With the Pittsburgh Penguins entering the offseason after a brief return to the postseason, TribLive will offer Penguins A to Z, a player-by-player look at all 53 individuals signed to an NHL contract — including those whose deals do not begin until future seasons — with the organization.

Starting with veteran Noel Acciari and going on through to prospect Bill Zonnon, every player will be profiled in alphabetical order.

This series is scheduled to be published every day until June 24, two 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: 38

Height: 5-foot-11

Weight: 200 pounds

2025-26 NHL regular season statistics: 68 games, 74 points (29 goals, 45 assists), 19:14 of average ice time per contest

2025-26 NHL postseason statistics: Six games, five points (one goal, four assists), 20:57 of average ice time per contest

Contract: In the first year of a two-year contract with a salary cap hit of $8.7 million. Pending unrestricted free agent in 2027

(This contract has a no-movement clause.)

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

This season: The first four months of the 2025-26 campaign weren’t anything out of the ordinary for the nonpareil Sidney Crosby.

He was entrenched as center on the Penguins’ top line and first power-play unit and from those stations, he looked like an All-Star.

Just typical ho-hum stuff for one of the NHL’s greatest players ever.

With his trusted wingers Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust primarily on his flanks in five-on-five situations, Crosby appeared in the Penguins’ first 56 games of the season and put together a tidy 59 points (27 goals, 32 assists).

(Curiously, Crosby one of the NHL’s more dependable shootout specialists of all-time, struggled in that realm as he was limited to two goals on 10 shootout attempts.)

Easily the most notable accomplishment for Crosby in 2025-26 – and perhaps for any Penguins player ever – came during a 4-3 home shootout win on Dec. 21 when he surpassed the iconic Mario Lemieux as the franchise’s leading career scorer. A secondary assist on a power-play goal by Rakell secured the milestone for Crosby.

Then, in February, the Olympics happened.

As Canada’s captain, Crosby took on a slightly diminished role lower in the lineup as the likes of Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid took on the most prominent roles on a stacked roster.

Still, Crosby was a vital component for a national team that had the highest of expectations entering the tournament. And he did his part by tallying six points (two goals, four assists) in four games.

But in that fourth game, so much changed for him, Canada and the Penguins.

During a quarterfinal round game, Crosby tried to avoid a check from Czechia defenseman Radko Gudas, only to have Gudas crash on top of him and cause his right knee to bend awkwardly.

That mishap ended Crosby’s tournament as Canada wound up settling for silver. As for the Penguins, they had to navigate a highly demanding portion of the schedule without Crosby, who missed the team’s first 11 games following the NHL’s break for the Olympics because of his ailment.

Back in the lineup by March 18, Crosby inhabited his typical stations but wasn’t quite as potent of a player, totaling 15 points (two goals, 13 assists) in his final 12 games of the regular season (which was condensed to accomodate the Olympics).

Crosby’s health led to him missing three of the team’s final 10 regular season games, two for declared injuries and one – the season finale – for rest.

In the postseason, Crosby and most of his teammates were mostly held in check in the first two games of a first-round series against the rival Philadelphia Flyers, who employed a discipline defensive approach.

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By Game 3, Crosby began to find the scoresheet and offered a mini offensive eruption by Game 4 with a goal and an assist.

He followed that up with a two-assist effort in Game 5 but was hobbled temporarily in that contest when Penguins defenseman Ryan Shea struck Crosby’s creaky right knee with a slapper.

By Game 6, Crosby and company were held without any offense in a 1-0 overtime loss during Game 6 that ended their season.

The future: One of the more pressing items on the Penguins’ offseason agenda might be trying to sign Crosby to a potential contract extension, as he is eligible to do so by July 1.

For his part, Crosby was non-committal to such a deal when asked about it during the team’s exit interviews on May 1, saying he would “wait and see” regarding the matter.

It would probably be a folly to read too much into that as Crosby has largely avoided painting himself into a corner with regards to how much longer he might play as he approaches his 40s.

Crosby, who turns 39 on Aug. 7, remains one of the NHL’s special talents. Few players are more committed to refining their craft than Crosby, who has supplemented his natural gifts with an obsessive approach to preparation.

His success is no accident.

That said, he will be less than a year from turning 40 when the 2026-27 season opens and he is coming off a presumed right knee injury that hobbled him to some degree in the final months of this season. Post-Olympics, Crosby often looked ordinary.

When healthy, Crosby remains extraordinary. But he is beginning to show his age (slightly).