from Eric Duhatschek of The Athletic,

Crosby isn’t the sort of player who says one thing but means another. If he says he wants to be a Penguin for life, then that should be the end of the story. The Penguins will do their best to be as competitive as they can be for as long as they can be with this core, and then do what they’ve done twice before – sink to the bottom, and hope that when (or if) they get another chance to draft first overall, it happens to coincide with a year when a Mario Lemieux or a Crosby is sitting there waiting for them.

Just a reminder by the way that Crosby’s current contract was a 12-year deal, worth $104.4 million and signed back on July 1, 2012, when Ray Shero was the Penguins’ GM. The contract carries an AAV of $8.7 million, and was frontloaded, with the highest compensation in the first three years of the deal, $12 million. Of course, what that’s meant is that in terms of real dollars – not dollars that count against the cap – Crosby has been the NHL’s best value for the second year in a row.

That’s because last year, this year and next year, he will earn just $3 million. That’s it. No performance bonuses. No signing bonuses. $3 million. And to save you the trouble of looking it up, for that $3 million, Crosby has 56 points in 54 games and is playing above 20 minutes per night. In terms of value, that’s hard to beat.

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