his first season with 13 goals and 42 points in 82 games.

On Mar. 11 2003, Hrdina was traded to Phoenix along with Francois Leroux in exchange for Ramzi Abid, Dan Focht and Guillaume Lefebvre.

Hrdina finished his time with the Penguins scoring 79 goals and 227 points in 366 regular-season games played and 10 goals and 24 points in 40 postseason games.

Here a few other players drafted in 1995 that would eventually find themselves members of the Pittsburgh Penguins: Jerome Iginla (11th), Jay McKee (14th), Petr Sykora (18th), George Laraque (31st), and Brent Johnson (129th).