The Pittsburgh Penguins and captain Sidney Crosby are closing in on a new contract, multiple team and league sources briefed on negotiations told The Athletic. The team and player are confident a deal will be agreed upon and formalized soon, the sources said.
Crosby and his longtime agent, Pat Brisson, have kept a mostly tight lid on contract talks with Penguins general manager and president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas. During those discussions, the sources said, Crosby reaffirmed to Dubas what he has repeatedly stated publicly — that he wants to finish his career with the Penguins, who selected him No. 1 in 2005. The potential deal is being viewed by both sides as “a commitment to Pittsburgh,” a team and league source said.
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Crosby, who turns 37 next month, is intent on being a Penguin for life, despite missing the playoffs in back-to-back years and amid an underwhelming offseason in which Dubas has added little to the roster.
As previously reported, a deal within a range of three years and potentially an average annual value of $10 million was possible. Full details of Crosby’s contract were not shared with The Athletic.
Crosby’s age requires a “35-plus contract” designation, similar to the four-season deal teammate Evgeni Malkin signed in July 2022. As part of the collective bargaining agreement between NHL owners and players, a “35-plus contract” prohibits a team from reducing a player’s salary-cap hit on any deal two seasons or longer by frontloading the deal or delaying a signing bonus to/after a second season.
While far from a complication in talks with the Penguins, Crosby’s age, at least as it relates to his next contract, is a wrinkle previous Pittsburgh GMs have not had to iron out.
Crosby’s three NHL contracts were signed before rules prohibiting contracts from extending beyond eight seasons for players re-signing with a team. Crosby’s current contract had a heavily frontloaded base salary, paying him $67.8 million over the first six seasons and only $3 million each of the final three seasons.
Crosby has counted $8.7 million against the cap on his last two contracts. He wears the No. 87 because he was born on August 7, 1987 — so that $8.7 million cap hit has always sat well with one of the NHL’s most superstitious players.
Crosby has afforded the Penguins opportunities to build contending rosters around him by taking less than perceived market value in the past. However, the team has missed the past two postseasons after qualifying for 16 consecutive Stanley Cup playoffs, and the Penguins have won just one playoff series since back-to-back championships in 2016 and 2017.
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While Dubas has not committed to a full rebuild, the Penguins have only $3.5 million in cap space, as tracked by PuckPedia, and they’re short at least one proven top-six winger. Crosby’s longtime winger, Jake Guentzel, was moved at the most recent trade deadline for a package that included Michael Bunting and three prospects.
Dubas said at the NHL Draft in Las Vegas that he would expect Crosby, who he described as “ultra-competitive,” to want the current roster to be a contender for the postseason, if not the Stanley Cup. Speaking last Monday after the opening hour of free agency, Dubas detailed the on-ice direction of a roster whose most prominent if not best players are all in their mid-to-late 30s.
“The on-ice direction is simply we’re not looking to simply squeak into the playoffs,” Dubas said. “It’s to return the team to become a contender as soon as possible.
“Can we do that this season? Can we do that next season? It’s hard to put a time frame on it. But this is obviously not a strip-it-down-to-the-studs situation here; the people in the room are too good for that.”
The Penguins’ most prominent players are in their mid-to-late 30s, including Malkin (38 this month) and Crosby (37 next month). (Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)
The Penguins’ core consists of Crosby; Malkin, who will turn 38 on July 31; Letang, 37; and Erik Karlsson, 34. Crosby, Malkin and Karlsson have full no-movement clauses. Malkin’s contract, with two seasons remaining, has an expiration that coincides with Letang’s full no-movement clause becoming limited to a list of 10 teams to which he can approve a trade.
A new contract of three years in length would extend into Crosby’s 40s, through Malkin’s presumed retirement after the 2025-26 season, and through the final two seasons of Letang’s current deal.
Crosby, Malkin and Letang have played more seasons together than any trio of professional athletes in North American team sports. Crosby is close friends with each player and pushed for the Penguins to keep Letang and Malkin during tumultuous contract negotiations with previous Pittsburgh management two years ago.
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Fenway Sports Group (FSG), which purchased the Penguins midway through the 2021-22 season, was not interested in parting with two of the most popular players in franchise history when it came time to make a call on Malkin and Letang. Even then, FSG viewed Crosby as the only indispensable asset in the organization.
Crosby is coming off a campaign in which he topped 40 goals for only the third time and 90 points for the second consecutive season and eighth time overall. Crosby, who averaged a point per game for the 19th consecutive season, can break a record he shares with Wayne Gretzky this season.
With eight goals, Crosby will become only the ninth player to amass 600 goals and 1,600 points in the NHL. If his next contract is for at least three seasons, he likely will set the Penguins records for goals, assists and points — all marks held by Mario Lemieux.
In addition to being their best player on the ice, Crosby is the only Penguins player — and one of few in the NHL — with crossover appeal to a non-hockey audience. He remains one of the league’s most endorsed players, drawing around $4 million annually from partnerships with Gatorade, Tim Hortons, Bell and CCM.
FSG targets national partnerships for the Penguins as part of bundles with its other sports properties, including MLB’s Boston Red Sox — and Crosby’s remaining in Pittsburgh is viewed by ownership as a crucial selling point to prominent potential sponsors.
FSG has viewed locking up Crosby until he retires as its top priority with the Penguins. Its long-term hope is that Crosby will join the Penguins in a front-office capacity after he retires.
That is at least a little while off.
As for any perceived delay in finalizing his next deal with the Penguins, Crosby wanted to allow Dubas to address other offseason matters — specifically, potential trades and free-agent signings — before negotiations with Brisson ramped up, the sources said.
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Though Crosby extending his fruitful partnership with the Penguins is expected by both sides, he and the team are aware every day that passes without his next contract being announced only serves to build on public speculation that he could test free agency next summer or even be traded.
Those scenarios were never discussed, the sources said.
Crosby is entering the final season of a 12-year, $104.4 million contract signed in June 2012.
(Top photo: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
Rob Rossi is senior writer for The Athletic NHL based in Pittsburgh. He was previously lead columnist at the Tribune-Review, for which he also served as lead beat reporter on the Penguins and Pirates. He has won awards for his columns and investigative stories on concussion protocol and athletes’ charities, and he is working on a biography of Evgeni Malkin. Follow Rob on Twitter @Real_RobRossi
