Sidney Crosby turned 39 on August 7 and the only people treating that birthday like a free-agency starter pistol are the ones staring at empty August calendars. Sid Seixeiro went on Tony Marinaro’s podcast this week and told Kent Hughes to pick up the phone: Michael Hage and a first-round pick for Crosby, right now, before the Penguins talk extension. Instant best team in the East. I played the clip twice because the certainty was almost athletic.
“I’ll believe that when I see it,” Seixeiro said about Crosby signing another short deal in Pittsburgh. Then the real pitch: “As loyal as Sidney Crosby is to the Pittsburgh Penguins, I think one day he’s gonna look at Kyle and say I think you’re an idiot… Montreal Canadiens fans right now, a first-round pick and Michael Hage for Sidney Crosby, do you do it? Kent Hughes, you’ve danced with Matthew Knies and you’ve danced with Marchenko… You’ve gotta make one call, go get Crosby.”
I get why it travels. Crosby grew up a Canadiens kid in Cole Harbour. The Bell Centre gave him a standing ovation during the 4 Nations Face-Off and he talked about it like it meant something. Elliotte Friedman already put Montreal on the short list of places Crosby might actually consider if he ever green-lit a move. The soap opera writes itself. Childhood team. Aging superstar. Contender with chips. August needs oxygen and this rumor has lungs.
The Paperwork Already Voted No
Here is what actually exists on the page. Crosby signed a two-year, $17.4 million extension on September 16, 2024. Full no-movement clause. Runs through 2026-27 at $8.7 million a year. Josh Yohe reported this week that extension talks with Pittsburgh are expected once summer ends, and Yohe has not been wrong on Crosby’s contract intentions. Pat Brisson has already framed a move as “always a possibility” depending on results, which is agent language for keep the leverage warm, not start packing.
Last season Crosby put up 29 goals and 45 assists for 74 points in 68 games. Five more points in six playoff games. Career line through 2025-26 sits at 1,420 games, 654 goals, 1,107 assists. The Penguins made the playoffs. The trade talk that screamed through September 2025 mostly went quiet once Pittsburgh was in a spot. Chris Johnston basically said the hope of Crosby becoming available had sailed. Now we are back in the dog days and the same fantasy is getting recycled because real news died in July.
Seixeiro kept going: pull the deal and Montreal becomes the best team in the Eastern Conference “in the snap of a finger.” He admitted the risk and said it was worth it because this is still elite Crosby, not the version four years from now. On pure talent I do not argue. Nick Suzuki just put up 101 points. Cole Caufield scored 51. The Habs reached the Eastern Conference Final. Sliding Crosby into that group is nuclear on a whiteboard.
I just cannot find the human who signs off.
Hage Plus a First Is Fan Service, Not a Negotiation
Dubas is still trying to prove the core-plus-youth plan works. Crosby has spent two decades refusing every exit ramp that looked even slightly convenient. The last time this exact rumor cycle ran hot he shut down the breadcrumb talk himself. A full NMC means the only person who can make Seixeiro’s podcast real is Crosby, and nothing in his public posture or his production says he is ready to orphan the franchise he defined.
I have watched this movie before. Toronto voices float the idea. Montreal fans salivate. Pittsburgh shrugs. Nothing moves. The parallel noise this week is just as thin: another Flyers offer-sheet fantasy aimed at Cutter Gauthier that cannot even happen under the rules, and Pavel Buchnevich trade speculation that dies on an $8 million cap hit and a full no-trade clause. Crosby-to-Montreal is simply the premium version of the same empty calendar.
If the Penguins crater in 2026-27 and Crosby is staring at another early golf season, then the conversation changes. Until he says the faith is gone, Hage stays in the system, the first-rounder stays in the bank, and the black-and-gold sweater stays on the best player of his generation. The rumor can keep the lights on through Labor Day. The no-movement clause still owns the building.
