{"id":31259,"date":"2025-07-29T07:01:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T07:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/31259\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T07:01:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T07:01:10","slug":"two-insiders-confirm-likely-sidney-crosby-trade-are-the-leafs-a-dark-horse-to-acquire-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/31259\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Insiders Confirm Likely Sidney Crosby Trade; Are the Leafs a Dark Horse to Acquire Him?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two Insiders Confirm Likely Sidney Crosby Trade; Are the Leafs a Dark Horse to Acquire Him? <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/582910.webp.webp\" style=\"width:100%;\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Sidney Crosby is a viable trade option for the Maple Leafs\" title=\"Sidney Crosby is a viable trade option for the Maple Leafs\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Photo credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tPenguins star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markerzone.com\/hockey\/stats\/nhl\/player\/Sidney-Crosby-3986\" class=\"lien_marqueur\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"Sidney Crosby profile and hockey stats\">Sidney Crosby<\/a> is reportedly likely to be moved, and the Maple Leafs could be a dark horse to acquire him as Kyle Dubas may covet one major trade chip in Toronto.A tough task, many expect the Leafs to enter the season without a legitimate top-six addition, and although a winger would be preferred, adding another center would let the Leafs shift <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markerzone.com\/hockey\/stats\/nhl\/player\/John-Tavares-13149\" class=\"lien_marqueur\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"John Tavares profile and hockey stats\">John Tavares<\/a> to the wing and fill that void.<\/p>\n<p>Despite reports that Penguins captain Sidney Crosby wants to finish his career in Pittsburgh, Sportsnet&#8217;s Elliotte Friedman and Nick Kypreos noted on &#8216;The Real Kyper and Bourne&#8217; in early July, that there is an increased chance the 37-year-old gets dealt.<\/p>\n<p>Why the Maple Leafs Could Be Dark Horse Front-Runners for Sidney Crosby<\/p>\n<p>Although there are those that believe Crosby would prefer to play for the Montreal Canadiens or Colorado Avalanche if he was to be traded, the Maple Leafs may quietly be a threat to land the three-time Stanley Cup Champion.<\/p>\n<p>Why, you ask? The numerous connections between the Leafs and Penguins beginning with Kyle Dubas and Wes Clark. Top Leafs prospects <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markerzone.com\/hockey\/stats\/nhl\/player\/Ben-Danford-67361\" class=\"lien_marqueur\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"Ben Danford profile and hockey stats\">Ben Danford<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markerzone.com\/hockey\/stats\/nhl\/player\/Easton-Cowan-66048\" class=\"lien_marqueur\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"Easton Cowan profile and hockey stats\">Easton Cowan<\/a> were both Wes Clark draft picks and the Penguins may covet both players.<\/p>\n<p>The cost to acquire Crosby would obviously be high, likely including Danford and Cowan, as well as an additional first-round pick and possibly more. For the Leafs, though, there is no bigger &#8220;all-in move&#8221; than a deal for Sidney Crosby.<\/p>\n<p>At this point, Leafs Nation doesn&#8217;t care about a few years down the road, especially if it means acquiring Crosby and giving the Leafs their best shot at winning a Stanley Cup in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markerzone.com\/hockey\/stats\/nhl\/player\/Auston-Matthews-42488\" class=\"lien_marqueur\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"Auston Matthews profile and hockey stats\">Auston Matthews<\/a> era.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a pipe-dream at the moment, but as Friedman and Kypreos mentioned in discussion, if the Penguins struggle and Crosby wants to win, there&#8217;s a good chance he is moved, and the Leafs do technically have the pieces to land the first-ballot Hall-of-Famer should he become available.<\/p>\n<p>Previously on MapleLeafsDaily<\/p>\n<p>POLL<\/p>\n<p>7 HOURS AGO\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0582 ANSWERS<\/p>\n<p>Two Insiders Confirm Likely Sidney Crosby Trade; Are the Leafs a Dark Horse to Acquire Him?<\/p>\n<p>Do you think Sidney Crosby will finish his career in Pittsburgh?<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tMAPLELEAFSDAILY.COM<br \/>COPYRIGHT @2025 &#8211; ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mapleleafsdaily.com\/terms\" class=\"lediv\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">TERMS<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mapleleafsdaily.com\/politic\" class=\"lediv\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">POLICIES<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two Insiders Confirm Likely Sidney Crosby Trade; Are the Leafs a Dark Horse to Acquire Him? Photo credit:&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,5239,5240,448,20710,82,746,1215],"class_list":["post-31259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-hockey","tag-leafs-news-and-rumours","tag-nhl","tag-sidney-crosby","tag-sports","tag-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-trade"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31259","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=31259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}