With the Penguins missing the playoffs for the second straight year and the team potentially heading for some sort of reset, some have wondered if they could consider parting with franchise icon Sidney Crosby. However, speaking with reporters today including Justin Guerriero of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the captain certainly isn’t thinking like that, indicating that he expects to have talks about a contract extension this summer.
It will be the first time in quite a while that Crosby will be discussing a new deal. He’s about to enter the final year of a 12-year agreement signed back in 2012. That contract, with a term and a back-diving structure that is now illegal throughout the league, carries an $8.7MM AAV, the price tag he has had every year since the 2008-09 campaign.
In some ways, not a lot has changed over those years. Crosby has produced over a point per game in each of his 19 NHL campaigns, routinely leading the Penguins in scoring. Even this season, Crosby had the third-highest goal total of his career (42) along with his highest point total (94) since the 2018-19 campaign. Suffice it to say, those are impressive numbers, especially for a 36-year-old.
Many players Crosby’s age use their performance as a barometer for when the time might be right to hang up the skates but that isn’t necessarily the case for the captain:
I’ve always just gone year to year, and that’s always served me well as far as how I evaluate my game and that sort of thing. There’s always a lot of factors, but I think that’s separate from talking contracts and, at my age and things like that, there’ll be a lot of factors. But as far as just evaluating my game, I don’t look any differently at how much longer I can play based off that.
Crosby can’t sign his next contract until July 1st as players must be in the final year of their existing deal before becoming extension-eligible. While the Penguins certainly need to start to make their core younger, they’d be taking a big step back if they can’t reach a new deal with him. That said, given how smoothly talks have gone in the past, it definitely wouldn’t be surprising if an agreement wasn’t in place at some point in the summer.
That’s a great idea, Make the impending rebuild even longer by pissing away more money. Lol!!!!!
Yeah, because spending Sidney Crosby’s money elsewhere would totally accelerate the rebuild immediately, and also really endear the fanbase. It’s not like Crosby is looking for 8 years.
Sid was top 15 in offensive point shares what are you babbling about?
You have officially become a parody account. It’s like you don’t even attempt to pay attention to reality.
Kudos to Cros for taking it year by year. A lot of people wrote him off after his last serious concussion and it’s just awesome to see someone hit their trajectory; even if seemingly unrealistic when they first entered the league.
8.7×3, who says no?
Fans that want an immediate rebuild and thankfully they don’t have a say in these negotiations. Sounds like a good contract.
8.7 x 8, who says no?
I think he tries to match Brady, 8 doesn’t get him there.
Would the Pens bet against him?
An extension now would be best for both him & pens if he decides he wants to try playing somewhere else his last couple seasons.
How about giving him the decision on the players they should get to rebuild or let him win a cup again with another team. I would say money is no factor to him he would probably take alot less $$$ to win in Pittsburgh..
The 22-23 season was a waste. But this one was a disaster. It exposed how bad the Karlsson, Letang and possibly Jarry contracts are. All are untradeable. Add to this the dead cap. There’s no chance of any playoffs in foreseeable future.
The only sensible option in this situation is a full-scale rebuild. A rebuilding team needs a Crosby like an F1 car needs a sumo wrestler to drive it. On the one hand, it won’t be good enough to get near the playoffs, on the other – not bad enough to get into the lottery. You won’t draft a next Crosby by picking 8th or 10th.
The best course of action was to trade Crosby at the 2023 deadline to a competing team that offered the best collection of picks. Then try to do the same to every other big contract, If that doesn’t work, buy them out. They did the exact opposite by saddling themselves with the ridiculous EK contract.
The best course now is to get rid of Crosby. Then try to do the same to every other big contract, If that doesn’t work, buy them out.
Just like last year, they will do the exact opposite and doom themselves to the longest out-of-playoffs stretch in their history.
What a foolish comment.
Yup. Dumbest post I’ve seen in a while. Besides all of the ridiculous comments about Crosby, also tried to say that Karlsson was bad this year, which is hilarious as he still performed like a top 10 defensemen in the league. If the Pens wanted to trade him (they shouldn’t), they wouldn’t have any issues at all.
I dont think Jarry is unable to be traded. With 50% retention I would bet there are teams willing to take a shot.
Holy god, we have the most spoiled, whiniest, uninformed and ungrateful fan base ever. EVER.
In the past 18 years, do you know how many meaningless (meaning no playoff implications) games the Penguins have played? Out of more than 1,400 games….
TWO.
Two games. The last game last year and the game on Wednesday. Two.
3 of 5 best players ever were Penguins. That’s not even getting into Geno or Francis or Coffey or MAF or Kovalev or go down the list level of great we’ve gotten to watch.
More Cups than any other team unless you go back to the Habs dynasty.
But sure, trade the second best player ever and one of the most dedicated and loyal because moneyball has conditioned you to think you sound smart demanding it.
We played .700 hockey when we FINALLY got decently consistent above average netminding (which we haven’t had in half a decade) down the stretch.
Calm down, Yinzgrates.
From now on you’ll be playing ONLY meaningless games for many years to come.
Nope. That’s what everyone said before the last two years and it hasn’t happened yet despite some very bad as well.
It would make sense to re-sign Sid to some deal, but some folks keep looking in the rear-view mirror and bringing up past glories when they should be looking at what makes this team better in the future. We can all crow about Cups and “meaningful games” and dynasties, but GM’s worth their salt don’t get bogged down in the past, they look to the future. If Sid can help there, then bring him aboard, if not then it’s their job to do otherwise.
Rear view mirror? This might have been Sid’s best overall season ever.
He was a two way force every night.
With no signs of slowing down.
And 2,000 points in his sight.
It’s so funny, the people who are like “you’ll ONLY be watching meaningless games” are the ones who want to trade everyone and ensure that that is the case.
I sat through the Rico Fata and Milan Kraft era. None of you bandwagon hoppers are going to do that, so stop pining for it.
Exactly. People forget that Penguins fans of certain ages have watched their share of awful teams. It’s not lost on me how lucky I am that I’ve got to watch Crosby for the last two decades because I watched what it was like before he arrived.
Crosby can still lead a team, and when Dubas was hired I said he deserves two years to clean up the mess that was left behind. I’m okay seeing what happens next year. Honestly, the Pens this year had large warts, but they were/are better than multiple teams that made the playoffs. It’s not like they’re far off, and could could be a couple savvy moves away from being contenders again. If it doesn’t work out, oh well, but they owe it to Crosby to try.
It’s almost like you are new to hockey.
Your third is Jagr I’m guessing?
I’ve got crushed on here in the past for saying it’s a given he’ll sign an extension in July. This is despite the fact I’ve only ever gone on Crosby’s actual words, which so many seem to totally ignore.
The internet is full of clowns. I avoid as much interaction as possible on the .com
This is very true. On most occasions I didn’t even respond. It’s just people ignoring the words of the actual subject of the topic because it doesn’t jive with their preconceived notions.
He’ll sign a three year extension in July and then hopefully everyone will shut up about it lol.
It’s not that they didn’t make the playoffs the last two seasons, it’s that they were a first round KO for 4 seasons before that. They have not been a real Cup contender in years yet their roster moves indicate an organization that still thinks and acts like a Cup contender.
If your goal is to play “meaningful games” late in the season and miss the playoffs that is fine if you have a young roster and are building towards something. Or if you had a season where you were ravaged by injuries. But in a season where your 3 core 36-37 year old players didn’t miss a single game (extraordinarily lucky, and that’s an understatement), a season where you didn’t develop a single player that will help your roster moving forward, it is basically another season in NHL purgatory.
And there is no worse place to be in the NHL, you have to either be a true contender, or building towards that goal. The teams in the middle are just road kill, and they stay that way for a long, long time because they never develop players and they never have draft picks.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
That being said, none of this is Crosby’s fault and he’s still a complete beast as well as a Pittsburgh icon. They’re not trading him so his situation isn’t very relevant to what is going on.
What’s the common denominator for the past 6 years? Unreliable goaltending. Murray imploding, Jarry imploding, Jarry getting hurt, that AHL goalie whose name I can’t remember who almost beat the Rangers anyway and Jarry being hot and cold for years.
Is this a great team? No, I can point to many holes. But, even with those holes, we still competed with anyone down the stretch just by getting CONSISTENTLY above average goaltending (not amazing, just very good) because the whole team could finally play confidently.
Continue to get that level of goaltending AND fill some of those holes and then tell me where we are.
And since they aren’t trading Sid and aren’t going to force Sid to end his career with scrubs like Mario had to do (Mario played on a line with Guillame Lefebvre and Eric Meloche at one point, at least one of them is probably working at Jiffy Lube right now) they aren’t going to bottom out.
The plan, as it has been for years, is to put their best foot forward (within reason, they’ll be keeping first rounders from this point forward) and then let it collapse on it’s own weight and bottom out naturally.
People don’t realize how hard it is to find guys like Crosby. He’s a possible top 5 player of all time. The team around him isn’t great but you don’t just trade him and think everything is magically gonna be fixed in 2-3 years because you picked up a few picks. Enjoy the final few years with Sid and show him some respect. I’m enjoying every second of this playoff run with ovechkin, just as I did with Big Ben being a Steelers fan. I saw you comment penguins fans are spoiled, and I fully agree with you seeing how Steelers fans act. Hall of famers don’t just come around at will.
@66
They’re approaching the “Dan Marino Complex” where one guy keeps you at .500 and always picking mid-round. Like every other Cup winner, their third line got decimated and was never replenished.
And this is what will kill the Pens, “[ANOTHER] season where you didn’t develop a single player that will help your roster moving forward.”
Take a lesson from the North Catholic kid …
This is the price a team pays for generational talent and 3 Cups. Sometimes a team has to endure small amounts of suffering for whats deemed to be “doing right” by the core that delivered those Cups.
So many teams would gladly trade places with the Penguins in the last 20 years.
@66 How could you forget the legendary Louis Domingue?!
One year, 3 million tops! Or he can walk! The Penguins aren’t going anywhere with or without him anyway, Dubas is clueless!!!! Some of you forget it’s a business, The business of winning.
Wilf, you are a beauty! You may not know much about hockey but you do it with maximum enthusiasm.
Amazing to watch Sid in the final game of the season against the Islanders, including having a penalty shot in the final minute that could have tied the game. He played like his life was on the line. He’s always been like that.