The Penguins have signed captain Sidney Crosby to a two-year, $17.4M contract extension, the group announced. It carries a cap hit of $8.7M.
Crosby’s deal can be paid out largely in signing bonuses, per PuckPedia. He’ll earn $780K in base wage with a $9M signing bonus in 2025-26 and a $1.09M base wage with a $6.53M signing bonus in 2026-27. As suspected, his contract features a full no-move clause.
Immediately, an enormous cloud that might have loomed over Pittsburgh’s coaching camp later this week dissipated. The 2-year pact ends an surprising extension saga that started two months in the past after reports that Crosby and the Pens were finalizing a deal went unfulfilled.
Some anxiousness returned when Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet stated on the “32 Ideas” podcast earlier this month that Crosby was nonetheless weighing a number of extension affords from the Penguins, however had but to place pen to paper as a result of he wasn’t certain whether or not he’d have the ability to “deal with” lacking the playoffs on a retooling membership whereas nonetheless acting at an elite stage. The 37-year-old told Friedman last week that he was “fairly optimistic” an extension can be finished earlier than coaching camp.
The 2-year size shouldn’t come as a shock to anybody. It permits the Penguins extra salary-cap flexibility sooner or later ought to the growing old curve lastly come for Crosby, as alluded to by Friedman on Friday, and it additionally provides him one other alternative to maneuver on from Pittsburgh in 2027 ought to the Penguins’ document not return to a meaningfully aggressive stage.
Coming into his twentieth season, Crosby remains to be the guts and soul of hockey in Pittsburgh. The 2005 first-overall choose completed ninth in each Hart and Selke Trophy voting final season after main the Penguins in objectives (42), assists (52), factors (94), and pictures on aim (278).
“There are not any phrases to correctly describe what Sidney Crosby means to the sport of hockey, town of Pittsburgh and the Penguins group,” normal supervisor Kyle Dubas stated in an announcement. “Sidney is the best participant of his era and one of many best gamers within the historical past of the sport. His actions as we speak present why he’s one in every of hockey’s best winners and leaders. Sid is making an incredible private sacrifice in an effort to assist the Penguins win, each now and sooner or later, as he has finished for his complete profession.”
Crosby might have turn into an unrestricted free agent for the primary time subsequent summer time with out an extension. The three-time Stanley Cup champion is getting into the ultimate season of the 12-year, $104.4M mega-deal with an $8.7M cap hit he signed in 2012. The primary deal he signed following the expiry of his entry-level contract, a five-year, $43.5M pact that coated from 2008-09 to 2012-13, additionally had an $8.7M AAV.
He’s nonetheless taking part in at a celebrity stage, but it is a far more cost-effective contract for Pittsburgh than his earlier ones. That first extension value 15.34 % of the cap when it went into impact in 2008, whereas as we speak’s deal takes up simply 9.89 % of the wage cap at its begin. That’s to not say his earlier offers weren’t bargains, although. The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn estimates Crosby has left roughly $43M on the desk all through his profession by taking offers decrease than market worth.
Assuming a $92M wage cap for 2025-26, the Pens have $23.3M in projected cap house for subsequent season with seven open roster spots, per PuckPedia. They solely have one notable pending RFA, recent commerce pickup Cody Glass. However there’s an honest slate of pending UFAs on Pittsburgh’s books, headlined by defenseman Marcus Pettersson. These extension talks are expected to shift into high gear with Crosby’s deal turning into official.
Crosby sits twenty first in league historical past in objectives (592), 14th in assists (1,004), tenth in factors (1,596), and eighth in factors per sport (1.25) amongst gamers with no less than 500 appearances. The latter is essentially the most telling stat, with concussions costing ’Sid The Child’ an excellent chunk of his prime within the early 2010s. He was rightfully named among the many 100 best gamers in NHL historical past throughout the league’s centennial celebration in 2017.
The Penguins have missed the playoffs in back-to-back seasons, their first time exterior the playoff image since Crosby’s rookie season in 2006. Either side hope Crosby’s low cost deal helps them return to type.
