‘All my energy is here’: Penguins’ Crosby shrugs off trade speculation once again
It should come as no surprise to anyone, but Sidney Crosby is still committed to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
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It should come as no surprise to anyone, but Sidney Crosby is still committed to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Despite speculation after the Avalanche traded away Mikko Rantanen that perhaps Crosby would want to join close friend Nathan MacKinnon in Colorado, the Pens longtime captain is planning to stay right where he is.
“I know how speculation works: Everybody’s looking to talk about different things, different scenarios,” Crosby told Taylor Haase of DK Pittsburgh Sports on Tuesday. “I can’t control that. I don’t know where that comes from. I don’t think that it’s something I’m going to discuss every time someone speculates something. I’m not going to answer it every time that happens.”
The 37-year-old superstar signed a two-year, $17.4 million contract extension with the Penguins in September, set to begin next season. A three-time Stanley Cup champion and two-time league MVP, Crosby could have commanded a higher salary from Pittsburgh. General manager Kyle Dubas described the deal as “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.”
Pittsburgh has missed the playoffs in each of the past two seasons and is on pace to do so again, sitting last in the Metropolitan Division, 15th in the Eastern Conference and 26th in the league. Crosby, however, remains productive on his struggling team, averaging just over a point per game this season with 53 points (15 goals, 38 assists) in 52 games.
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Knowing there likely wouldn’t be any rumours about his future if the Penguins were currently winning, Crosby called the trade speculation around him “a difficult part of losing.”
“It’s more than just the losses,” he continued. “It’s all the stuff that comes with it. It’s the trickle-down effect that comes with that. That’s the way it is. But understanding that, I know that all my energy and all my focus is toward helping us and doing the best we can, and I can’t control any of that other stuff.”
Crosby, the Penguins’ first overall pick in 2005, is in his 20th season with the team. He has a full no-move clause, and both he and the organization have reiterated their desire for him to stay in Pittsburgh until he retires — including earlier this season when he told The Athletic’s Rob Rossi, “I’ve said I’m going to always be here. I just signed a new contract to be here. I’ve been very upfront about it — I’m a Pittsburgh Penguin.”
However, as long as the team lingers near the bottom of the NHL standings, speculation about him leaving to chase a fourth Stanley Cup is unlikely to fade.
“I’m trying to do everything I possibly can for us,” Crosby added on Tuesday. “Be at my best, to give us a chance to win every night, to be a good teammate. We all want to get through a difficult point right now. That’s my mindset. All my energy is here and trying to do everything I can here.”
