The Pittsburgh Penguins were close to pulling off a miracle and making it to the postseason thanks to an unexpected late-season push, but they ultimately fell short of the feat, finishing outside of the playoff picture.
With no Stanley Cup Playoffs hockey in the city of Steel, the franchise has already moved on to the next most important thing entering the 2024 offseason: convincing Penguins legend Sidney Crosby to sign an extension before he becomes a free agent in July 2025.
After nearly a week since we last got an update on the negotiation between Crosby and the Penguins, The Athletic’s Rob Rossi reported a sizable amount of new information on April 24 about what is going on under the hood.
At this point, it seems like there have only been informal talks between Crosby’s agent and Penguins General Manager Kyle Dubas regarding the veteran center signing an extension. Crosby is eligible to sign a new deal exactly one year before entering free agency, which would fall on July 1, 2024.
“There have yet to be formal negotiations between Penguins president of hockey operations/general manager Kyle Dubas and CAA Hockey’s Pat Brisson on Crosby’s next contract,” multiple team and league sources told Rossi.
Sidney Crosby Wants to Finish Career With the Penguins
Back on February 19, Crosby told Rossi he wanted to retire a Penguin. “Yeah, I’ve said that forever,” Crosby answered when asked about it.
The last time we heard from Crosby, after the end of the regular season, he said he was planning to talk to Dubas about his future.
“I’m going to talk to [Penguins General Manager Kyle Dubas] and have a conversation with him,” Crosby told reporters on Thursday, April 18. “We’ll see. I think it’s just something that I’ll have conversations with him about.”
According to Rossi’s latest report, those talks have yet to start or, at the very least, haven’t reached a serious point regarding presenting and signing a new contract with the Penguins.
Crosby’s contract, a 12-year pact worth $104.4 million, runs through June 2025. At the start of the new league year (July 1, 2024), Crosby will be eligible to sign an extension ahead of his current contract expiration.
“Both parties expect a new deal with Crosby will be reached by or not long after that date,” Rossi’s sources said, “with contract length and salary cap hit as the major elements still to be worked out.”
Crosby, 36, has “not decided how long he wants to keep playing,” according to Rossi. The insider revealed that Pittsburgh “would prefer Crosby to sign a contract that would take him to his eventual retirement,” quoting an article published at The Athletic on March 25 projecting Crosby to land a three-year, $10 million contract.
Crosby Is Limited to Signing a “35-Plus Contract”
Due to Crosby’s age, the Penguins cannot sign the center to a frontloaded deal, Rossi reports. On top of that, Crosby’s new deal cannot go beyond eight seasons under the latest CBA rules. Crosby’s current contract was signed for 12 seasons as it was inked before the new CBA was approved.
“The Penguins would not benefit from a reduced salary cap hit from front-loading the contract (or pushing a signing bonus to year two or later) if the deal is two years or longer,” Rossi explained.
That being said, Rossi made clear that both parties are determined to find common ground sooner rather than later.
“Negotiations between Dubas and Brisson will focus on particulars,” Rossi wrote, “not whether Crosby will re-sign with the Penguins, the sources said.”
The official announcement of Crosby’s extension cannot be made until July 1 when the new league year will commence, but it’s reasonable to expect more and more whispers about it (and most probably an unofficial confirmation from some NHL insider) as we get closer to the seventh month of the calendar year.
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