Pens' Lemieux undecided on playing in fall

The owner hasn't committed to skating for another season.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The Pittsburgh Penguins missed the playoffs for the second straight year, got only two wins in their last 21 games and have a roster of relative unknowns.
Now the burning question is, will Mario Lemieux play another season?
At a town hall meeting Thursday night for season-ticket holders a day after Patrick Roy, considered among the best goalies in NHL, announced his retirement, player-owner Lemieux said he had not decided whether he'll continue his 2 1/2 year comeback.
He gave few clues as to which way he's leaning, only smiling to fans' calls for one more year.
"We'll see about that," he said.
Lemieux was easily the Penguins' best player last season, especially after Alexei Kovalev was traded. Lemieux's 91 points were almost double those of Martin Straka, the Penguins' second-best scorer after Kovalev left. Lemieux also led the team in power-play goals with 14.
Support urged
But Lemieux urged fans to continue to support the team as it rebuilds and attempts to emerge from what general manager Craig Patrick called "survival mode."
After years of having enough talent to make it to the playoffs for 12 straight years, the second-longest streak in the NHL, the Penguins have found themselves struggling to compete.
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. And they're going forward with a $25 million payroll, one-third as large as that of the New York Rangers.
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.
Borrowing a theory from former Montreal Canadiens general manager Sam Pollock, Craig said, "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. But if we have enough people, we are going to get good ones and great ones."
Future hopes
Some of the young players the Penguins hope will pan out are 23-year-old winger Rico Fata, who had 13 points during a late-season call-up; 22-year-old defenseman Brooks Orpik, and 22-year-old winger Guilluame Lefebre, a former American Hockey League rookie of the year who had five points in 12 games late in the season.
While they tried to persuade fans to stick around even without Lemieux, Patrick and Penguins president Ken Sawyer indicated that rebuilding would be harder without help in labor negotiations next year and a replacement for Mellon Arena -- the oldest and second-smallest arena in the NHL.
"We are trying to compete with other teams in the National Hockey League. They're in new arenas, they have the revenue base that we don't have. It means that they have more dollars to spend," Sawyer said.