Admittedly, seeing a franchise’s biggest current icon plant seeds to angle towards an exit is not a potential topic that’s fun to think about, let alone give spotlight to. After this week, one can’t bury their head in the sand over the matter any longer about what the future could hold for Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
As Tim Benz from the Trib pointed out, agent Pat Brisson, used the word “baseless” just a few months ago when refuting trade rumors about Colorado. Brisson’s tune and tone
has changed quite a bit in the past few months by stating a trade is “always a possibility”.
Crosby, for his part said, “I don’t feel like I’m there yet,” when it came to thinking about moving on from the Penguins, but he also pointed out how difficult it’s been to slog through losing seasons.
Both Crosby and Brisson ended on hopeful notes for a scenario where the Penguins get back on track with a good season this year and then the matter doesn’t have to be broached. Left unsaid by Crosby but spelled out by Brisson is that it’s now impossible to ignore that the door could open later on if the frustrations continue.
As we all know, a satisfying season is not likely to happen at the team level. The Pens are closer to the beginning of their rebuild than getting back into contention, no matter how much GM Kyle Dubas uses his favorite word “urgency” when it comes to seeing them team become good again. These things can’t be rushed, which isn’t breaking any news to Dubas. It’s not that he’s simply paying lip service to the idea of being strong, almost everyone involved in NHL teams has legitimate hopeful that pieces will come together to work out, but the process of building has to be intentional and purposeful, which is the path Dubas has charted.
One angle that I haven’t seen out there in great detail is the impact of what Crosby might have seen this spring and summer firsthand with the situation that long-time Crosby friend, peer, training buddy and fellow Nova Scotian Brad Marchand experienced. Marchand isn’t a star of Crosby’s magnitude, but he doesn’t have to be for their situations to align close enough. Marchand was drafted by Boston in 2006, and played in their organization from 2008-25. He won a Cup there and reached two more Stanley Cup Finals since Boston, like Pittsburgh, was one of the most competitive, consistent and successful Eastern Conference teams of the past 15-20 years. Marchand eventually became the team captain and franchise centerpiece (apologies to David Pastranak) after the departures of Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara.
Marchand’s expiring contract in 2025 and a downturn by the Bruins led Boston to trade him, which was an almost unthinkable move just weeks or months before it happened (or maybe even in the moments after it happened to some observers). Marchand finishing out his playing days as a Bruin always seemed inevitable, until it wasn’t.
Completing the trade was only the first step, part two was what came next. On his new team, Marchand was obviously having a lot of fun with the whole Dairy Queen escapade adding to his legend, a legend that got more chapters added when Marchancd was one of the Panthers’ top players throughout a Stanley Cup run by scoring 10 goals and 20 points in 23 games. Those experiences wouldn’t have happened if Marchand quietly wrapped up his career in Boston over the next few years.
For Crosby to witness and live through all of that vicariously, including attending Marchand’s summer Stanley Cup party, it’s not difficult to imagine him wondering in his heart of hearts how much fun it would have been to be in his buddy Marchand’s position this year instead of more or less professionally stuck on a Pittsburgh team miles from relevant. The perfect example was there looking him right in the eye.
Competing for titles was a component Brisson mentioned directly recently as well.
“We want Sidney to hopefully be in the playoffs every year. We want him to hopefully win another Cup or two. So each year the team that he’s playing for fails to make the playoffs, it creates a lot of speculation. In reality, he’s not getting any younger. We’re here to support him. It’s the beginning of the season here. Let’s see how things are going. Hopefully they have a great season and the speculation will go away.”
Hope in one hand and do you know what in the other…
The question for the rest of Crosby’s career will come down to how much tolerance he has for realizing he will not win another Stanley Cup in Pittsburgh and in fact might never play in the playoffs again if he stays for the last 2-3-4 years that he plays hockey. At this point he has to seriously accept the possibility of swallowing that bitter pill, or deciding to take an off ramp to go to a situation where he can. The general gist from many Penguin fans is accepting Crosby has earned the right to choose to end his career the way he wants. He surely has given all to be expected (and then some) to a singular franchise like the Pens in the last 20 years.
Mario Lemieux never left the Penguins (until he sold the team, anyways), but it sometimes gets lost in the shuffle that his ownership stake in the franchise after 1999 also likely would have prevented him from playing for anyone else. It has always been taken as a fait accompli that Crosby would mirror that script to ride off to the sunset having only known the jersey of one NHL team. Suddenly, I’m not so sure that a Marchand path wouldn’t be the preference. That’s a decision only Sidney Crosby can make for himself but one that likely won’t be going away.
