Thinking About Where the Penguins Were a Year Ago

With regard to the fantastic news that there will be at least six more years of Sidney Crosby in my future, at the below-market rate of 8.7 M per year of the extension, I guess we should be glad he wasn't born on September 9th or October 2nd or something. Given #87's recurring number gag, I'm a little surprised they didn't wait until his birthday to announce the contract, but on the other hand, getting the deal done and making it public just a week and a half after the start of the free agent signing period is like an extra slap in the face of the Rangers and the Flyers, who both grossly overspent on free agents. For the Rangers, it was just like old times, and they'll be exactly the team I remember when they miss the playoffs next year. And apart from highlighting the lousy contracts that Scott Gomez, Chris Drury and Daniel Briere were handed, by comparison, Crosby's contract should serve as the de facto max contract for the Penguins when the time comes to re-sign the rest of the young talent. Sure, the CBA says you can get a contract equal to 20% of the salary cap, but when the league's best player is only pulling down an average of 18% (and that average should go down each year as revenues and the cap rise), it's a little tough to argue for more.

So, a year ago the team was on the block, had no arena deal, was coming off a terrible non-playoff season and was breaking in a first-time GM with a coach he didn't hire. Today the team is off the market, the State just passed the spending bill for the new arena, they turned in the second-highest points turnaround in league history and the GM just extended the coach another year (this counts as job security in the NHL). Yeah, things have changed.