Maple Leafs Land Major Sidney Crosby Ally In Significant Addition

It’s only going to be a matter of time before the Pittsburgh Penguins have to get used to life without the likes of longtime captain Sidney Crosby, along with his fellow future Hall of Fame teammate Evgeni Malkin.

Both players have only one season remaining on their respective contracts; Malkin was recently re-signed to a one-year pact, which many anticipate to be his final campaign in the NHL. Meanwhile, Crosby also isn’t getting any younger at 38 years of age; he’ll be 39 in just a few days.

And speaking of Crosby, a rival club from the Eastern Conference has poached a longtime associate of Crosby’s to work as their new strength and conditioning coach as part of their major leadership transition so far this offseason.

The Maple Leafs Have Hired Pittsburgh Penguins Captain Sidney Crosby’s Longtime Trainer Andy O’Brien

NHL insider Steve Simmons reports that the Maple Leafs have added Andy O’Brien to their staff. O’Brien is best known for serving as Sidney Crosby’s longtime personal trainer, and his arrival also reconnects him with Hayley Wickenheiser, who exited the organization earlier this offseason during Toronto’s front-office restructuring.

“Maple Leafs have hired Sidney Crosby’s longtime trainer, Andy O’Brien, as their new strength and conditioning coach,” Simmons wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “An irony here: O’Brien used to Hayley Wickenheiser’s trainer back in the day.”

O’Brien has also previously worked with the Florida Panthers in two different capacities. He initially led the club’s strength and conditioning program from 2005-09 before spending three seasons as a consultant with the WHL’s Tri-City Americans. He later served as Pittsburgh’s director of conditioning and sports science for five years, then returned to Florida in a high-performance consulting role.

Andy O’Brien Is Sidney Crosby’s Longtime Personal Trainer

O’Brien, who has known Crosby since he was a teenager, has been instrumental in helping the future Hall of Famer extend his longevity and earn an appropriate reputation as one of the best all-time players to lace up the skates.

“What was interesting for me is he was a guy that saw the ice really well, but he wasn’t a guy that tried to use his hands to make a lot of plays — like he used his body and he was physical and he was aggressive and he kinda had this alpha male characteristic,” O’Brien said of Crosby in 2013. 

“Typically, when you think of a skilled player, you think of guys with just really good hands, like a good shot. … It’s like you’re either skilled or you’re a hard-working, grinder-type guy. That was the tradition.”

O’Brien also helped Crosby refine his movement and training mechanics, emphasizing proper technique to help reduce the likelihood of injuries.

“And during breaks, we would eat together and I would teach him all about physiology, the names of the muscles and the philosophy behind what we were doing,” O’Brien noted.

“It was an opportunity for me when I was younger to really key in on one young guy that had a lot of talent and was very motivated.”

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