Why Pittsburgh Penguins celebrity captain Sidney Crosby hasn’t signed a contract extension stays the largest thriller this summer time.
For a chunk revealed on Wednesday, Penguins insider Rob Rossi of The Athletic insisted unsettled Pittsburgh followers don’t have anything to fret about although Crosby has one season remaining on his present deal.
“I made just a few calls to observe up, and the one actual information — maybe one other subjective time period — is that each one events (Crosby and his agent, Pat Brisson, and Penguins president of hockey operations/normal supervisor Kyle Dubas) have been snug sufficient with the place the contract negotiations stood that everyone felt snug going about summer time plans akin to taking holidays and having fun with a little bit of downtime,” Rossi defined. “No person from the Penguins’ hockey facet is nervous about Crosby ultimately placing ink to paper. This isn’t to recommend some of us who take care of season-ticket holders/company companions aren’t sweating till he does.”
It was reported final month that Crosby’s representatives and the Penguins have been near confirming a multi-year settlement although Pittsburgh missed the playoffs in back-to-back years and seems to be within the early days of a wanted roster rebuild forward of the captain’s thirty seventh birthday that he’ll rejoice subsequent Wednesday. As of Thursday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook had the Penguins at +120 odds to make the playoffs for the 2024-25 season.
“Crosby has by no means waited anyplace close to this lengthy in an offseason to re-up with the Penguins,” Rossi continued. “It’s additionally true that he has a birthday approaching and he has a historical past of attaching significance to the day he was born; he wears No. 87 and has performed on an $8.7M cap hit as a result of his start date was Aug. 7, 1987. Learn into that final sentence what you’ll.”
Logic suggests Pittsburgh’s championship window with Crosby, heart Evgeni Malkin and defenseman Kris Letang on the roster slammed shut this previous spring. With that stated, there may be nonetheless no indication Crosby has skilled a change of coronary heart about desirous to function just for the Penguins on the highest stage.
Crosby is a residing legend and membership icon who has earned the best to attend so long as he needs to declare how he’ll end his Corridor of Fame profession. If, nonetheless, Aug. 7 comes and goes with no announcement from the Penguins a couple of contract extension, some might understandably query what Crosby really thinks in regards to the route of a franchise that is not near profitable a fourth Stanley Cup beneath his steerage.
