Nashville, Tenn. ? The Pittsburgh Penguins can only hope they have half the success with their latest No. 1 pick as they did with their last.

The Penguins so wanted goalie Marc-Andre Fleury to rebuild their franchise around that they traded up two spots Saturday in the NHL draft to make sure that they got him. That made Fleury the team’s first top pick overall since 1984 when they took Mario Lemieux, now the team’s owner.

“We decided that the best place to start building is in the goal,” Penguins general manager Craig Patrick said.

“This was perfect timing for us. … We’re very fortunate to be in the third position because Florida wanted to make sure they got a good pick out of the draft. … Worked out very well for both of us.”

The first three rounds of the draft were held Saturday. Rounds 4-9 will be conducted today.

Fleury, from Cape Breton of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, is 6-foot-1 and 172 pounds. He is a strong skater with a hybrid style and a knack for making big saves at the right time. He led Canada to a silver medal at this year’s World Junior Championships where he was named the tournament’s best goalie.

He faced enough pressure just being the second goalie ever taken No. 1, following Rick DiPietro in 2000. Now he gets to follow Lemieux as the Penguins’ latest top pick.

“I think that that’s great to be the second one, but I don’t know him personally,” Fleury said of Lemieux. “But I know he’s a great guy and also a hockey player. I am really looking forward to meeting him.”

For the third time in five years, Florida GM Rick Dudley held the top pick overall in the draft only to trade out of that spot. He did it in 1999 while with Tampa Bay, and he did it last year with the Panthers.

Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury was the No. 1 selection in the NHL draft. Fleury was chosen Saturday by Pittsburgh.

Dudley dropped two spots for the second straight year and still claimed he got the player he wanted. In 2002, he drafted defenseman Jay Bouwmeester at No. 3. Saturday, he took center Nathan Horton to boost the Panthers’ offense. He also swapped selections in the second and third rounds with Pittsburgh, moving up to No. 55 in the second with Pittsburgh dropping to 73rd overall in the third.

Several teams had talked with Dudley about trading up, but they found the price too high to move more than a couple spots. Dudley didn’t want to risk losing Horton.

“That’s the guy we wanted. We’d like to have 23 players like him. He’s a guy who skates very well, that can score and adds some bite to his game, so he’s kind of a perfect complement for what you’re looking for in an NHL player,” Dudley said.

Florida also picked up 26-year-old right wing Mikael Samuelsson from Pittsburgh. The 6-foot-1 Samuelsson played 80 games last season with 10 goals and 14 assists, but he only had two goals in 22 games with Pittsburgh after being acquired from the New York Rangers in the Alexei Kovalev trade.