We are now in August and Sidney Crosby remains without a contract extension. Is this a cause for concern? Not yet

Sidney Crosby’s contract, Penguins trades, Big Three’s future: Mailbag

📤 ⁦@TheAthleticNHL⁩ 🐧 ⁦@penguins⁩ https://t.co/FjApMU3csK

— Rob Rossi (@Real_RobRossi) July 31, 2024

I made a few calls to follow up, and the only real news — perhaps another subjective term — is that all parties (Crosby and his agent, Pat Brisson, and Penguins GM Kyle Dubas) were comfortable enough with where the contract negotiations stood that everybody felt comfortable going about summer plans such as taking holidays and enjoying a bit of downtime.

Nobody from the Penguins’ hockey side is worried about Crosby eventually putting ink to paper. This is not to suggest some folks who deal with season-ticket holders/corporate partners aren’t sweating until he does.

I think this will get done and I think Rob is onto something with the timing

It’s also true that he has a birthday approaching and he has a history of attaching importance to the day he was born; he wears No. 87 and has played on an $8.7 million cap hit because his birth date was Aug. 7, 1987.

Aggregators and people outside Pittsburgh will cling to hope that this delay will lead to Crosby changing locations, but there’s nothing to this point suggesting it is something on the horizon. Crosby re-signing on his birthday would be one of the least surprising outcomes available given who he is. Perhaps this would be a way for Crosby to keep the 8/7 on his contract with a likely bump in cap hit coming and thus no 8.7M AAV.

So we wait for next Wednesday.

Thanks for reading!

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