Let’s remember some guys.

You’ve probably taken part in this game at some point in your sports fandom, whether it be on social media, or at a bar with your friends or just hanging out somewhere and talking about sports. Maybe even at a game.

The way it works is it is just a wholesome, back-and-forth exchange of random — emphasis on random — players from 10 or 15 years ago. Or more. You do not always need a story to go with it, you just need the name. Then you all remember it and say, “oh yeah, I remember that guy.”

Because it is the middle of the offseason and the Pittsburgh Penguins have not made any more trades for us to talk about, we are going to remember some guys. Only I am going to add in some random anecdotes or stories that I have or can think of.

When playing “remember some guys” the key is to not remember players that are too good or even were on too good of a team;

Jaromir Jagr is not a remember a guy.

Alexei Kovalev is not a remember a guy.

Martin Straka may not even be a remember a guy.

Guillame Lefebrve is a remember a guy.

Dan Focht. Jeff Toms. Ramzi Abid. Kent Manderville. Ric Jackman. Eric Meloche. Vladimir Vujtek. Matt Hussey.

Shawn Heins is also a remember a guy. The big thing I remember about Shawn Heins is that he was 29 years old when he was acquired in the middle of the 2002-03 season, had a booming slap shot and everybody went nuts because his last name was Heins and he wore No. 57. He may have scored a goal at some point.

Ian Moran is a guy you remember, not only because he played forward and defense, but specifically because he was responsible for the greatest Ice Time cover of all time, which I still own for some reason.

Rico Fata is also a guy you remember. I have told this Rico Fata story before on Twitter a couple of times — and ended up getting blocked by the one and only Rico Fata for it, for some reason — but I am going to tell it again.

Shortly after the Penguins traded Kovalev to the New York Rangers for a package of players that included Mikael Samuelsson and Fata, I went to a game against the Phoenix Coyotes with my dad. It was the first game after the trade, and Fata was in the lineup. It was pretty apparent from warmups and the first shift of the game that he had a different gear in terms of speed than every other player on the ice. He was just FAST. He was also one of those guys whose feet were seemingly too fast for his hands, and he would have some issues controlling the puck and making plays with it.

This greatly angered the random guy sitting next to us in the E balcony of the Mellon Arena.

Every time Fata would fumble a puck this guy would just mutter “oh my God” to no one in particular.

Every time it happened his “oh my God” would get louder and louder.

“Oh my god. OH MY GOD. OH. MY. GOD. OH! MY! GOD!”

Finally at some point in the third period after another fumbled puck, the guy put his hands up to his mouth and screamed as loud as he could, “would somebody please go to Play It Again Sports and get Rico Fata a used set of hands.”

Those words have stayed with me to this day and are the first things I think of when I think of Rico Fata.

That, and a game early in the 2003-04 season when he scored two goals in a game against the Detroit Red Wings, completing a third period come-from-behind win in a game the Penguins had absolutely zero business winning.

I remember Tomas Surovy and thinking he was going to be a legitimate top-line player. Now I look back at his numbers and see that he scored like 12 goals in a season.

I remember Randy Robitaille. What I remember most about Randy Robitaille was, senior year in high school Adam Student Rushing a game with my childhood best friend, Corey Cauffiel, and hanging out next to the players parking lot hoping to collect autographs. I have a jersey that is weirdly signed by most of the 2002-03 team hanging in my bar room. It is a monument to remember some guys. Anyway, Randy Robitaille was signing a bunch of stuff for people and was super chill, just chatting with everybody and hanging out. Then the guy standing next to us made the mistake of asking, “are you related to Luc?” The smile immediately went away from Robitaille’s face as he stared daggers at the man, before firmly — but still somewhat respectfully — saying “……NO.”

He probably had that question a lot.

I remember Hans Jonsson, who was taken 286th overall in his draft class and then eventually made it to the NHL. I remember thinking “this guy is going to be awesome.”

The common denominator in all of these guys is the played for the rebuilding Penguins teams in the early 2000s in the era between Jaromir Jagr and Sidney Crosby.

Now that the Penguins are entering another rebuilding phase there is going to be some serious “remember some guy” potential for players currently on the team, or that played on the team this past season. So let’s try to look ahead 15 or 20 years and think of who we are going to be looking at from this era and remembering some guys.

Noel Accairi has real remember a guy potential.

Emil Bemstrom. Connor Dewar. Vincent Desharnais. Vladislav Kolyachonok is definitely a guy you will remember.

Connor Timmins. Justin Brazeau. Alexander Alexeyev. Parker Wortherspoon feels like a remember a guy already and he is still on the team (and has not even played a game yet). Blake Lizotte. Anthony Mantha.

All of these players are potentially guys you will remember.

Thank you for remembering some guys with me.

Who are some guys that YOU remember? Let’s talk about them in the comments.