Robo Penguin. The Pigeon. Call it what you want: The Pittsburgh Penguins’ old “new” logo is coming back.

The Penguins’ 2022-23 reverse retro jerseys will feature the logo Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr wore throughout most of their 1990s run together, multiple industry sources told The Athletic. The logo, first introduced for the 1992-93 season, will appear on the front of jerseys worn by Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin for a yet-unspecified number of games in 2022-23.

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The Penguins have not worn the logo as the main emblem on their jersey since the 2001-02 season.

The Robo Penguin was the main logo on white home jerseys for the Penguins throughout the 1990s. It also appeared on a black third jersey with a gray gradient in the late 1990s. This season, the logo will appear on a black jersey with no gradient, sources confirmed.

UPDATE on Robo Penguin reverse retro story: Jersey will be BLACK with no gray gradient around torso.
Story:

— Rob Rossi (@Real_RobRossi) September 16, 2022

The logo is popular among fans that grew up cheering for those clubs, which were the most successful in franchise history before the three-time Cup winners led by Crosby and Malkin. The logo has been divisive, though: Some elder fans of the franchise were originally skeptical of the Robo Penguin logo and new uniforms that debuted in 1992-93, and the Penguins’ failed three-peat bid in the first season in those uniforms only added to that skepticism.

Still, there has been a clamoring, especially on social media, for the Robo Penguin to return in recent years. Excitement among the pro-Robo-Penguin crowd intensified after SportsLogos.net recently captured leaked images from the NHL’s shop that showed merchandise featuring the logo.

The Penguins’ plan to unveil their retro jerseys featuring the Robo Penguin within a few weeks, sources said. This season, the Penguins will wear their current home and road jerseys, their diagonal Pittsburgh alternate jerseys, the black reverse retros jerseys featuring the Robo Penguin, and a special jersey for a Winter Classic game against the Bruins at Boston’s Fenway Park on Jan. 2, 2023.

The Robo Penguin was commissioned by former Penguins co-owner Howard Baldwin not long after his group purchased the club in the early 1990s. Gary Adams, whose firm designed the then-new logo, told The Athletic’s Sean Gentille in April 2020 that Baldwin “hated (the Skating Penguin) logo,” which the Penguins had been using — a claim Baldwin disputed in the story.

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Adams also said Baldwin thought the Skating Penguin logo was “soft.”

The Penguins resumed using the Skating Penguin, which was part of their original logo, on all jerseys at the request of co-owner Lemieux beginning in the 2002-03 season. Lemieux loathed the Robo Penguin logo and told friends it would not appear again as a main logo under his stewardship.

Lemieux and partner Ron Burkle sold the Penguins to Fenway Sports Group last season, though Lemieux retains a small percentage share in the franchise.

The Robo Penguin was famously featured in the movie “Sudden Death” starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, released in late 1995.

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The inside story of the Penguins’ ‘Pittsburgh Pigeon’ logo

(Photo of Mario Lemieux in 1997: George Widman / Associated Press)