Crosby's new contract leaked a day early from Penguins insider?

Sid 'The Kid' ain't much of a kid these days.

Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby turns 37 years old tomorrow and is predicted to announce a new contract with the only NHL team that he has ever known. Penguins insider Mark Madden of 105.9 The X and TribLive reported yesterday that sources have indicated to him that a Crosby contract extension could be announced tomorrow on Crosby's birthday.

While Madden reported that he believes the deal will in fact be announced tomorrow, if it's not then the speculation will begin on the captain's future in Pittsburgh.

“If he doesn’t, I think we can start wondering,” Madden said.

“If he’s not signed, this is something that drags on all year. It’s gonna drive him crazy, so he will sign the contract, just to avoid that,” Madden predicted. “Honestly, if he doesn’t sign the contract, they should trade him this year.”

“If he doesn’t sign the contract and they start the season with him being a pending free agent, it just makes the season a mess from the beginning of training camp,” Madden said. “I don’t want to see ‘Madden says trade Crosby.’ Because I’m not. I’m just saying that if Sid creates these heightened circumstances we’re discussing, well, that would be an extreme time. It might call for an extreme measure. But I do not see it coming to that.”

Personally, I can't see Crosby or the Penguins ever walking away from each other. The Penguins have committed to taking a run at the Stanley Cup Playoffs so long as Crosby is in the fold. Ditto for the likes of Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang.

“If Sid is so attached to those guys (Malkin & Letang), even when the team is struggling in no small part because they did pick nostalgia, that would be something bad about him. But I don’t think that’s the case,” Madden said about the notion of Crosby perhaps wanting out of Pittsburgh.

After this upcoming season though, it remains to be seen what happens. Will Malkin see things through? Or will he return home to Russia to finish out his career?

“I’ve been told (Malkin) won’t be back after this year — that he’ll go to Russia and forgo the last year of his deal,” Madden said. “How does that impact Sid? Does Sid know? I bet he does. And I heard there were discussions about trying to get Letang to Montreal at Letang’s request, but nothing came of that. So I don’t know where this is headed.”

Stay tuned, if Crosby does in fact ink a deal with the Penguins tomorrow, you'll know who to credit with the inside scoop.