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<\/a><\/p>\n\n After his last-minute addition to the team, Sidney Crosby passed the torch to Macklin Celebrini as Canada\u2019s captain for the IIHF World Hockey Championship. (Fabrice Coffrini \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
When Crosby met with reporters following the Penguins\u2019 loss to the Flyers, he said that he would be taking a year-by-year approach to the rest of his career. It\u2019s the first time he\u2019s ever spoken of his career in such a short-term window.<\/p>\n
Does that mean that there\u2019s a possibility that next season could be his last? Crosby, after all, is only under contract for one more season.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot at all,\u201d Crosby said.<\/p>\n
The captain explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said year to year because of where the team is at,\u201d he said. \u201cIt just makes sense, whether it\u2019s our cap, who we have coming in and out, just to have that flexibility. It\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crosby didn\u2019t mean that he would be considering retirement after each season.<\/p>\n
Rather, this past season seemed to reinvigorate the living legend. He recorded the 21st straight point-per-game-or-better season of his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I\u2019m saying year to year based on contracts,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt just seems to make sense. I mean, it could change. We\u2019ll see. Kyle (Dubas) and I haven\u2019t even talked about it. But I\u2019ll talk with Pat (Brisson) and Kyle later this summer. We\u2019ll talk about it and do what makes sense. If it does make sense to sign for a couple of years, then we\u2019ll do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crosby isn\u2019t thinking about himself, which is pretty typical for him. Rather, he said, he\u2019s thinking about the Penguins and how he can help them prosper in the coming seasons. They made the playoffs for the first time since 2022 this year, and the upward trajectory has him thinking big things before his career concludes.<\/p>\n
More than anything, he\u2019s putting the team first.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty obvious why I would just go year to year with the contracts,\u201d he said. \u201cAt the end of the day, I\u2019m just going to do what\u2019s best for the team. It\u2019s got nothing to do with how long I want to play. It\u2019s not like that at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Signing shorter contracts, Crosby has concluded, gives Dubas more options and the Penguins more flexibility moving forward.<\/p>\n
Crosby has stated, time and again, that he only ever wishes to play for the Penguins. This season\u2019s resurgence has emboldened that desire.<\/p>\n
And by the sounds of things, he might be sticking around for a while.<\/p>\n
Next season will be the 22nd of his NHL career. Only 13 people in NHL history have played more seasons. Only one player \u2014 Alex DelVecchio, Detroit (24 seasons) \u2014 has played more than 22 seasons with the same team.<\/p>\n
When Crosby plays his first game of next season, he will have passed Pirates legend Willie Stargell for most seasons played with a team in the history of Pittsburgh sports.<\/p>\n
Crosby has 1,761 points in his NHL career, good for seventh most in NHL history. He is only 10 points from passing Marcel Dionne and 37 points from passing Ron Francis, which means he figures to be in the top five fairly early next season. He is only 160 points from catching Jaromir Jagr for second place on the NHL\u2019s all-time scoring list.<\/p>\n
Crosby sounds as though plenty of gas remains in the tank.<\/p>\n
No one could have expected Crosby flying overseas to compete in the fortnight that is the world championships, especially given the health issues that plagued the second half of his season. Most players who are making their way to the conclusion of their NHL careers prefer more time off in the summer.<\/p>\n
Of course, Crosby isn\u2019t thinking about retirement anytime soon, anyway.<\/p>\n
He needed to regroup following the loss to the Flyers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just needed a few days to get some time off, to be honest,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a busy year. one of the busiest I\u2019ve ever had. Sometimes, when you\u2019re coming off a playoff loss, your mind is just in so many different places. You want to keep playing, but then sometimes, you relax a little bit and just need some rest. So I was just taking my time. I was talking with Spez (Penguins assistant general manager and Team Canada co-general manager Jason Spezza) throughout the whole process, letting him know how I felt. By the end of the week, I was just feeling so much better and better. So, I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a while longer, it seems.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely want to keep playing for as many years as possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
And with that, he headed back into the Team Canada locker room, another day under his belt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRIBOURG, Switzerland \u2014 Sidney Crosby shared a laugh with Macklin Celebrini during Team Canada\u2019s practice on Wednesday, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,1790,99],"class_list":["post-656535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-pittsburgh-penguins","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}