The assumed watershed dates have come and gone, with nary a public peep from those inside the Pittsburgh Penguins’ contract discussions with all-time great Sidney Crosby. Crosby is entering the final year of his 12-year contract, which both sides designed to take him to the end of his career. Next summer, Crosby will be 38 years old, which is the time by which the vast majority of players have hung up the skates or are making plans to do so.
Yet it seems Crosby’s gas gauge is not yet in the yellow. Or even close. The summer has been full of speculation and expectations.
He was going to sign on July 1, right? Then, many assumed Crosby would surely sign a new contract on Aug. 7, his birthdate with numerological and personal significance. And now the offseason is soon in the rearview mirror, but there’s no contract.
After conversations on Friday, Pittsburgh Hockey Now can confirm a renewed silence from all sides. The principles don’t want information public, even when offered a chance to quell some speculation. An information lockdown.
And that’s where we’re at. Penguins Trades The Penguins’ trade acquisition of an additional third-rounder from the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday (at the expense of sliding the 2025 second-rounder to 2026) seemed a little bit misunderstood.
Of course, the Penguins got a third-rounder (while giving up a fifth-rounder) to make the move, but the delay in getting the pick told us quite a bit about Penguins president of hockey operations/GM Kyle Dubas’s timeline. If Dubas were in a hurry, that 2025 pick from a team entering a rebuild might have been too good to give up, even for an extra-rounder. However, Dubas is obviously playing the long game, and the turnaround isn’t going to be quick.
If Dubas were looking for a quicker turnaround, instead of helping St. Louis sign restricted free agents Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg , it would have been the Penguins making a run at the early-20s RFAs (the Penguins were missing their second-rounder due to the Erik Karlsson trade when they sent it to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for taking Casey DeSmith and Jeff Petry). Dubas’s long game has included looking for picks instead of young players needing a first or second chance.
However, the Penguins have a couple of trade chips whose expandability has grown following the acquisitions of Kevin Hayes and Cody Glass and the signings of Anthony Beauvillier and Blake Lizotte. It would seem that Noel Acciari and Lars Eller could be dealt to acquire more draft picks and clear space for younger players, such as Vasily Ponomarev, to make the leap to the NHL. Perhaps NHL GMs need to see Acciari’s reckless abandon on the wing to increase his trade value rather than the buttoned-up center he was, whose impact was solid though unspectacular.
Eller should have some value, though at 35 years old, it might be a little less than the 2023 NHL trade deadline when the Washington Capitals recouped a 2025 second-round pick. To create space for young players, the Penguins could waive a couple of veterans, such as Glass, who was acquired Tuesday. However, there would be a financial impact on the organization to have multi-million-dollar veterans in the AHL, as well as a salary cap hit.
The 2024-25 maximum “stashed salary”deduction is $1.15 million. Alex Nedeljkovic All right, this just made me laugh out loud.
Alex Nedeljkovic may create a new sport, On-Ice Breakdancing. His impersonation of the Australian breakdancer was just beautiful. Is it just us or have goaltenders been breakdancing this entire time? pic.
twitter.com/Ga5mMzIY7S — Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) August 16, 2024 This article first appeared on Pittsburgh Hockey Now and was syndicated with permission..
