CRANBERRY, Pa. — Sidney Crosby will open his 22nd NHL season without a new deal in hand, and neither he nor the Pittsburgh Penguins see a reason to force the timetable.
General manager Kyle Dubas said Monday that contract talks with Crosby’s agent, Pat Brisson, remain active but carry no hard deadline. Crosby is heading into the final year of the two-year, $17.4 million agreement he signed on Sept. 16, 2024, with an $8.7 million annual cap hit.
The Penguins captain, now 39, is content to leave the business side to his representatives while he prepares for Wednesday’s season opener against the Philadelphia Flyers at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Faceoff is set for 7:30 p.m. ET, with HBO MAX, truTV and TNT carrying the game.
Quick facts
- Crosby enters the last season of his two-year, $17.4 million contract.
- He paced Pittsburgh with 74 points in 68 games last season.
- Evgeni Malkin is signed for one year at $5.5 million.
- Erik Karlsson has one season remaining on his eight-year, $92 million deal.
- Pittsburgh returned to the playoffs last spring after a three-year absence.
“It’s always an open back-and-forth,” Dubas said of the Crosby discussions. “There’s no real pressure from our side to get it completed by any certain point. We’ll keep talking.”
Crosby said Sept. 15 that he did not require a contract resolution before the puck drops on the regular season. His focus is on playing, with the negotiations being handled away from the rink.
Last season, Crosby produced 29 goals and 45 assists while extending his NHL-record run of point-per-game seasons to 21. His output helped Pittsburgh place second in the Metropolitan Division before its postseason ended with a six-game first-round loss to Philadelphia.
For Crosby, the complication in projecting beyond this year is not desire but uncertainty over how a veteran body handles the grind. He said Sept. 25 that he feels good now, though he cannot forecast how he will feel by January and intends to concentrate on recovery and preparation through the season.
Dubas said that is a familiar stage for elite players reaching their late 30s and beyond. The question becomes less about a calendar date for an extension and more about the player’s physical condition, his comfort with the club’s direction and whether the team remains a place he wants to continue.
The same larger roster questions surround Malkin and Karlsson, two more pillars of Pittsburgh’s playoff return.
Malkin, 40, avoided unrestricted free agency by signing a one-year, $5.5 million contract on May 26, 2026. He put up 61 points, including 19 goals, in 56 games last season, and has indicated he wants to keep playing in the NHL even if that eventually means leaving Pittsburgh.
At the opening of camp, Malkin did not commit to retirement after what will be his 21st League season, all with the Penguins. Dubas declined Monday to publicly address whether the club would seek another short-term agreement with the veteran center.
“I’m not going to do the day-to-day, year-to-year thing with Geno again this season,” Dubas said.
Karlsson is also approaching a contract crossroads. The 36-year-old defenseman is in the last year of the eight-year, $92 million contract he signed with San Jose on June 17, 2019, before Pittsburgh acquired him in a three-team trade involving the Montreal Canadiens on Aug. 6, 2023.
He finished second on the Penguins in scoring last season with 66 points, posting 15 goals and 51 assists in 75 games. Karlsson said Sept. 17 that extension talks had not taken place, noting that the team is in an unusual phase while adding that he has enjoyed his time in Pittsburgh.
Dubas described his communication with Karlsson as candid and constructive. He said the organization’s responsibility is to be direct with accomplished players about where it believes the club is headed, allowing them to decide whether they are comfortable with that path.
The Penguins are trying to move beyond the League’s middle ground, Dubas said, while shifting more responsibility toward younger players rather than leaning so heavily on an aging core. He said the organization must be able to look back at season’s end and see clear progress toward contender status, even if that brings difficult choices.
