Mario Lemieux's final season before his first retirement marked the beginning of an era in Pittsburgh Penguins program history. Complimentary issues of Ice Time, the Official Magazine of the Pittsburgh Penguins, were given to fans entering the Civic Arena prior to each game. With each issue measuring 8 ½" x 5 ½", Ice Time was published 43 times in 1996-97 including 41 regular season games and two Stanley Cup Playoff games. The first 12 issues in 1996-97 were 40 pages long, but the first six issues did not include the game date on page 17 like the second half of the first dozen. Collectors use the opponent listed on page 17 and the next home opponent listed on the same page to determine the date of the Ice Time magazine.
     The remaining 31 issues were increased to 72 pages primarily due to increased advertisements, but did add "Iceburgh's Guide to Penalties and Referee's Signals, a list of NHL On-Ice Officials, a special one-page feature of the Penguins Commitment to the Community, a one-page History of the Penguins Uniform, and a two-page spread of the 1995-96 Team Award Winners. All 43 issues include historical team statistics, Hall of Fame members, and A Look at Penguins History.
     Bob Grove of the Washington Observer-Reporter provided updated game notes and Penguins and opponent rosters were listed near the middle of all 43 issues. A special two-page feature was added to each issue as well. Beginning with the first issue, Bob Grove, Mike Dudurich of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, Frank Deford of Newseek, Christian Pelusi Here is a list of those featured stories:

        1996-97 Penguins Preview (1), Glen Murray (2), Kevin Hatcher (3), Mario Lemieux (4), Dan Quinn (5), J.J. Daigneault 
        (6), Mario Lemieux (7), Chris Tamer (8), Darius Kasparaitis (9), Ron Francis (10), Ken Wregget (11), Joe Mullen (12),
        Petr Nedved (13), In The System (14), Stu Barnes (15), Jaromir Jagr (16), Jason Woolley (17), Fredrik Olausson (18),
        Patrick Lalime (19), A Look at the Lumberjacks (20), Dave Roche (21), Craig Muni (22), Tomas Sandstrom (23), Ron
        Francis (24), Joe Dziedzic (25), Alex Hicks (26), Tyler Wright (27), Ian Moran (31), Darius Kasparaitis (32), Neil
        Wilkinson (33), Skip Thayer (36), Roman Oksiuta (37), John Welday (38), Bryan Trottier (39), Ed Olczyk (40), Josef
        Beranek (41), '89 Rangers Series (42), Penguins vs. Devils - 1991 (43)
 

     Issues 1, 3, and 5-27 provided a series of 25 excerpts from the book "The Penguins: Cellar to Summit" by Tom McMillan. The book is rare and is a soft-cover, magazine-sized (11" x 8 ½") book published in January 1995.by Ironist Press, designed by Mark Hobson, and printed in the USA by Process Reproductions, Inc., Pittsburgh, PA (ISBN 0-9641355-2-3).
     Inserted in eight different issues of Ice Time in 1996-97 were oversized 5 5/8" x 4" thick stock cards sponsored by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review to honor the club's 30th Anniversary and back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 1991 and 1992. As issued, the cards were folded in half, with the first two "pages" explaining the promotion, the third page actually containing the card/photo, and the fourth page offering biographical and statistical information  from the 1991-92 Stanley Cup championship season. Sequentially in issues 31, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 40, and 41, players featured were Ron Francis, Joe Mullen , Ulf Samuelsson, Bryan Trottier, Tom Barrasso, Kevin Stevens, Jaromir Jagr, and Mario Lemieux respectively. The complete pages measured 7 1/8" x 4" and the third and fourth pages were perforated 1 ½" from the bottom.