NHL Rumors: Sidney Crosby Cautious With Term When it Comes to a Contract Extension

Sidney Crosby doesn’t want his contract extension to have any negative effect on the organization

Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas on 32 Thoughts: The Podcast – Sid’s Coming Back episode, on Pittsburgh Penguins forward Sidney Crosby. Crosby is being cautious with term as he doesn’t want his contract extension to negatively affect the organization.

** NHLRumors.com transcription

Friedman: “You know, people will hear what he has to say, as everybody knows now, he indicated that a contract is going to get done with the Penguins. He kind of downplayed, you’ll hear in the interview, he’ll down, he downplayed what I talked about that, you know, the concern about maybe the Penguins aren’t going to be very good. And if that played any kind of effect on his decision-making, he pooh-poohed that kind of.

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But I think the most interesting thing now and again, you’ll be able to hear some of his comments in the upcoming conversation. But to me, the most interesting thing here is going to be the term.

And you know, the one thing I really believe about Sid is that, one of my favorite baseball players was Mike Schmidt. And if you were a Mike Schmidt fan, you’ll remember that he retired two months into his last season. He just said, ‘I’m not Mike Schmidt anymore.’ And you know, he could have been a mere mortal instead of a Hall of Fame level third baseman. But he said, no, like, you know what that’s that’s not good enough for me. And he just said, before I drop off to a level that I really think is unacceptable, I’m going to retire.

And one of the people who’s friendly with Crosby has told me in the past, and I can’t remember if I’ve discussed this on the pod before, that if he wanted to, instead of being a number one center, he could easily turn himself into a like a 40-goal winger. But I just don’t see, like I see Crosby in the same vein as the Mike Schmidt. I think there is a level he expects to see himself at, and he’s not going below that level.

Now, the one thing he has changed is that, he once said, as you pointed out, he’s not playing when he’s 40. Now he’s kind of backed away from that now. I guess that what’s how, that’s what happens when you just had 94 points and, and barely missed the top 10 in scoring. So he thinks that his level is still very high deeper into his career. But to me, he’s not, it doesn’t sound like he’s going to go for a ton of term, because he wants to make sure that he’s still the same Sidney Crosby.

And the other thing I was told this week after, after the pod we previously did, is that Crosby wants to make sure that his contract, like, if he does get to a point where he says, ‘Okay, that’s enough,’ or he feels there’s a diminishing or anything like that, he doesn’t want his contract to be a concern for the Penguins.

Like, it comes to a point where, uh oh, you know, they might get stuck with something or a cap hit, or something like that. I do think he, I’ve heard, he’s very aware of that, and he wants to protect both the way he plays, and he’s very conscious of nothing he signs could be problematic cap-wise for the Penguins. Not that they would ever complain.

So I think these are the kinds of things we’re looking at here.

Bukauskas: “I just think Elliotte, like you’ve been doing this for a long time, like, how many other examples of guys can you think of, that think that way? I mean, it’s one thing to keep yourself at a certain standard and not want to continue playing if you don’t think you can get there.

But also the frame of mind of going I want to make sure the franchise that I’ve spent my entire career with doesn’t get faced with any type of salary cap hurdles, if that is the case. I just think it’s another example of him, Sidney Crosby, kind of being in the class of his own here.

Friedman: “There’s no doubt about that, Kyle, he’s obviously hugely loyal to the Penguins and his legacy with that organization is not only important to them, but it’s important to him.

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Again, not that he ever would. I just don’t think he ever wants anything he does to affect the organization negatively. I think that’s very, very important to him. And a couple of people said that it was very, very important to him.

So we’ll get a contract in the next little while. And, you know, again, I think the biggest thing I’m curious about is the term.

And where the eight-seven is going to be in the contract. Is it going to be like $10.875 (million)? He kind of laughed that off. I tried that one too, and he wasn’t going there. But like, I’m wondering if it’s going to be like $10.875 (million) or something like that.

Bukauskas: “So that’s a big win for not only Penguins fans, but hockey fans. The idea that Crosby is more open to playing later in his career than maybe he was a couple of years ago. So as 87 figures out how the twilight years of his career are going to look.”