Should There Be A Concern Surrounding Sidney Crosby‘s Future in Pittsburgh?
Jamison Coyle and Mike Rupp on NHL Network look at the burning questions during the offseason. The final question concerns Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Why has the contract for Crosby not been finalized, and should there be a concern that it is not done?
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions***
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Jamison Coyle: “You mentioned the Penguins. Interesting one here. Why are the Penguins and Sidney Crosby not agreed to an extension yet? Eligible July one, and here we are mid-July still waiting? Concern?”
Mike Rupp: “He’s going to Colorado. No, I’m just joking. All you people out there have been trying to get this out there for a long time now. This guy is gonna be a Penguin. I think he’s gonna be a Penguin for life.
I don’t think they should be worried. But what I will say is and which is pretty obvious, the longer this goes, the more people on the outside are gonna stir things up. Like I just did as a joke a minute ago, right? Like people are gonna be like, Oh, well, there’s Sids decide if he wants to here. Wants to see the direction of the team.
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And he’s earned that. If there’s a player out there to be like, Hey, let’s just kind of see this. Theoretically could be Sids last contract. Right. So you know, I’m not concerned. Sidney Crosby wants to retire a Pittsburgh Penguin. He bleeds black and gold. This organization, the city, wants nothing more than Sidney Crosby being there, and I think he will be there. But the longer this goes, you know there’s going to be more noise.”
Coyle: “Tampa fans are like, hold my beer right now. Stammer, we were in this situation last summer. Oh, it’ll get done. It’ll get done. Go into the season. It’ll get done. It’ll get done.”
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Rupp: “I think it’ll get done. Yeah, I think it’ll get done. But I assume that when July 1, it’s going to be boom done and its not.”
Coyle: “Getting into the season, midway through the season and there is no contract extension.”
Rupp: “That is a big if because I expected to get done. But if it wasn’t done and this team has a bad start to the season. You talk about throwing gasoline on the fire like there’s going to be some talks, right, and it’s going to be very, very loud. So there’s a lot of what ifs I think this gets done. But when you’re talking about Sidney Crosby and the magnitude of what he means to the NHL and the NHL, the history of the NHL, and what he means to Pittsburgh, this is a big thing. And every day that goes by right now it’s fine. But once that calendar starts for the season starting if he’s not signed you get nervous.”