Penguins captain Sidney Crosby has made it clear he wants to be in Pittsburgh while addressing rumors and speculation about a possible trade and his future in the NHL.

Crosby, who will enter his 21st NHL season this fall at the age of 38, addressed the topic on Monday while delivering tickets to Penguins fans in Sewickley, part of a long-standing tradition among the Penguins organization that players participate in ahead of the start of the hockey season in the fall.

Last week, Crosby's agent, Pat Brisson, spoke about the possibility of the Penguins superstar captain playing for another team with better chances of making the playoffs. 

"There's a lot of narratives out there, and I don't think a lot of those have come from me," Crosby said Monday. "This is where I want to be. I love it here. I can't keep having to answer the same question over again because of these narratives. If people want to write about that or say that, that's fine. But I can't really control that. Obviously, when you lose and there's certain things that happen, I think it's normal for that stuff to come up. That's how I feel."

The Penguins have missed the postseason for three straight seasons and haven't won a playoff series since 2018 after winning the Stanley Cup in 2016 and in 2017. 

As the Penguins are in a rebuilding or retooling mode headed into the 2025-26 season, Crosby also addressed the topic of tanking and the outlook for the organization, who could benefit from a poor season with a high draft pick.

"It's professional sports," Crosby said. "You play to win. That's how I view it. You're not going to convince me otherwise. If you're one of those people that believe that, then you're entitled to believe in that. But that's not why I signed up to play the game. That's not the game that I know. If you want to look at it that way, I guess you can. That's one perspective. But that's not really one that resonates with me. So it's kind of hard to understand that."

The Penguins' 2025-26 season will get underway next month when the team travels to New York City to face the Rangers and former head coach Mike Sullivan at Madison Square Garden on October 7.