This is now official, as reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
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The Penguins have signed center Sidney Crosby to a five-year contract extension. The deal is worth $43 million, an annual salary-cap hit of $8.7 million.
It will take effect in the 2008-09 season.
"Sidney has proven himself to be a dynamic player and team leader at a very young age, and it is exciting news for our franchise and our fans to have him under contract for the next six seasons, through 2013," said Fred Shero, the Penguins executive vice president and general manager.
"When you've got a guy who leads the league in scoring and wins the MVP award at the age of 19, you know have someone very special. But Sid also is a tremendous asset for this organization as a leader in the dressing room, and as the face of our franchise in the community. And the fact that he wants to be here long-term is a great statement about the city of Pittsburgh and our organization," Shero said.
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"Sid The Kid" became the youngest player ever to win a scoring title last year by scoring 36 goals and adding 84 assists to capture the Art Ross, the Hart, the Pearson and on top of it all, being part of the Eastern Conference's First All-Star team.
CROSBY FIVE YEAR EXTENSION AGREED TO
I just spoke to Brian Metzer who will be posting shortly, but he is hearing that the the deal is somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 years, 45 million.
Brian will be posting a blog shortly in "Blogging the NHL."
A source confirmed to me that the Penguins have agreed to a five year extension in the neighborhood of 9 per season, and since Sid is still under contract for the upcoming season that means 6 more years of Sid in steeltown.
Great work as always by Brian.
There's absolutely no way Crosby would have made anything less than that ghastly big amount the Penguins just handed him, if anything, he made less than what some teams would be willing to give him should he have hit the open market someday.
I know this IS Crosby we're talking about, the next "Great One" crap and all, but seriously, how much longer is this "new NHL" going to go on if top-talent players keep commanding this kind of amount?
And what about next year? Dany Heatley and Patrick Marleau will both likely break the bank should they hit unrestricted free-agency, and where does that leave the rest of those second-tier quality players?
It leaves them salivating with the idea of applying a hefty price tag to any team that wants to pick him up, with the top talent gone, basically raising the market price to a whole new level the NHL SHOULD NOT be going into.
Let's imagine this is a decent forward with many available options and teams seeking him speaking:
"Hey, Heatley just signed a 7-year/$60 million deal! That makes other teams who lost out on him come to me!
Hehe, with that kind of attention shift, I can really ask for more money now that they'd be willing to bring someone in like me since they totally failed to get Heatley!
KACHING!
I'll be seeing green for the rest of my life, and who cares where I end up now as long as they give me the $$$$$$"
I wonder why we had this lockout in the first place and why fans like you and I spent an entire year lamenting the loss of hockey only to be treacherously close to falling back into that hole we all thought the NHL climbed out of two years ago.
And I shiver to think that so many players have "Decent forward"'s mentality as mentioned in my make-believe quote above.
$$$$$$
--BBR
8 fanatics have replied:
Ya know what's sad? This kid is one of the *stars* of the NHL...and it makes me sick to my stomach just to even see this. Why do I hate him so much? Because he's a whiner...and all I want to say is I DO NOT CARE ABOUT CROSBY! Ok, I'm better now :)
Setting aside that it's Sid who we are talking about, so there is no bias. It's a 1/5 of the salary cap for ONE player! That is insane!
I will be curious to see how they manage to re-sign all of their other young guys in a couple of years when their contracts are up.
I hate Crosby as well Bethany, I hate him, check out my profile:
"SIDNEY CROSBY IS A WHINER"
Marty Biron said it best.
Katy-I know!
I was going to mention how in bloody heck they were going to keep Staal, Malkin, Fleury AND now, Angelo Esposito in the mix.
These guys are gonna want top dollar like Crosby, not as high, but not far off either.
I hate the way salaries work these days!
"I'm not a liar. I don't lie and I don't whine"
Ahh Marty Biron..he is great. How dare Crosby call Marty a liar!! You don't do that. LOL
BBeR - I would like to formally thank you for pointing out the Marty Biron incident :)
The "New NHL" has enforced sportsmanship penalties that are supposed to protect players like Crosby. @#$%!?!@#! No frigging way. As far as I'm concerned, it should be Crosby that is going to the box half the time for the very diving/unsportsmanlike conduct penalties that are there to "protect" him.
I know everybody says "If he were on your team, you'd love him too..." But I can honestly say I would hold the same disdain. I tend to be a traditionalist and don't like cheap players on my team. I might be the only person from Philadelphia that isn't a big fan of Ben Eager for that very reason. I support enforcers and rough and tough style hockey, but I don't support cheap shots here and there behind the play.
My rant is done..I hate Crosby and his 1/5 cap hit.
Great!!! The price for Ryan Miller just rose 2m more....
I am beginning to hate the NHL.
:(
The market is not going to be based on just one off-season's worth of contracts. One of the things we've seen with the NFL cap model (like the NHL, a hard cap linked to revenue), the market is re-established each off-season. The market for players like Heatley or Spezza will be less determined by the contracts signed this summer by Gomez, Drury, Briere, Crosby, etc., and more determined by how much cap space each team has next summer, and which teams have it. If the teams with owners willing to spend up to the cap (Rangers, Flyers, Red Wings) don't have the cap space, and the teams that do have the space, have owners who won't spend the money, the market will not provide for Heatley and/or Spezza to get similar contracts. The players will then be forced to gamble on a one-year deal and hope they keep up their production and get a more player-friendly market the following summer, or accept the fact that this is the best they can do and take the longer-term stability. This will increase the chances for teams to keep players. It just won't be that way every year.
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