Evgeni Malkin Speaks On Future
Pittsburgh Penguins center and future Hall of Fame inductee Evgeni Malkin addressed his future with the team today, expressing to the media (including NHL.com’s Wes Crosby) that his desire is to remain with the only franchise he’s ever played for. He also confirmed that he would be willing to play for another team if the Penguins decide not to extend him an offer of a new contract. Malkin, who turns 40 this summer, had a strong campaign when healthy, scoring 61 points in 56 games. While the pace of the game got away from him during the team’s first-round series loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, he still spent most of 2025-26 producing at a star level.
Whether the Penguins want to keep Malkin beyond this season is a complicated question. For as well as he played for most of 2025-26, Malkin isn’t part of the Penguins’ long-term future, something the team has become increasingly focused on building towards. If Malkin were to be re-signed, the minutes he would play would be minutes that couldn’t be devoted to developing a younger center. If the Penguins take a player development mindset towards their roster-building this summer, there is an argument to be made that they should not keep Malkin. On the other hand, this is a player who is a franchise icon, someone who captain Sidney Crosby no doubt still wants to play with, and someone who has proven he can still be a valuable NHLer in most cases. The Athletic’s Josh Yohe reported in January that the Penguins “are not expected to offer him another contract with the franchise,” but it’s unclear if anything has changed in the months since. For as long as he remains unsigned, Malkin’s status will be one of the more compelling storylines to track this offseason.
- Penguins netminder Arturs Silovs, who nearly became the story of the first round with his heroics to extend Pittsburgh’s comeback effort against the Flyers, told the media today that he was playing through a knee injury. It’s unclear what the full extent of the injury is, but at the very least it was minor enough for Silovs to play through. It didn’t seem to impact his form too greatly, as he posted a .939 save percentage in three starts in the postseason. Regardless of the injury, Silovs appears poised to take on a bigger role for the Penguins next season.
Jon Cooper, Dan Muse, Lindy Ruff Named Jack Adams Finalists
Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper, Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Dan Muse, and Buffalo Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff were named the finalists for the Jack Adams award, which is presented annually “to the NHL coach adjudged to have contributed the most to his team’s success.”
In a year flush with options for the award, each member of this trio still stands out. Cooper, who is the NHL’s longest-tenured head coach, led the Lightning to a 50-26-6 record. 
He was able to deftly manage significant injuries on his team’s blueline, with veteran stalwarts Victor Hedman and Ryan McDonagh limited to 33 and 48 games played, respectively.
In the face of those injuries, Cooper’s Lightning didn’t miss a beat, and he was able to get the most out of previously unheralded blueliners.
Cooper trusted undrafted 30-year-old Darren Raddysh as one of his team’s top defensemen in the absence of Hedman, and Raddysh rewarded his coach with a breakout 22-goal, 70-point campaign. He became just the second Lightning blueliner in franchise history to hit 70 points in a season.
Raddysh wasn’t the only undrafted blueliner to emerge for the Lightning. 28-year-old Charle-Edouard D’Astous, an elite blueliner in various leagues from the ECHL to SHL, was seamlessly integrated into Tampa’s lineup and put into positions to succeed. By the end of the season, D’Astous finished his rookie campaign with 29 points in 70 games, firmly establishing himself as an NHL defenseman.
For other coaches, dealing with so many injuries to key players can be a fatal blow to their team’s Stanley Cup hopes. For Tampa Bay, it served as an opportunity to integrate new faces into the lineup, and give new players a chance to have career-best campaigns. That, more than anything else, is why Cooper (and the rest of his staff) have been nominated for this award.
But Cooper isn’t the only deserving candidate. First-year head coach Dan Muse is another worthy option, as he guided the Penguins to a 41-25-16 record, good for second place in the Metropolitan Division. The Penguins entered the season considered by most to be a rebuilding club, a franchise with next to no hope of playing meaningful games in the spring. The Penguins not only beat those expectations, but they cruised into the playoffs.
The former New York Rangers and Nashville Predators assistant oversaw numerous players in his lineup who had career-best years, or campaigns that revitalized previously sagging career trajectories.
The Penguins made a bet that they could get the most out of struggling Blue Jackets first-rounder Egor Chinakhov, and that bet paid off as he scored 18 goals and 36 points in 43 games after his trade to the Steel City. He had six points in 29 games before the trade. Muse was able to manage an 18-year-old rookie’s transition to the NHL, guiding Benjamin Kindel to a successful 17-goal, 35-point debut campaign.
Numerous other players put up significantly improved performances under Muse’s watch, including veteran blueliner Erik Karlsson (66 points,) forward Anthony Mantha (64 points,) forward Tommy Novak (42 points,) defenseman Ryan Shea (35 points,) defenseman Parker Wotherspoon (30 points,) and forward Justin Brazeau (17 goals, 34 points.)
The formerly rebuilding Penguins took a risk to hire Muse, a first-time NHL head coach, in large part due to his exceptional reputation as a developer of players. For a team increasingly focused on youth, his track record in player development was seen as extremely valuable.
What most didn’t expect was for Muse’s leadership and player development acumen to pay dividends so quickly, and materialize in growth for players of all different ages and at varying stages of their careers. While the Penguins improved considerably as a team, it’s the widespread improvement Muse oversaw, player to player, that has gotten him nominated for this award.
Finally, the third nominee is Ruff, who achieved what for so many coaches seemed impossible and ended the Sabres’ league-leading playoff drought.
In his second stint in Western New York, Ruff has turned the Sabres into a sensation. Buffalo went 50-23-9 this season.
For the first time since 2010, the Sabres will be able to add a banner to the rafters of KeyBank Center as division champions.
Battling against the weight of the Sabres’ recent history, Ruff guided his team through significant early pressure, pressure that ended up costing GM Kevyn Adams his job. By the time the calendar flipped to the new year, Ruff’s Sabres had the makings of a juggernaut. They ended up storming to the top of the Atlantic Division, and have entirely reversed the league-wide conversation about the franchise.
The enormity of the achievement of returning the Sabres to the playoffs after so many failed attempts by the franchise is enough to qualify Ruff for the Jack Adams, and in a year where so many coaches have proven their quality, Ruff may very well be the favorite.
Photos courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images, James Carey Lauder-Imagn Images
Did Anthony Mantha’s Playoff Performance Hurt His Free Agency Stock?
The Pittsburgh Penguins were bounced by the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 6 of their first-round matchup in dramatic fashion, losing a 1-0 game in overtime on a Cameron York goal. The seeing-eye shot found its way past Penguins goaltender Arturs Silovs and was a microcosm of the series for one player, Anthony Mantha. York was Mantha’s man on the play, and Mantha was two steps too late covering the point, allowing York to fire the game-winning goal. Mantha was invisible in the series, putting up one assist in six games to go along with a -5 and 20 PIM. The worst part of his play was that Mantha looked disinterested at times, missed assignments, took lazy penalties, and found himself largely chasing the game after a magical regular season. All in all, the playoffs may have cost Mantha millions of dollars.
It was just a month ago that the talk was about Mantha getting a four-year deal, with some folks throwing out numbers in the $5-6MM range. It seemed not only probable a month ago but quite likely after the 31-year-old posted 33 goals and 31 assists this season in 81 games. Mantha had been playing under a one-year, $2.5MM (plus $2MM in incentives) “prove it” contract, in the hopes of securing a lucrative contract this summer. However, those types of numbers ($5MM to $6MM) could very well be off the table after Mantha had a poor playoff showing this year. In fact, in 20 career NHL playoff games, Mantha has never scored a goal, tallying just seven assists. It’s a steep decline in production for a player who has four career 20+ goal seasons and averages 50 points per 82 regular-season games.
Mantha will still get some of his money this summer, as NHL general managers are about to see a windfall of cap space they haven’t seen in close to a decade, and the GM fraternity can never seem to help itself when it comes to overspending on a mid-tier free agent who just happened to get hot at the right time. It’s a tale as old as time in the NHL, with some pretty famous examples of players having a good year in their UFA walk year, or even just a good playoff, before getting paid an amount of money that will never line up with their production.
Fernando Pisani, back in 2006, is a great example of this. After a Cinderella run with the Oilers to the Stanley Cup Finals, in which he scored 14 goals and four assists in 24 games, he was rewarded handsomely with a four-year, $10MM contract that offseason. Unfortunately, Pisani never topped 28 points in a season again in his NHL career. There were health concerns with Pisani later in his career, but in any event, reaching those levels again was not likely.
Ville Leino is another great example of a player heating up and cashing in. He turned a 19-goal, 34-assist season in 2010-11 into a lucrative six-year, $27MM contract that was an absolute disaster for the Buffalo Sabres and was eventually bought out in 2014. Leino had never scored more than 11 points in an NHL season prior to his 53-point breakout with Philadelphia , and would tally just 10 goals and 36 assists in 137 games spaced over three seasons with the Sabres.
Mantha will fall into the camp of players who eventually got paid for having a terrific season, but, unlike the Pisani and Leino examples, Mantha does have a track record of scoring in the NHL. However, there are also injury concerns and concerns about his ability to score consistently. He had some lean years after he was traded from Detroit to the Washington Capitals, including 2022-23, when he posted just 11 goals and 16 assists in 67 games. He followed that up with a 44-point campaign in 2023-24 but still had to sign a prove-it contract with the Flames in the 2024 offseason for just $3.5MM.
It’s going to be very tough to gauge how general managers around the league will value what Mantha brings and what he doesn’t. Mantha is a big man, and GMs always love size. However, he plays small and doesn’t always look like he is working hard, which is often true for big men in the NHL. Mantha has other attributes that make him an attractive free-agent target; he can skate well for a big man, handles the puck well, is a good passer, and can shoot.
All of that is great, but this is the knock that has followed him since he was scouted in junior. He doesn’t always seem engaged, and in many games, particularly the big ones such as the recent playoff series with Pittsburgh, you wonder whether Mantha can find the intensity and determination to reach the next level and become a playoff performer. Mantha was often viewed in his draft year as a boom-or-bust prospect, and now 11 years into his NHL career, he is still fitting that label. Mantha was a bust in Washington after a big trade from the Red Wings sent him there, but in Pittsburgh, he was an under-the-radar signing that was a huge win for the Penguins (minus the playoffs). What his next team gets is anyone’s guess, but the $6MM annual offer on a long-term deal that seemed so likely before the playoffs now feels like a reach for Mantha. However, all it takes is one GM fighting for his job to overpay, and Mantha could be a bust once again.
Penguins Recall Joel Blomqvist, Serving As Backup
Shortly before the puck dropped on Game 5 in Tampa Bay, the Lightning shared that forward Nick Paul wouldn’t play due to illness. 21-year-old Conor Geekie replaced him in the lineup, a scratch since Game 1 of the series against Montreal.
Paul has yet to find the score sheet in four games, but the 6’4” penalty killer hardly needs to. His effort and physicality always make an imprint on the game, especially in the postseason. Averaging 10:43 a night so far in the opening round, it’s a dip below his regular season average, as benches are shortened in what has been a neck-and-neck battle against the Canadiens. On the other hand, Geekie played 57 games in the AHL this year, but he offers high skill as far as 6’4″ bottom six depth options typically are.
For the grinder to miss such a pivotal game, it raises the question on if the Ontario native will be healthy again in time for Friday’s Game 6. Clearly missing Paul, the Bolts came up short tonight, and they’ll need a win back in Montreal to avoid a fourth consecutive first round exit.
Elsewhere across the league:
- Utah Mammoth forward Barrett Hayton has returned to the lineup tonight for Game 5 against Vegas, noted by Jesse Granger of The Athletic. It’s a pleasant surprise, as the 25-year-old hasn’t played since March 24 as a result of an upper-body injury. He’ll assume the role of third line center. Liam O’Brien is the odd man out. A beloved teammate, “Spicy Tuna” appeared in the series’ first three games, but did not play more than 8:11 in any of them. The fourth line grinder managed to add a helper, but with just four points all season, Utah has infused more speed and skill. The Mammoth kept their cards held tight as defenseman Nick DeSimone took warmups, hinting at a possible 11 forward, seven defensemen arrangement. Instead, Hayton is all set for his first playoff action since the COVID-19 playoff bubble six years ago with the Arizona Coyotes.
- The Pittsburgh Penguins recalled goaltender Joel Blomqvist from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for emergency backup duty, as observed by Seth Rorabaugh of the Tribune-Review. Both Arturs Silovs and Stuart Skinner were good to go against Philadelphia for Game 6, but the 24-year-old prospect was on hand just in case of any unforeseen events prior to puck drop. The “Baby Penguins” start their AHL playoff run tomorrow, so it figures that Sergey Murashov will get the start there, the two splitting duties all season. Meanwhile, Blomqvist will at least enjoy getting to spectate a massive game as the Pens try to claw back to a Game 7 after being down 3-0 in the series.
Assessing Egor Chinakhov’s Next Contract
The Pittsburgh Penguins and forward Egor Chinakhov are in the honeymoon stage of their relationship, basking in the early success of a late-December trade that brought Chinakhov from the Columbus Blue Jackets to the Steel City. Playoffs aside, Chinakhov was a revelation during the regular season after arriving in Pittsburgh in a trade that sent a 2026 second-round pick (from St. Louis), a 2027 third-round pick (from Washington), as well as Danton Heinen to Columbus. The 25-year-old had struggled with the Blue Jackets and had asked for a trade, which ultimately led to the move to Pittsburgh. With Chinakhov’s fit in Pittsburgh, a summer contract negotiation is set to take place and will be one of the more interesting and perhaps more complicated negotiations.
Chinakhov was the 21st overall pick in 2020 and made his debut with the Blue Jackets in October 2021, going scoreless in his first five NHL games before recording two assists in his sixth game. He would go on to post seven goals and seven assists in 62 games as a 20-year-old, giving the Blue Jackets hope that the young Russian was just scratching the surface of his offensive potential.
2022-23 saw Chinakhov start strong with 13 points in 30 games before an ankle injury in mid-December sidelined him for 29 games. Chinakhov returned late in February 2023 and was loaned to the AHL, where he posted eight points in seven games.
2023-24 began with more of the same, as Chinakhov dealt with a back injury, missing six games before being sent to the AHL. He would miss significant time again throughout the season, finishing the year with 29 points in 53 games. This became the narrative around Chinakhov, a talented skater with offensive capabilities but unable to stay healthy, as he missed half of the 2024-25 season with a back injury.
Therein lies the issue with Chinakhov’s negotiations. While he has been terrific for Pittsburgh, he’s dealt with many injuries in his short career, and the Penguins have a long history of being an injury-prone team. Chinakhov also never scored in Columbus the way he has in Pittsburgh. In 204 games with the Blue Jackets, Chinakhov recorded 37 goals and 40 assists, roughly a 31-point pace per 82 games, while in Pittsburgh, he has scored at a 69-point pace.
The dichotomy makes for a very complex and confusing contract negotiation. If you are Pittsburgh, which version of the player are you getting if you extend him for five or six years? But the flip side of the coin is that you offer a bridge contract for a year or two, and he continues his breakout and takes you to the cleaners in a year or two when his bridge deal expires. Teams have been burned by that before; however, it might be better than the alternative, which is locking a player in long term who went on a heater and outscored his own abilities.
Penguins’ general manager Kyle Dubas has been bold in acquiring talent over the past two years. Given that he scouted Chinakhov and made an aggressive trade to acquire him, even as other teams, such as the Toronto Maple Leafs, were also in pursuit of him, Dubas may be the best person to negotiate Chinakhov’s contract. It’s an important negotiation for him, as it represents an opportunity to show the naysayers that he can, in fact, lock up young players without having to cave to their every demand. That, of course, was the knock on Dubas in Toronto, where fans felt he gave the Maple Leafs’ young stars too much say and too much money in their contracts, and allocated too much of the salary cap to them.
It’s hard to argue with that narrative, given that Dubas never seemed able to get Toronto’s young stars to concede anything on their deals, and he has done little to turn that around in Pittsburgh, although he hasn’t really had the chance in the past two years. Dubas’ early negotiations in Pittsburgh were rough, as he signed Ryan Graves and Tristan Jarry to disastrous contracts that handcuffed the Penguins until Jarry was dealt late in 2025. The Graves contract remains on the books and could either be dealt for another bad contract or be buried in the AHL for the remaining three years.
Back to Chinakhov: he is arguably the first of the “future” Penguins to ink a long-term deal. If the Penguins get it right, it could set the tone for future deals with potential cornerstones such as Benjamin Kindel, Harrison Brunicke, and Sergei Murashov. But if the Penguins get it wrong and overpay Chinakhov, they will have a tougher time signing their other core pieces to discount extensions, which plagued Dubas in Toronto and eventually led him to pay his core four forwards about half of his salary cap allocation. Dubas is certainly aware of this, and it will be fascinating to see how he approaches the negotiations. Does he lean on the experience he had in Toronto and figure out a better approach to signing young players long term, or does he commit the same errors?
There is one other factor to consider that should be interesting: keeping the players happy, particularly with Chinakhov, who requested the aforementioned trade out of Columbus. If the contract talks go sour, will it sour Chinakhov, and how much does he enjoy playing in Pittsburgh? Will it affect the other young players who know they have deals to be made? These are all factors Dubas must consider when negotiating this summer on what should be a complex contract.
AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Signs Kale Dach, Travis Hayes, Jordan Charron To ATOs
- The AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins signed a trio of Pittsburgh unsigned draft picks to amateur tryouts ahead of their Atlantic Division Semifinal series kicking off soon, per a team announcement. Most intriguing among them is center Kale Dach, who, despite being drafted last out of the three in last year’s draft (seventh round, 201st overall), had the most impactful post-draft season. Some had viewed Dach as more of a mid-round pick, and they were proven right to some degree by him having a 34-goal, 75-point campaign in 63 games for the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen after spending last season with the junior ‘A’ Sherwood Park Crusaders of the BCHL. He’ll be off to Penn State in the fall but maintains his collegiate eligibility by not signing an NHL contract. Also joining the Baby Pens for the postseason are right-winger Jordan Charron, a 2025 fifth-round pick and St. Lawrence commit who scored 25 goals and 47 points in 66 games this season for the OHL’s Soo Greyhounds, and Travis Hayes, selected in the fourth round last year. Hayes is the brother of now-teammate Avery Hayes and suited up alongside Charron in Sault Ste. Marie this season, posting a 16-24–40 scoring line in 63 games with a team-high +27 rating.
Penguins Place Matt Dumba On Unconditional Waivers
The Penguins placed defenseman Mathew Dumba on unconditional waivers Thursday for the purposes of terminating his contract, per PuckPedia.
Since Pittsburgh’s regular season schedule has concluded, the pending unrestricted free agent won’t miss out on any pay. Instead, the move relieves Dumba, who was on assignment to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, of his obligation to report there for the Calder Cup Playoffs.
Dumba will also get a leg up on trying to find a new home for 2026-27 if he opts to continue his playing career. An NHL role, or even a non-two-way deal, seems highly unlikely, however. Once a top-four fixture for the Wild, the 31-year-old’s game has been in decline for several years now. He still managed to land a two-year, $7.5MM contract from the right-shot-needy Stars in free agency in 2024. Dallas was hoping his underwhelming period from 2022-24 was a flash in the pan for a player who was still only 29 years old when he signed the deal, but it ended up being his new norm.
Last season in Dallas, Dumba went from starting the year on a pairing with Miro Heiskanen to being a healthy scratch for the entirety of their playoff run. Through 63 regular-season games, he only managed a goal and nine assists with a -5 rating while averaging just 15:18 of ice time per game. The cap-strapped Stars then surrendered a second-round pick to the Penguins last summer for them to take on the last year of his contract.
Even on a Pittsburgh defense that had plenty of question marks at the beginning of the season, Dumba couldn’t lock down a role. He essentially started the year as a #7 option – only suiting up 11 times through the first two months – before landing on and clearing waivers. In those few NHL outings, he had a 1-2–3 scoring line with a -5 rating, 12 blocks, and 16 hits in bottom-pairing duties. Pittsburgh was outscored 9-5 in Dumba’s 5-on-5 minutes, and they only controlled 46.2% of shot attempts with him on the ice.
Dumba accepted the assignment to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, but he hasn’t played since early March. He showed he can still be an impact player at the minor-league level at least, potting 20 points (six goals, 14 assists) in 27 games with a +3 rating. Still, the 6’0″, 191-lb righty hasn’t been the legitimate two-way threat he used to be in Minnesota for several years now. It wouldn’t be entirely surprising to see him land a tryout or two-way offer before next fall, but it would be a shock to see him on an opening night roster.
Penguins Assign Five To AHL
Wednesday: The Penguins announced (Twitter link) that they’ve returned McGroarty, Koivunen, and Koppanen, along with wingers Avery Hayes and Rafael Harvey-Pinard, back to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. All five got into at least one game in recent days.
Saturday: With the Penguins now having secured a playoff spot, they’re electing to get some players with nagging injuries some rest. That means that several players needed to be recalled to have a full roster available for their game today against Washington. Those promotions have been made as the team announced (Twitter link) that forwards Rutger McGroarty, Ville Koivunen, and Joona Koppanen have been recalled on an emergency basis from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. With the emergency designation, none of them will count toward their post-deadline recall limit of five.
McGroarty is up with Pittsburgh for the fourth time this season. He has suited up in 21 games so far in a bottom-six role, picking up two goals and three assists while averaging 11:46 per night. The 2022 first-round pick has been much more productive in the minors, however, with eight goals and 22 assists in 28 games. With many key players out of the lineup today, McGroarty should have a chance to play in more of an offensive role than he has had most nights with Pittsburgh this season.
Koivunen, meanwhile, is also up for his fourth stint of the season. But unlike McGroarty, he has spent more time with Pittsburgh than in the minors. In 36 games at the top level, the 22-year-old has two goals and five assists while averaging 12:29 per night. Unsurprisingly, he has been a much better producer in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, tallying 11 goals and 25 assists in 32 appearances.
As for Koppanen, he’s also getting his fourth promotion of the year. While he hasn’t played a lot with Pittsburgh, he has had to clear waivers twice already this season. In 10 NHL outings, the 28-year-old has just one assist. In the minors, he has fared better, picking up eight goals and 15 assists in 42 contests. A pending unrestricted free agent, a report surfaced last month that suggested he’s likely to sign in Sweden for next season.
For their game today, the team announced (Twitter link) that numerous players are unavailable due to day-to-day injuries. Those include forwards Sidney Crosby (lower body), Benjamin Kindel (upper body), Evgeni Malkin (upper body), and Bryan Rust (lower body). On the back end, Erik Karlsson (lower body), Kris Letang (upper body), and Parker Wotherspoon (upper body) are all sidelined. Additionally, center Connor Dewar is listed as week-to-week with a lower-body injury of his own, putting his availability to start the playoffs in jeopardy.
Penguins Recall Rafael Harvey-Pinard
The Penguins have recalled winger Rafael Harvey-Pinard from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, per a team announcement. He’s in line to make his Pittsburgh debut tonight in their regular season finale against the Blues, while the Pens will sit virtually their entire top six to get them some extra rest ahead of their first round playoff matchup with the Flyers.
Harvey-Pinard landed a two-way deal with the Penguins at the beginning of free agency last summer. He cleared waivers during training camp and, aside from a brief recall in January that didn’t result in any playing time, has spent the entire season on assignment to the Baby Pens. The 5’9″ energy winger has produced 19 goals and 17 assists for 36 points in 64 games, along with a strong +18 rating.
That’s not the peak production Harvey-Pinard has flashed in the past. A seventh-round pick by the Canadiens in 2019, he managed 21 goals and 56 points in 69 AHL outings back in 2021-22. That preceded Harvey-Pinard getting an extended NHL look the following season – mostly in a top-line role, too, in the wake of a Cole Caufield shoulder injury – in which he had 14 goals and 20 points in only 34 games.
Now 27, that seems to be where Harvey-Pinard peaked. He’s dealt with various injuries since then and only managed a 2-8–10 scoring line in 45 games the following year before falling out of the NHL rotation entirely in 2024-25. After finishing out the back half of a two-year, $2.2MM contract in Laval, it was no surprise to see Montreal let him walk with a non-tender to unrestricted free agency.
Harvey-Pinard likely needed more than what he’s produced this season to climb back into NHL consideration at Pittsburgh’s or someone else’s training camp in the fall. He’s done well enough to earn a two-way deal somewhere else, though. If he’s not interested in another one, there should be some interest from European clubs this summer as well.
How Much Longer Will Sidney Crosby Play?
Sidney Crosby extended his NHL record for most seasons averaging at least a point per game to 21 years, which, if you’re keeping score at home, means every season he’s played in the league. Crosby’s achievement is one that probably won’t be matched for a long time, if ever, and it raises a few questions.
How much longer will Crosby continue to play? How much longer can he maintain an elite level of performance?
To be honest, the first question likely has the same answer as the second. Given Crosby’s pride, he’s probably not going to keep playing if his game declines and he turns into a nostalgia act.
There is a lot to consider when projecting Crosby’s future. He is clearly in top physical condition and takes pride in being a gym rat. That said, Crosby’s physical skills have not yet declined, and that could remain the case for at least a few more seasons. Crosby doesn’t rely on speed or a skill-based game, though he still retains significant ability in both areas.
Nonetheless, his hockey IQ, puck skills in tight spaces, legendary lower-body strength, puck protection, and edge work are his bread and butter. His fierce backhand, which hasn’t lost any velocity, is another key asset. In fact, none of those skills has diminished, and they might not for a while.
The best comparison in most of these categories is probably another former Penguins player, Jaromír Jágr. Jágr was arguably the best puck protector in NHL history, and very few have ever viewed the game the way he did.
Now, that’s not to say Crosby will play into his 50s. But Jágr played in the NHL until he was 45, and he was still rather effective right up to the end. It wasn’t until his last few games with the Flames during the 2017-18 season that Jágr’s scoring really slowed down, as he scored just a goal and six assists in 22 games and finished his career halfway through that season. It was a bit of an anti-climactic ending to one of the greatest NHL careers ever, but Jágr still managed to go out on his own terms for the most part.
Therein lies a difference between Crosby and Jágr, and it rests solely on the perception of Crosby as a prideful man who cares deeply about winning and being elite. Jagr was willing to accept the fact that if he continued playing, he would no longer be an elite NHL player. He was still incredibly effective, but his skills had diminished. It’s hard to imagine a scenario in which Crosby does the same thing, especially given that his mentor, Mario Lemieux, walked away at 40 when he felt his game slip and the physical toll of playing became too much, plus an atrial fibrillation diagnosis.
That physical toll is another significant consideration for Crosby, given that his 21-year career has taken a physical and sometimes mental toll on the 38-year-old. Obviously, the recent knee injury at the Olympics is at the forefront of Crosby’s mind, but it is far from the only physical ailment he has faced. Crosby has experienced other lower-body injuries, facial injuries, and a documented long history of concussions. The concussions are particularly unpredictable, and it’s difficult to know what might happen if Crosby were to suffer another one this late in his career. This factor greatly influences his longevity in the game.
Perhaps the biggest factor is that the Penguins are actually good again, playing a high-flying, exciting brand of hockey that Crosby loves. Josh Yohe of The Athletic has previously written that he doesn’t believe Crosby will retire after his current contract, which expires next summer. That would mean Crosby could conceivably sign a deal that takes him through his age-40 season at a minimum. Crosby loves to win and has previously stated that it’s what drives him; if Pittsburgh is in a position to go on a run, he would want to be part of it.
Finally, the race is on for Crosby to become only the second player ever to reach 2,000 career points and to move into second place on the all-time scoring list. That position is currently held by Jágr, who is 162 points ahead of Crosby, who is now seventh overall in NHL scoring. With 1,759 points, Crosby needs 241 more to hit the 2,000 mark. It’s not impossible, but it will require some elite-level production from him well into his early 40s.
Crosby has averaged 1.09 points per game this season, down from his previous years’ production, which hovered around 1.13-1.14. If Crosby can maintain that rate and play 70 games a season over the next two years, he would reach approximately 153 points, putting him close to Jagr and less than 100 points shy of 2,000.
Of course, all of this remains speculation, and injuries can disrupt the projections, just as skill regression and age are inevitabilities. However, it’s not unreasonable to envision a scenario where Crosby plays three or four more seasons, which, if he stays healthy, is likely to see him reach 2,000 points. It could also coincide with a period when the Penguins are firmly in a win-now phase with their new core of young players, some of whom Crosby is already playing alongside and winning with.