The 2025-26 NHL season is less than one month from getting underway and Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby spoke Monday about how he wants to be in Pittsburgh and says he does not support the idea of the team tanking.
Crosby addressed the topics while out helping deliver season tickets to fans as part of a long-standing team tradition.
When asked about the benefits of tanking, the Penguins captain shot down the idea of him supporting it.
“It’s professional sports, you play to win,” Crosby said.
“That’s how I view it and you’re not gonna convince me otherwise.”
“If you’re one of those people that believe that, then you’re entitled to believe in that, but that’s not why I signed up to play the game and that’s not the game that I know,” Crosby added, saying that people are allowed to take, but it’s not one that resonates with him.
Crosby also addressed a lot of the discussion in the hockey world surrounding him and his potential future being up in the air as to whether or not he could request a trade out of Pittsburgh.
“There’s a lot of narratives out there and I don’t think a lot of those have comes from me,” Crosby said. “This is where I want to be,” Crosby said. “I love it here and I can’t keep having to answer the same question over again.”
The topic of the Penguins’ potential for tanking this season comes as the team has missed the playoffs the past three seasons and have not won a playoff series since 2018 along with Gavin McKenna, who will be playing college hockey at Penn State University, projected to be the first overall pick in next year’s NHL Entry Draft.
The 2025-26 season for the Penguins will get under on October 7 when the team travels to New York City to face the Rangers and former head coach Mike Sullivan at Madison Square Garden.
