representing Canada<\/a> at the World Championship in Switzerland, he hasn\u2019t had to look very far for a physical reminder of his employer.<\/p>\nOutside his team\u2019s locker room after a recent practice, Crosby\u2019s bosses, Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas and assistant GM Jason Spezza, who also happen to be his bosses at worlds, walked right behind him.<\/p>\n
Regardless of the continent, Dubas is at the heart of the Penguins\u2019 story of the summer. Everyone wants to know if he\u2019ll bring back aging star forward Evgeni Malkin for another season. At one point, the feeling was that Dubas was against it, but that has apparently thawed, as he said last week he\u2019d \u201clove to bring Geno back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crosby would love that, too, but he won\u2019t be confident in a deal becoming reality until Malkin\u2019s name is signed on a new contract.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of players over the years,\u201d Crosby started, going through a Rolodex of players he thought would return to Pittsburgh only to sign elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Then he paused.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember a few years ago when Geno was coming up on being a free agent,\u201d he said, referring to the summer of 2022. \u201cIt went into July. Hopefully, there\u2019s something that gets done here before that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Malkin turns 40 in July. Though his game has generally regressed over the past five seasons, he enjoyed a bounce-back campaign in 2025-26, registering 61 points in 56 games.<\/p>\n
When asked if he\u2019d have a problem playing without Malkin on his team, Crosby thought for a moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve just always expected to be playing with him,\u201d Crosby said while shrugging. \u201cI don\u2019t know. After talking with everyone at the end of the year, it felt like it was in a good place in terms of getting something done.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Crosby is optimistic a deal will happen, he\u2019s not making any assumptions. He\u2019s been burned before.<\/p>\n
\u201cI stopped trying to project things a long time ago,\u201d he explained. \u201cI try not to forecast or think ahead. I\u2019ve found out many times that doing that can be a bad idea.\u201d<\/p>\n
Players with Crosby\u2019s importance have the power to push general managers in a certain direction. Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr, in generations before Crosby, influenced many coach firings and player trades or re-signings. Crosby isn\u2019t cut from that cloth.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a player,\u201d he said. \u201cIf Kyle asks me for my opinion, I\u2019ll share it. I\u2019m comfortable with that. But I\u2019m definitely not trying to pick our roster.\u201d<\/p>\n
To Crosby, though, this Penguins roster wouldn\u2019t feel right without No. 71. The players, who have been teammates since 2006, have authored a remarkable two decades in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n
As he always does, Crosby lights up when he\u2019s asked about Malkin. The two are as close off the ice as they are revered in Pittsburgh sports history.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think everybody knows how I feel about Geno at this point,\u201d Crosby said. \u201cI think everybody knows what I think he means to our team, what he\u2019s done for the organization for 20 years. It goes without saying.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRIBOURG, Switzerland \u2014 Sidney Crosby always has the Pittsburgh Penguins on his mind, even when he\u2019s 4,000 miles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,1790,99],"class_list":["post-659149","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\/659149","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=659149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}