PITTSBURGH — Sidney Crosby is staying with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Crosby re-signed with the Penguins on Monday, extending his relationship with the NHL franchise that drafted him No. 1 in 2005. Crosby, who turned 37 on Wednesday (Aug. 7), is now committed to the Penguins through the 2026-27 season.
His contract, which kicks in after this season, comes with a salary-cap hit of $8.7 million per year — a number matching the one he wears (87) and also his birth date (Aug. 7, 1987). His contracts have carried the same AAV since the 2008-09 season.
THE CAPTAIN IS COMMITTED.
The Penguins have re-signed Sidney Crosby to a two-year contract extension, running through the 2026.27 season and carrying an average annual value of $8.7 million.
Details: https://t.co/13N1vhbR2S pic.twitter.com/zgLb01EpgY
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 16, 2024
“There are no words to properly describe what Sidney Crosby means to the game of hockey, the city of Pittsburgh and the Penguins organization,” said Kyle Dubas, Penguins general manager and president of hockey operations, in a news release. “Sidney is the greatest player of his generation and one of the greatest players in the history of the game. His actions today show why he is one of hockey’s greatest winners and leaders. Sid is making a tremendous personal sacrifice in an effort to help the Penguins win, both now and in the future, as he has done for his entire career.”
Crosby has long desired to finish his NHL career with the Penguins, just as his boyhood hockey idol, Steve Yzerman, played only for the Detroit Red Wings. Crosby remains close with former Penguins co-majority owner Mario Lemieux, who retains a minority share in the team that drafted him No. 1 in 1984.
Though he loathes the topic of age, Crosby’s run of excellence has extended far beyond most all-time great players. He has scored 130 goals and 333 points since turning 33. His 1.16 point-per-game average after age 33 is better than contemporary Alex Ovechkin (1.01), but also within striking distance of Wayne Gretzky (1.19). Lemieux averaged 1.35 points per game after his 33rd birthday, though he did not return from a first retirement of three-plus seasons until age 35.
Crosby and Gretzky are the only players in NHL history to average at least a point per game for 19 consecutive seasons. Crosby can claim that record for himself if he extends his streak this season.
Gretzky, known as “The Great One” while re-setting the NHL record book as a player, famously referred to Crosby as “The Next One” after seeing Crosby play as a teenager.
The centerpiece of a historically successful rebuild by the Penguins in the early-to-mid 2000s, Crosby has scored 592 goals and 1,596 regular-season points. He should become only the 10th player in league history to score at least 600 goals and 1,600 points.
Crosby is projected to surpass Joe Sakic for ninth on the all-time scoring list this season. He’ll need to record 46 points. With his new contract, Crosby is positioned to supplant Lemieux atop the Penguins’ scoring list; Lemieux’s team record is 1,723 points.
A concussion and broken jaw limited Crosby to 99 of a potential 212 games from the 2010-11 through 2012-13 seasons. He was 23 at the start of that stretch, entering his prime. Crosby averaged 1.05 goals and 1.61 points per game over that span — paces that, if he was healthy, would have him much higher on the NHL scoring list than his current 10th-place slot.
Crosby, however, is known as much for his teams’ success as his accolades. He has captained the Penguins to three Stanley Cup titles (2009, 2016 and 2017), Team Canada to the gold medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics and a World Cup of Hockey victory in 2016. Crosby also famously scored the golden goal in overtime for Canada’s championship win over the United States at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
In Pittsburgh, Crosby has done the seemingly impossible and carved a legacy on par with Lemieux, the most cherished professional athlete in the city’s rich sporting history. Lemieux’s ownership group had an agreement to sell the franchise when the Penguins won the draft lottery coming out of the 2004-05 NHL lockout. Lemieux’s group pulled out of that agreement, and the Penguins’ season-ticket base skyrocketed within hours of the Crosby lottery victory.
Crosby’s appeal quickly turned the Penguins into a sellout attraction in Pittsburgh, where a stalled push for new arena funding finally came through less than two years after Crosby’s first game with the Penguins.
Former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, who led negotiations for that arena funding on behalf of state, county and city officials, flatly credited Crosby’s influence on the Penguins as the key factor to the Penguins getting an arena to replace the former Civic Arena.
“I think it’s fair to say everything changed when Crosby came around,” Rendell said in 2007. “If Mario saved the team a couple of times, and from what I know he did, Crosby being in Pittsburgh is the push that got this arena deal done.”
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(Photo: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
