Tim Benz: Sidney Crosby doesn't have to follow in anyone's footsteps — not even Tom Brady's

On TSN last week, Bryan Hayes made an impassioned plea to get Sidney Crosby out of Pittsburgh so he’d have a better chance to win more championships.

He asked Crosby to do it himself by “following in the footsteps” of former NFL quarterback Tom Brady. In other words, leave the franchise on his own or have Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas do it for him so he could find greener pastures somewhere else late in his career.

“Get Sidney Crosby out of Pittsburgh. Follow in the footsteps of Tom Brady. He’s into his 19th season down there in Pittsburgh,” Hayes said. “He’s given everything he possibly could to that franchise. That franchise is no longer repaying him. … He’s still one of the 10 or 12 best players in the world. He’s still on pace for 50 goals. He’s only done that once in his career. He hasn’t done that in 14 years. He’s in the top 10 for the Hart (Trophy) right now.

“I think he’s got three or four years left in his career, and I want to see him chase Stanley Cups. I believe he’s already unlocked top 10 player of all time. I think he can make a solid case for being top five.”

But it’s Hayes’ contention that Crosby will have to leave Pittsburgh’s fading roster in order to do that.

“I think if he follows in the footsteps of Brady, goes somewhere else, wins a cup, is competitive playing on a relative team in terms of playoff performances, that is going to make the case for him to get into the top five all the time. Maybe he’s a Mount Rushmore guy. Maybe he’s one of the top four, and I’d love to see it. I hate the idea of him just fading away the rest of his career on a team in Pittsburgh that is not competitive this year. They weren’t competitive last year. I don’t think they’re going to be competitive anytime soon,” Hayes said.

It’s Hayes’ belief that in order for the back end of Crosby’s career to have relevance — whereas his contemporary, Alex Ovechkin, has the chance to catch Wayne Gretzky’s goal-scoring record — he’s going to have to do it in a different city because the Penguins are a long way from being a significant Stanley Cup contender.

“We know what Ovechkin is doing down in Washington. He’s chasing Gretzky. That’s it. Sid should be chasing cups. I want to see him out. So I’m pleading to Sidney Crosby to either ask to be out, or Kyle Dubas take one for the team and address it yourself,” Hayes continued. “Sidney Crosby, he deserves better. I don’t want to see him just fade in Pittsburgh. Get him out of there. Get somewhere else.”

I’m sure a lot of Pittsburgh hockey fans were put off by that idea. We’ll dive into plenty of reasons why they should be in a moment.

But Hayes is right in at least one sense. Crosby (especially with Mario Lemieux no longer owning the organization) doesn’t owe the Penguins anything.

However — and this is where I take issue with Hayes’ stance — Crosby doesn’t owe the NHL or league’s media anything either. Crosby shouldn’t feel obligated to keep “chasing cups” in other cities so TSN can keep chasing the story.

Should Crosby just want to “fade away” in Pittsburgh, he should be allowed to do that too. Guilt-free.

Based on how Crosby is playing, though, the team is fading a lot faster than him. To the point of the Brady analogy, Brady went to Tampa and won a Super Bowl at age 43. Crosby won’t even be 38 by the time his next contract begins. At the rate Crosby is playing, and if he really is on a Brady-esque track, there still might be time to rebuild a contender around him in five years.

It’ll be difficult, but so would simply dropping Crosby into a perfect Stanley Cup-contending situation for a proper return.

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The real issue I had with Hayes’ pitch, though, is that he sees it as somehow incumbent on Crosby to do this now, with a year-and-a-half remaining on his contract. Or he sees it as incumbent on Dubas to make it happen.

If Crosby should suddenly pull a 180 when he comes back from this 10-day break and says, “You know what? We aren’t winning. I do want outta here. Trade me,” I would have a problem with that.

After all, Crosby endorsed a lot of the moves that have been made en route to keeping the roster intact from the 2016-17 Stanley Cup champs as long as the franchise has.

And in terms of Dubas, how is he supposed to “take one for the team” and do that without Crosby’s blessing? He’s got a no-movement clause. And if Dubas thinks keeping Crosby is good for the Penguins — and at this point, why wouldn’t he — why should he move Crosby just because (in this hypothetical scenario) Crosby would theoretically want it?

Especially when the entire roster has been built to Crosby’s preferences, namely keeping the likes of Malkin, Letang and Bryan Rust. In that respect, counter to Hayes’ point, the franchise is “repaying him.”

I’m not naive enough to think that Crosby absolutely, positively has to stay in Pittsburgh until he retires. He has stated that would be his preference. Fenway Sports Group has stated the same thing. Unfortunately, if Gretzky can get traded, Crosby can play elsewhere too. Should Crosby make that move himself (for the reasons Hayes points out) when his contract expires after the 2025 season ends, so be it.

Crosby’s status as the franchise’s greatest and most important player, aside from Lemieux, will be unimpacted. He will have given 20 years and three championships of service. And if he wants to play somewhere else after that, with a franchise that is closer to Cup competition, then we’ll just have to deal with it.

That being said, if Crosby should someday want to leave Pittsburgh, it’s something he should do on his own. For his own reasons. For his own desire to keep winning.

Not for some perceived pressure or obligation being foisted upon him to provide interesting storylines and “Mount Rushmore” discussions for the rest of the National Hockey League and the Canadi…uh…” international” media.