{"id":133440,"date":"2025-09-10T09:48:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T09:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/133440\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T09:48:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T09:48:07","slug":"penguins-sidney-crosby-understands-trade-speculation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/133440\/","title":{"rendered":"Penguins’ Sidney Crosby understands trade speculation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The swirling trade speculation as he begins the first of a two-year contract with the rebuilding Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> doesn\u2019t anger him because he understands it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn’t say I hate it. It\u2019s part of it,\u201d a matter-of-fact Crosby\u00a0told Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas Tuesday during a recording of the\u00a032 Thoughts\u00a0podcast in Henderson, Nevada.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s the thing that sucks about losing. When you lose, that\u2019s what comes with losing \u2014 that speculation. When you win, there\u2019s no speculation. It\u2019s: \u2018Who are they picking up? Who is the deadline acquisition?\u2019 When you lose, it\u2019s: \u2018Who\u2019s going?\u2019 That\u2019s the crappy part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once an NHL force that captured three Stanley Cups from 2009 to 2017, Crosby\u2019s Penguins will enter 2025-26 as a long shot to quench their three-year post-season drought.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"3232 Thoughts: The Podcast<\/p>\n

Hockey fans already know the name, but this is not the blog. From Sportsnet, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast with NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas is a weekly deep dive into the biggest news and interviews from the hockey world.<\/p>\n

Latest episode<\/a><\/p>\n

They haven\u2019t won a playoff series in seven years, despite captain Crosby steadily crushing better-than-a-point-per-game campaigns the whole way.<\/p>\n

Crosby has surged to the mountaintop. He\u2019s now coming to grips with life at the base.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe expectations are the other way. They’re not high. There’s a lot of noise as far as, \u2018Does he want to leave? Where can he go?\u2019 Everyone’s got the team they want me to go to. It’s a lot of that,\u201d said Crosby, who is trying to control only what he can.<\/p>\n

The trades and firings made by president and GM Kyle Dubas, the rumours swirling online, the pundits predicting another dive down the standings \u2014 Crosby knows those are things he can\u2019t control.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I’m not all in on trying to be my best or trying to help the team, and my focus and thoughts are elsewhere, then I\u2019m not doing what I need to do. I’d rather just try to be present. And right now, it’s definitely not easy, but I’ve had some great experiences,\u201d the Triple Gold Club member said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just try to handle it the best you can, given the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean it doesn\u2019t sting when longtime coach Mike Sullivan gets replaced, or the roster thins at the trade deadline, or the marquee free agents look elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s your whole environment. It just gets rockered a bit. So, you\u2019re trying to be in that, be supportive of the people around you, make sure that you’re in it, but also trying to deflect all that noise at the same time. It’s a lot of energy. So, it’s way better to win,\u201d Crosby said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think Sam Reinhart is sitting here having the same conversation. It’s way better when you win, and I think I appreciate that more than I ever have, having gone through our situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s outsiders dreaming of a team-up with Nathan MacKinnon in Colorado or romantics Photoshopping Crosby into the uniform of the Montreal Canadiens, his favourite team as a boy, the notion of a trade won\u2019t disappear anytime soon.<\/p>\n

Crosby has a full no-move clause, and thus full control over his fate.<\/p>\n

He said Tuesday that he has not approached Dubas and asked out.<\/p>\n

But with Crosby already 38 years old and the Penguins still turning over veterans for youth, people close to the superstar have expressed how much they want to see him return to the playoffs. A realist would admit that might only happen with a trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who knows me knows that’s what I love the most. Playoff hockey, there’s nothing like it,\u201d Crosby said. \u201cEvery single guy wants to be in the playoffs. That’s no secret. Especially me. So, yeah, when they say that, it’s funny because that’s where I want to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s the hard part. Like, everyone talks about being competitive, right? What does that mean? I think it’s pretty clear: You want to win. Being competitive isn’t like, OK, you lose 3-1 instead of 6-1.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The swirling trade speculation as he begins the first of a two-year contract with the rebuilding Pittsburgh Penguins…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-133440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}