Sidney Crosby responds to rumours of trade out of Pittsburgh

The rumours have been getting so loud, they finally got to the ears of Pittsburgh Penguins’ captain Sidney Crosby, who is aware changes are coming to his team with the arrival of new general manager Ron Hextall. The Penguins co-owners Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle made it clear that they want another championship and many pundits have started to wonder if that will be done with the core players of Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang. 

Recent chatter got louder that the Penguins might ask Crosby, Malkin and Letang to join the conversation in the front office to see if they are interested in taking part in the pending major changes.  Crosby could be asked if he wants to take part in a team rebuild or if he would prefer to chase a Stanley Cup elsewhere.  This would be a tough blow for the Penguins, who basically won the lottery back in 2005 when they come out on top of the draft order and were given Crosby as the strongest rebuilding tool. Now that he’s been the face of the franchise for 16 seasons, it would be so weird to see him wear the colours of a different NHL club. However, if he looks to win another Stanley Cup before hanging up the skates he might not get a choice. 

This prompted many reporters to speculate trade scenarios involving Crosby, one shipping him to his childhood team the Montreal Canadiens, the other to play alongside Nova Scotia buddy Nathan MacKinnon with the Colorado Avalanche. 

So many rumours… And on Friday, Crosby finally reacted to the chatter. 

“Nothing has changed,” Crosby said when talking about wanting to finish his career as a Penguin. 

“That’s definitely kinda a new subject that I have had to deal with and hear about a little bit, but I love playing here and this is where I would love to play for the rest of my career.

I can’t really control what’s said or rumors or things like that, but that’s how I approach it.”

This could finally quiet down all of the rumours and made up scenarios that have Crosby playing in a uniform other than the Penguins’. 

Crosby himself admits he wants to stay in Pittsburgh and he probably said the same thing to GM Hextall, who will probably listen to any advice his captain has on the franchise. 

Sid probably thinks the Penguins can still win with a few tweaks and wants to be part of that by staying on roster and now by leaving. Crosby is set to play his 1,000th NHL game Saturday against the New York Islanders at PPG Paints Arena. He has 468 career goals and 808 career assists, including six goals and seven assists in 15 games this season. All with the Penguins and it looks like it will stay that way!