Penguins' Sidney Crosby expects contract extension discussions ...

Any sort of question mark surrounding the future of Sidney Crosby is sure to generate feelings of intense uncomfortability for fans of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

With the conclusion of the Penguins’ season, which saw the club miss the playoffs for the second straight year, Crosby completed the penultimate chapter of a 12-year deal originally signed in 2012.

He is under contract through the 2024-25 campaign with a salary cap hit of $8.7 million, after which time, he’ll be an unrestricted free agent.

However, Crosby has repeatedly declared his desire to remain in Pittsburgh and, this summer, talks with Penguins president of hockey operations/general manager Kyle Dubas are expected to begin regarding a contract extension for the franchise icon.

“Obviously I’m gonna talk to Kyle and have a conversation with them but yeah, we’ll see,” Crosby said. “I think it’s something that I’ll have conversations with him about.”

Crosby played in all 82 of the Penguins’ games this year, producing a team-high 42 goals, 52 assists and 94 points.

He also failed to miss a single game last year, giving him back-to-back perfect attendance in the regular season for the first time in his career.

The 36-year-old Crosby tied Wayne Gretzky this season with his 19th straight point-per-game NHL campaign, tying him for most all-time in league history.

“I get asked about Sid a lot, and it’s the same kind of answers,” forward Bryan Rust said. “The guy’s a machine — spectacular player, spectacular person. The guy puts in so much effort, both on and off the ice. And he cares so deeply about the success of this team, the success of this organization and the success of his teammates that you can obviously see why he’s been so good for so long. He can (still) do the things he’s done his entire life.”

That Crosby remains in robust health and has shown zero signs of slowing down in terms of his production will be relevant in contract talks.

However, regarding term, Crosby isn’t looking at his performance as something that will dictate how long he wants to sign up for, whenever his next deal is indeed inked.

“I don’t really think like that,” Crosby said. “I’ve always just gone year to year, and that’s always served me well as far as how I evaluate my game and that sort of thing. There’s always a lot of factors, but I think that’s separate from talking contracts and, at my age and things like that, there’ll be a lot of factors. But as far as just evaluating my game, I don’t look any differently at how much longer I can play based off that.

“…It’s nice that I felt good and was able to play all the games and things like that, but as far as the outlook, I don’t think it changes how I approach that.”

While consternation will exist until the ink is dry on a contract that keeps him a Penguin for the foreseeable future, right now deflation still looms large for Crosby and his teammates in the immediate aftermath of the club missing the postseason again.

For the second straight year, the Penguins played a meaningless final game of the regular season after action elsewhere in the NHL eliminated them from postseason contention with one game left.

The Penguins produced an end-of-year surge, going 8-2-3 over the final three weeks of the season, but it was ultimately an insufficient boost.

“Disappointed, especially with the way that we finished the year,” Crosby said. “We were playing good hockey. When you miss by the margin that we have the last couple years, there’s so many games, plays, things that you want to redo. It’s a fine line and, unfortunately, we’ve been on the wrong side of that the last couple years.”

In the more immediate future, Crosby said he is considering representing Canada at the 2024 IIHF World Championships in Czechia from May 10-26.

“It’s something I’ll have to think about here in the next couple of days and give them an answer after that,” Crosby said.

Crosby previously participated in the World Championships in 2006, when he won the scoring title, and in 2015, when he led Canada to a gold medal.