With the Pittsburgh Penguins entering the offseason for a third consecutive year without a playoff appearance, TribLive will offer Penguins A to Z, a player-by-player look at all 56 individuals signed to an NHL contract – including those whose deals do not begin until future seasons - with the organization.

Starting with Noel Acciari and going on through to Philip Tomasino (regrettably, there is no Z on the payroll), every player will be profiled in alphabetical order.

This series is scheduled to be published Mondays through Saturdays leading up until June 24, four days before the start of the NHL Draft. In the event of a transaction, that schedule will be altered as necessary.

(Note: All contract information courtesy of Puckpedia.)

Sidney Crosby

Position: Center

Shoots: Left

Age: 37

Height: 5-foot-11

Weight: 200 pounds

2024-25 NHL statistics: 80 games, 91 points (33 goals, 58 assists), 20:22 of average ice time per contest

Contract: In the final year of a 12-year contract with a salary cap hit of $8.7 million. On July 1, Crosby will be entering the first year of a two-year contract with a salary cap hit of $8.7 million

(Each contract contains a no-movement clause.)

Acquired: First-round draft pick (No. 1 overall), July 30, 2005

This season: As always, Sidney Crosby was going at it hard.

He took the ice and worked out with rookie forward Rutger McGroarty as well as defensemen P.O Joseph and Ryan Shea.

It was April 21.

The Penguins’ regular season finale was April 17.

As he approaches his 38th birthday on Aug. 7, it is no accident he continues to offer as seismic of an impact on the NHL as he did when he entered the league at 18.

His 2024-25 season – his 20th in the NHL – was a masterpiece, albeit against the canvas of minimalism of a third consecutive campaign without the playoffs.

While Crosby didn’t exactly open the season on a prolific pace – he had 10 points (one goal, nine assists) in his first 11 games, he began to establish a pace of production congruent with his remarkable standards on Oct. 31 when he scored each of the Penguins’ goals in a 2-1 home overtime win against the Anaheim Ducks.

Crosby had a leading role in the resurgence of the Penguins’ power play after several seasons of declining results. With new assistant coach David Quinn overseeing the unit, Crosby paced the Penguins with 27 power-play points (12 goals, 15 assists).

He might have been even more dominant in even-strength scenarios. Primarily skating with Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust on his wings, Crosby posted 64 points in five-on-five situations, ninth-most in the NHL.

The only blemish on the season for Crosby from an individual perspective came in early February when he missed a pair of games due to a suspected left arm injury just before the 4 Nations Face-Off exhibition tournament. Regardless, he powered through that ailment and led Canada to a championship in that event.

Buoyed by that success, Crosby played in the final 25 games of the regular season and posted 33 points (16 goals, 17 assists), fifth-most in the NHL over that span.

The future: In the immediate sense, Crosby has kept the door open to play for Canada in the International Ice Hockey Federation’s (IIHF) World Championship tournament.

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Long term, there doesn’t appear to be much to really ruminate over with Crosby’s future which is quite a contrast over the 2024 offseason when a seemingly summer-long vigil took place over when he would sign a contract extension (which he did on Sept. 16).

Regardless, there are bound to be those who will drive intellectually dishonest discussions suggesting Crosby will want to leave the Penguins given the franchise’s recent futility (to say nothing of former head coach Mike Sullivan’s recent departure).

It’s prudent to ignore such piffle and avoid providing the benefit of online traffic or social media engagement.

This remains Sidney Crosby’s team.