Sidney Crosby signs 12-year, $104.4M Contract, $8.7M/yr

[Tim.D 176]

Cap hit of close to $9M/year, per Darren Dreger.

[Echolalia 2,961]

I hope then for his sake and Pittsburgh's that the concussions are just a temporary issue and not a recurring thing.

[uk_redwing 495]

With all the concussion issues? Eek. Not that he doesn't deserve every penny. Fantastic player and hope he stays injury free for the rest of his career...except for playoff finals.

[Carman 387]

Well there goes my hope for next year haha.

Hope he stays healthy even for the finals, I would want to beat the Penguins at their best.

[amato 3,210]

i heard somewhere that his new contract would not have concussion insurance. not sure if that changed by now or not though but i'm sure we'll know soon..

[xtrememachine1 795]

I don't really see this is being "dumb" because of his concussions. Sure they probably don't want to be paying someone $9 mil to sit in a dark room, but this really won't affect them cap wise. They can just put him on IR and that frees up that $9 mil.

[Tim.D 176]

Crosby's contract isn't only for his on-ice value, it's for what he brings the team off the ice as well.

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

No surprise here other than maybe term.

Because he's well under the 35 year old limit, if he did have a career ending concussion they're on the hook to pay him but it doesn't count against the cap, right? I can never keep all the details of the CBA straight.

But assuming that's the case, it's no surprised they'd take care of their franchise player like that.

[frankgrimes 1,836]

Well he's a super player and deserves every penny. We may hate him as a Penguin, but to be honest I'd love having Crosby reprasenting the winged wheel.

Hope, he will stay concussionfree and I want to beat the best Penguins team possible (especially Crosby and Malkin @ 100 percent).

Bloody revenge !

[hooon 1,089]

So... Crosby just helped everyone out a little bit in terms of the Parise sweepstakes. Gonna be really hard to justify paying anyone over 9 million if that's what Crosby's making.

[pvilleguru 65]

Well he's a super player and deserves every penny. We may hate him as a Penguin, but to be honest I'd love having Crosby reprasenting the winged wheel.

Hope, he will stay concussionfree and I want to beat the best Penguins team possible (especially Crosby and Malkin @ 100 percent).

Bloody revenge !

I hope to never see him in a Red Wing sweater. I have no respect for him.

[Tim.D 176]

Nick Kyperos: Breaking #NHL news. Done deal. Look for #Pens to announce star Sidney Crosby to a new 12 year contract for 104.4M. Annual cap hit 8.7M

[stevie for president 42]

I thought the NHL made lifelong, front-loaded contracts illegal after the Kovalchuk debacle?

[Resetti 44]

What nixed the Kovalchuk deal was adding years to the end of the contract at league minimum salary (or close to it) to lower the annual cap hit, when there was no reasonable expectation that the player would honor it (Kovalchuk playing at 42 for $1 million, for example). Long-term deals are still perfectly legal.

If it's true that he'll keep making $8.7M per year, that's... well, a little strange. All the reports suggest that he's leaving a lot of money on the table to give Shero flexibility to bring in more talent.

[xtrememachine1 795]

I'm really surprised he didn't get some sort of raise. Will Malkin be content to play for the same wages after everything he's done since signing his last contract?

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

Nick Kyperos: Breaking #NHL news. Done deal. Look for #Pens to announce star Sidney Crosby to a new 12 year contract for 104.4M. Annual cap hit 8.7M

It'll be interesting to see how that math works out. McKenzie speculating that it's got the ridiculously low salary the last couple years to get the cap hit down.

If Crosby deal is 12 or 13 yrs, gotta figure last 2 or 3 yrs are "bogus" and it's likely a 10-yr deal for about $100M. Just a guess, tho.

https://twitter.com/TSNBobMcKenzie/

I have to think the league would let is slide anyway, then maybe shore some things up under the new CBA. though honestly there isn't a huge incentive for them to do that, is there? For GM's it's cap circumvention so a lot of them probably like it, and players can get more money and longer term, essentially career-long contracts.

[frankgrimes 1,836]

What a steal if true!

Shero is building a helluva team in steel city. They are an annual contender now.

Edited June 28, 2012 by frankgrimes

[esteef 2,679]

How is "Crosby" not in our swear catcher?

esteef

[Manny>Ozzie(by a long shot) 55]

14,14,14,14,12,12,8,6,4,3,2,1.4...... 104.4 MM average 8.7.

This is my guess with the given information.

[T-Ruff 47]

No surprise here other than maybe term.

Because he's well under the 35 year old limit, if he did have a career ending concussion they're on the hook to pay him but it doesn't count against the cap, right? I can never keep all the details of the CBA straight.

But assuming that's the case, it's no surprised they'd take care of their franchise player like that.

Yeah, if he retires he comes off the Cap, so its a no-brainer signing by the Penguins and well deserved by Sid. This guy literally saved their franchise from moving to Canada and built them a new arena.

It'll be interesting to see how that math works out. McKenzie speculating that it's got the ridiculously low salary the last couple years to get the cap hit down.

https://twitter.com/TSNBobMcKenzie/

I have to think the league would let is slide anyway, then maybe shore some things up under the new CBA. though honestly there isn't a huge incentive for them to do that, is there? For GM's it's cap circumvention so a lot of them probably like it, and players can get more money and longer term, essentially career-long contracts.

Bobby Mac's speculating that the final 3 years will be 3-4m (when he's 36+) That's far from ridiculously low and not an unreasonable age either. Zetterberg and Franzens deals are still worse offenders in that sense since they get paid less in the final years at an older age, this deal won't have a problem going through it looks like, if Bob is right.

[StormJH1 231]

Hmm. Well, he deserves the money, but I'm not really sure I'd classify it as a "steal". Yes, if he misses an ENTIRE year b/c of concussion, you could LTIR him and get the cap money (or a big chunk of it). But even before his concussions, he has missed time from other injuries. 53 games played in 07-08, and came back too early THIS year. Yeah, he looked great when he came back, but it was 22 games total. He could literally bump into a teammate again and be screwed. (Crap, he was FIGHTING in the playoffs, and he started the fight!)

I assume they didn't do anything too suspect with front loading the salary, because in Crosby's case, he could be forced to "retire" at age 28, 32, 35, whatever. And if he retires at one of THOSE ages and gets paid 12 million a year with a 8.7 mil cap hit, hmm.

[rrasco 1,312]

Those are some expensive tears.

[StormJH1 231]

Yeah, if he retires he comes off the Cap, so its a no-brainer signing by the Penguins and well deserved by Sid. This guy literally saved their franchise from moving to Canada and built them a new arena.

Bobby Mac's speculating that the final 3 years will be 3-4m (when he's 36+) That's far from ridiculously low and not an unreasonable age either. Zetterberg and Franzens deals are still worse offenders in that sense since they get paid less in the final years at an older age, this deal won't have a problem going through it looks like, if Bob is right.

That's all fine and good, but it still poses the same underlying problem as the Zetterberg, Franzen, and (original) Kovalchuk deals...Crosby is not like other players. There is a significant chance that a major concussion could end his career...at ANY time. Look at what happened with Pronger, by the way...he might be done.

Is Crosby retires before his mid-30's, the deal cheats the Cap, end of story. Is there any good reason why the cap hit isn't simply determined by what the player makes THAT year? Isn't that how the NBA does it? I suppose you could then back load contracts, but that risks pissing off a player who may never see that money at the back end.

[DRAPES RULES 7]

]

" We may hate him as a Penguin, but to be honest I'd love having Crosby reprasenting the winged wheel." !!!!!???????

If that was to happen, I would sell every bit of my Red Wings stuff on e-bay and find another team to root for.

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

Yeah, if he retires he comes off the Cap, so its a no-brainer signing by the Penguins and well deserved by Sid. This guy literally saved their franchise from moving to Canada and built them a new arena.

Bobby Mac's speculating that the final 3 years will be 3-4m (when he's 36+) That's far from ridiculously low and not an unreasonable age either. Zetterberg and Franzens deals are still worse offenders in that sense since they get paid less in the final years at an older age, this deal won't have a problem going through it looks like, if Bob is right.

Agreed.

And honestly if Crosby remains healthy (and assuming the league remains financially healthy), he'd be a steal at $3-4 mill a year 10 years from now.

That's all fine and good, but it still poses the same underlying problem as the Zetterberg, Franzen, and (original) Kovalchuk deals...Crosby is not like other players. There is a significant chance that a major concussion could end his career...at ANY time. Look at what happened with Pronger, by the way...he might be done.

Is Crosby retires before his mid-30's, the deal cheats the Cap, end of story. Is there any good reason why the cap hit isn't simply determined by what the player makes THAT year? Isn't that how the NBA does it? I suppose you could then back load contracts, but that risks pissing off a player who may never see that money at the back end.

Crosby's risk is definitely higher given his concussion issues, but honestly I don't think it's tremendously higher than any given NHL player. They could all suffer a career-ending injury pretty much any game.

And if his career is ended that way, he's no longer playing for the team so I don't really consider it cap circumvention. The most egregious cap circumvention to me is when they pay a player well below what he'll likely be worth at the end of his career or sign a contract that is almost certainly longer than the playing career of a player based on his age not health.