There is finally some good tangible news surrounding the Sidney Crosby contract and it comes straight from the source.
Well there it is. Sid is a pretty guarded kind of guy and he is pretty much saying things are near the finish line and will be happening. I do think starting the season without a contract would have been problematic. It appears the only question at this point is how long and that is something Crosby has been pondering:
Sidney Crosby is over the age of 35 and thus potentially susceptible to a 35+ contract. They've changed the rules since the original parameters were released. Front loading a contract to a player 35 and older makes it so the team is stuck with the cap hit if they retire. One thing to keep in mind is that Crosby's last contract was incredibly front loaded and he has *only* been taking home 3M the past few seasons. I'm sure he's itching for more actual cash on this next deal so the options are a higher cap hit or front loading, which has the aforementioned risks. I can see this dynamic as the reason why the contract hasn't been officially signed yet.
My Prediction is the contract will not be front loaded and perhaps in that 10.5-11M range. I think it will also have a dollar number ending in 87 to keep that number in the contract somewhere.
Overall, the quotes have me optimistic we will have an official announcement in the not so distant future.
Thanks for reading!
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