it seems like forever ago that Sidney Crosby signed his 10-year contract extension with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
While some wondered quietly whether giving that long of a contract to a player with a concussion history like Crosby’s was smart, NBC’s own Jeremy Roenick ripped the lid off of it.
Roenick appeared on nextsportstar.com with Josh Rimer and spoke candidly about how a long term deals like Crosby’s may not be the greatest idea.
“I don’t mind the six-year deals. The five and six-year deals that’s OK,” Roenick said. “When you give [Ryan] Suter and [Zach] Parise those 10, 12, 13, 14-year deals that’s like... You’re committing contract suicide.”
Then Roenick got rolling on Sid the Kid’s deal.
“And then you have the Pittsburgh Penguins who give the guy who has the biggest concussion problems in all of hockey a ten-year deal... I think Sidney Crosby’s the best player in the game, don’t get me wrong, but when you have concussion problems the way that he has in the last year and a half and you give him a ten-year deal I just don’t... Is that smart business? I don’t think so.”
Ouch. Shero might be too busy shining up his Stanley Cup ring to care what Roenick has to think. It’s not as if J.R. is saying something we may have thought ourselves, it’s just he has a much more blunt way of saying it.