One of the most highly anticipated moves in Pittsburgh has been made official to put an end to speculation about his future that has been around for months.
Sidney Crosby signed a two-year contract extension with the Penguins, with a total value of $17.4 million, carrying a cap hit of $8.7 million, the same exact cap hit Crosby carried in his previous 16 seasons with the Penguins and this coming season. The contract will kick in the summer of 2025, and will run through the 2027 season, when he will be 39 years old.
While Crosby remains one of the best players in the world and the league, it’s yet another year where his cap hit will resemble his jersey number. Ever since he signed his first contract after his entry-level deal expired in the summer of 2008, he has always carried a cap hit of $8.7 million, including the final year of his current 12-year contract that he signed in July 2012.
“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 Penguins general manager and President of Hockey Operations Kyle Dubas. “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.”
A Relief in the Steel City
A dark cloud that was looming over the heads of the Penguins dissipated with this signing. This extension ends an unexpected saga regarding contract talks after initial reports that Sidney Crosby and the Pens were finalizing a deal that was stalling out. Anxiety levels raised when Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said on the 32 Thoughts podcast earlier on the month that Sidney Crosby was still considering multiple extension offers, but had yet to sign any of them because he wasn’t sure whether or not he would “handle” missing the playoffs on a retooling team while still playing at an elite level.
Granted, Friedman did add that he was “pretty optimistic” that an extension would be done before training camp last week, and now that this piece of business is over and done with, it’s relieving. The two-year term isn’t all that surprising noting that Sidney Crosby is 37, and the Penguins allotted for the aging curve finally coming to him, and allows him to move on from the Pens in ’27 should they not come to a competitive level by then.
This contract is also more of a team-friendly contract in comparison to Crosby’s previous ones. The first contract he signed, a five-year, $43.5 million deal from 2009 to 2013, took up 15.34% of the cap when it went into effect in the summer of 2008. The extension he just signed will take up just 9.89% of the salary cap when it starts in the summer of 2025. Assuming there will be a $92 million cap ceiling in 2026, the Penguins will have $23.3 million of cap space with seven roster spots and nine free agents (7 UFAs and 2 RFAs), headlined by pending RFA forward Cody Glass and pending UFA defenseman Marcus Pettersson.
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Sidney Crosby’s Impact on the Penguins
Even when heading into his 20th season of playing hockey in the NHL, Sidney Crosby isn’t just the face of the Penguins. He’s the heart and soul of the team, and arguably a top 5 player in NHL history. There are few players who are complete game-changers in the NHL, and he is one of them. Even with the Penguins being mostly decent in the last two seasons, Crosby has done everything to put his team in a winning position, having hit the 90-point plateau in those two years, scoring a team-high 42 goals last season, where he also led the team in assists (52), points (94) and shots on goal (278).
While the 42 goals were the most he has scored in a single season since he led the NHL in goals in 2017 (44), the impact that he has made on not only the Penguins organization, but also the city of Pittsburgh is more than just noteworthy. He helped take a franchise that was on the verge of relocating from the Steel City to Stanley Cup champions in just four years. The Penguins have made the playoffs in 16 consecutive seasons with Sidney Crosby, from 2007 to 2022, though in the last two seasons, they’ve missed the playoffs in back-to-back years for the first time in the Sidney Crosby era.
Through 1,272 career games, he has scored 592 goals and 1,004 assists for 1,596 points, where he ranks 10th all-time in NHL history in the points leaderboard and first among all active players. He is also one of only two players in NHL history to average over a point per game in his first 19 seasons, with the other being Wayne Gretzky. Sidney Crosby is also 8th in points per game (1.25) among players with at least 500 games played in their career, which is very telling considering that concussions have robbed a chunk of his prime in the early 2010s.
In addition, he has racked up 201 playoff points in his career, the 5th-highest in NHL history, and has two Conn Smythe Trophies as the most valuable player of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He’s also a member of the Triple Gold Club, having won the Stanley Cup (2009, 2016, 2017), an Olympic gold medal (2010, 2014), and an IIHF World Championship (2015). The Penguins believe that this contract gets them back to competitiveness and hopefully win one last championship with him, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang.
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