Enjoy watching Sidney Crosby for the Pittsburgh Penguins for the next three years. Breathe it in. Cherish it. Be a little sentimental, if necessary.
Never in your life will you see his kind again.
I’m not talking about the hockey, the backhand, the vision, the strength, the tenacity – you know, all those things that made him one of the greatest hockey players of all time.
No, this is about Crosby the person, a selfless figure in a time when sports has been infiltrated with so much greed that professional athletes are even further removed from reality.
Oh yeah, Crosby will make more money next season than the vast majority of us will ever see in our lives. He won’t be living in a studio apartment anytime soon. However, his new contract illustrates so much about Crosby the person and Crosby the captain.
GO DEEPER
Penguins re-sign Crosby to new two-year contract
By signing a two-year contract on Monday that will begin after this season, Crosby again turned down more money to stay compensated for his regular salary cap hit of $8.7 million per season. Although its numerous superstitions are legendary, we make far too many of them. Most importantly, he is not greedy and cares about the fortunes of this franchise.
Kyle Dubas had no impact. The Penguins general manager and president of hockey operations is highly compensated and just as powerful, but he is no more powerful than Crosby.
It wouldn’t be that way in other cities and with other teams, but this is different. In Pittsburgh, the hockey stars are bigger than the franchise. And Crosby isn’t just any star. He is one of the most important hockey players of this century and one of the best. He is still strong and could easily have commanded many more millions annually. Dubas would have given him anything he wanted. He had no choice.
However, Crosby never chooses Crosby. His kind and selfless personality illustrates the real person. There is nothing fake or insincere about him. Winning is the only thing that drives him, and has been since he emerged as a seventeen-year-old twenty summers ago.
By my estimate, Crosby has left about $43 million on the table since 2008-09, making $8.7 million each season. https://t.co/JRn4vKFkLO
— dom 📈 (@domluszczyszyn) September 16, 2024
The two-year contract term is as remarkable as the money.
This deal will carry Crosby through his age-39 season, a few months shy of his 40th birthday. Is this the last contract of Crosby’s career? Maybe. Forty is a nice, round number, and by then more than half of his life will have been spent as Penguins captain. That also marks the conclusion of his 22nd NHL season. That’s a lot of hockey, and it’s not like he has anything left to accomplish.
The two-year term has some implications. Let’s break it all down:
• You can watch Crosby for at least three more seasons. That should be of great comfort to those of you who fear his retirement.
• The Penguins will not undergo a “full rebuild” for at least three years. As Dubas has noted, it’s unlikely they’ll ever finish in the bottom five if Crosby is still on the roster because he’s too good. Instead, we see a mini-rebuild or a reload.
• Crosby could have asked for more years. The Penguins would give the captain as many years as he wanted. He opted against it because he didn’t want to cripple the team. What if he signed to play five more years, but after the first few years realized his passion for the game had evaporated? Or maybe his play will decline. That seems like a strange concept, considering he’s the most consistently big-name superstar in the history of the sport. He seems to be ageless. But I assure you, he is not. At some point he will become human. Crosby knows that and doesn’t want to negatively impact the Penguins if this happens anytime soon.
The worst-case scenario is that Crosby will play in a Penguins uniform for three more years, the team doesn’t make the playoffs, Crosby retires in 2027 and Dubas has a boatload of cash – and young assets – to give him the freedom to quickly turn the Penguins into a winner.
So worst case scenario, you get to see Crosby until the end. You can enjoy his farewell tour. And all the while, you’ll know that a new wave of Penguins players are learning to become a pro from one of the greatest captains in hockey history.
That’s the beauty of the two-year deal: it’s long enough that he can enjoy him for a few more years, but not so long as to paint himself and the Penguins into a corner.
If he’s still great at 39 and wants to play longer, then even better. No one needs to show Crosby the door. And by then, the Penguins might be ready to win. Dubas does what he has to do. He is extremely committed to developing talented young players, nothing compared to the occasional Wilkes-Barre call-up we have seen in recent seasons.
The best-case scenario would be if Crosby, who is still one of the five or ten best players in the league, can maintain that level for a few more years, just as all these young assets are suddenly blossoming.
Crosby’s final outing with the Penguins could be special if these two possibilities come together. It would be something to see him make some final runs at a championship with a bunch of kids who will carry the torch.
It’s hardly unthinkable. Much of this will be made possible by the deal he signed. It saved the franchise significant money to spend on other players and assets. It keeps Crosby in everyone’s lives for a while, but not too long, in case the time to retire is near. If he’s still great and hungry at 39, he’ll sign another short-term deal. Why not?
It’s so practical, selfless and intelligent. It’s so Crosby.
He will rightfully receive enormous amounts of love from all Pittsburgh and Penguins fans around the world. It’s deserved.
But with this deal, Crosby returns all that affection right back.
He is truly one of a kind.
(Photo: Steph Chambers/Getty Images)