Before Sidney Crosby’s first home opener at the now-extinct Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh in October 2005, Mario Lemieux walked past a media fray surrounding Crosby and into the players’ lounge, pouring a cup of black coffee.
Grinning, he thought he would soon be ‘forgotten’. Then, in an unusually serious moment, Lemieux predicted that Crosby would “one day own all my records,” nodded his head and walked out.
Lemieux may have underestimated it. Crosby has a chance to break Lemieux’s Penguins records, as well as the NHL records of Wayne Gretzky (most consecutive seasons averaging at least one point per game) and Steve Yzerman (most consecutive seasons as team captain).
“(Lemieux) really said that?” Crosby said Monday afternoon after speaking to Pittsburgh media following his annual delivery of season tickets to an unsuspecting family in Mars, Pennsylvania. Real?
“Uh, there’s still a long way to go.”
Not too long. Crosby needs 99 goals, 30 assists and 128 points to unseat Lemieux in the Penguins’ regular-season rankings. He long ago set franchise marks for postseason assists (130) and points (201), and needs just six postseason goals to go one better than Lemieux’s 76.
But after signing a new two-year contract with an average annual value of $8.7 million with the Penguins on Monday, Crosby will get at least three more cracks at a bargain price to achieve even more.
GO DEEPER
Crosby’s new Penguins contract is his best assist yet
Whether he carries the Penguins with him — and returns to a prominent position — or becomes the only reason to worry for a proud, upstart franchise could determine whether Crosby does what Lemiex did in Pittsburgh: stay until the end of his career. career.
Crosby has said he only wants to play for the Penguins. He also wants to chase another Stanley Cup championship.
The Penguins have failed to qualify for the last two playoffs and will enter another season with one of the NHL’s oldest rosters. Since Kyle Dubas traded for star defenseman Erik Karlsson last August, the Penguins front office boss’s most intriguing signings have been a handful of prospects.
Once a rite of passage for Crosby’s Penguins, a postseason appearance is hardly guaranteed before his new contract expires. Intriguingly, that contract is structured to allow him to leverage an exit before the final season if Dubas doesn’t return the Penguins to contender status soon.
Crosby’s contract is designated as 35-plus, a notable status under the collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and its Players Association. The contract includes two signing bonuses – a choice by Crosby and agent Pat Brisson to get the bulk of the actual money paid before Crosby plays the final season of the new deal.
Crosby will earn $780,000 and $1.09 million in salary in years 1 and 2 of the new contract, respectively. But he will have gotten $16.31 million in real money before playing a game in year 2.
Who cares how Penguins owner Fenway Sports Group pays Crosby, as long as it pays him, right?
Every other GM in the league will care.
With 93.7 percent of Crosby’s salary paid before the second year of the new contract, he could come out cheap — again, in terms of actual money — in any potential transaction in the 2026 offseason. By the vast majority of Crosby’s real money before that second contract season, the Penguins could rightfully demand a more favorable return in any potential trade, especially if, as would be likely, they were to take on a significant portion of Crosby’s cap hit.
It would only be a one-season hit if Dubas were to retain even 50 percent ($4.35 million) to maximize returns in a trade that would — albeit likely only temporarily — end one of the great love stories of the NHL.
Crosby didn’t sign this new contract so it wouldn’t go through. He has said repeatedly, publicly and privately, that he only wants to play for the Penguins.
He also said he wants to win. He reiterated that point a few hours after the Penguins announced his new contract on Monday.
“I had a few conversations with Kyle throughout the process,” Crosby said of the negotiations. “I think that was reassuring – just based on what we discussed, as far as there still being a hunger within the organization and an ownership to win and a commitment there.
“I think that is very important. I feel like as players, for all the different guys that have played here over the time that I’ve been here, it’s something that you build as a culture…something that’s deeply ingrained. And it’s hard to miss the playoffs for a few years and not be there.
“You want to try to find any way you can to get back in there and make sure we’re competing for the Stanley Cup. So I think that was reassuring to hear and that helped. But no, I think it was more to hear that reassurance.”
After next season, Crosby will be approaching his 39th birthday and Dubas will have had three full years to chart a course. His franchise icon should be able to look at the squad and assess whether it is a Cup contender. By then, Crosby’s view of the Pittsburgh situation could depend as much on his opinion of the roster as on whether he wants to continue without Evgeni Malkin (who is likely to retire) and possibly Kris Letang, whose final two contract seasons have not been so be good. restrictive of trade.
Crosby reiterated Monday how special it has been to play 18 seasons with Malkin and Letang as teammates. The Penguins’ Big Three won’t last beyond 20 seasons, if only because of Malkin’s contract.
If one or both dear friends have moved on after next season and the Penguins are no closer to winning their first playoff series since 2018, who would begrudge Crosby for wanting what could be his final NHL season to be a chance would be? the cup somewhere else?
It’s up to Dubas to make Crosby’s decision easy by then. By leaving his cap as is, Crosby provided Dubas with precious millions to upgrade the Penguins the following offseason and the following season. If the Penguins are on the rise beyond 2025-2026, who better than Crosby to show their next potentially great team how to win?
That would be a perfect swan song for Crosby – with the Penguins in the playoffs, one last run before No. 87 is done.
He can then take as much time off as he wants, start a family and return to the franchise in whatever office role he chooses. He doesn’t have to become an owner, like Lemieux did, but he could.
Crosby’s heart is with the Penguins. He made that clear on Monday.
“It’s probably hard to put that into a sound,” he said, speaking from the porch of a house in suburban Pittsburgh, where he playfully exchanged high-fives with children playing different versions of his No. 87 Penguins jersey. “Support (from) the people, the fans, the organization, just everything over the years – it’s been really special and we’ve had some incredible experiences and memories.
“I just want to continue that.”
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletics; Photos: Jeanine Leech and Brandon Sloter/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images)