Sidney Crosby has heard the trade chatter, comments on his future with the Pens

Potential trade talk surrounding Sidney Crosby has been going on for the last few months now. He's been linked to the Montreal Canadians, the Boston Bruins and a couple of other potential landing spots. As for why there's trade talk, it seemed to start with TSN's Darren Dreger, who recently stated he believes the Penguins will have a chat with Crosby in the upcoming offseason to determine whether he wants to stay in PIttsburgh to deal with another two to three years of trying to rebuild the team around him, or whether he'd rather go to a team that's currently in a better spot to win now. So what does Crosby think of all this?

"Nothing's changed,» Crosby said after practice Friday. "That's definitely kind of a new subject that I have had to deal with and hear about a little bit, but I love playing here and this is where I would love to play for the rest of my career. I can't really control what's said or rumours or things like that, but that's how I approach it."

To expect Crosby to come out and say he's expecting to be traded once the 2020-21 season ends would be silly. I'm not saying Crosby is lying, but unless things had fallen apart between him and the team drastically, someone like Crosby is never going to say they want out of the only place they've played in their entire career, which started 16 seasons ago. Pittsburgh has been stagnant for the past couple of years, being ejected from the playoffs in the opening round in 2019 and 2020. There is new management in place, with Ron Hextall taking over as General Manager and Brian Burke as President of Hockey Operations. Both seem to be set to take the team in a rougher direction, but have insisted they are in "win now" mode rather than making plans to win down the line. Whether they can actually pull that off remains to be seen.

Crosby is set to play in his 1000th NHL game on Saturday against the New York Islanders. At 33 years old, he has six goals and 13 points in 15 games this season and doesn't really show any signs of slowing down just yet.

"I think as long as I feel good, I think I'd love to play as long as I can,» Crosby said. "I don't really have an idea of what that age is or number is. But I think I'm just focus on playing out my contract and seeing where I am at then, but I feel really good."

"I want to play as long as I can, so I guess we will have to see."

Crosby is not 21 any longer but, barring serious injury, he still has multiple years left as a top-end player and, if he wants to, years after that as a veteran leader. Could Crosby be traded before finishing his career? Absolutely, anyone can. Will he be traded? I would say that's all speculation at this point.

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