Penguins share big Sidney Crosby update amid injury recovery

As shared by Sportsnet, Pittsburgh Penguins president of hockey operations and general manager Kyle Dubas said on the latest edition of his radio show hosted by play-by-play announcer Josh Getzoff that superstar captain Sidney Crosby could soon "get back on the ice and test" the lower-body injury that Crosby suffered during the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics men's hockey tournament. 

On Thursday, Penguins head coach Dan Muse expanded on Dubas' update. 

Sidney Crosby takes next step of injury recovery 

"He is skating," Muse said about Crosby, per Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "That’s just part of his return to play (process). It’s a good step." 

Crosby went down with the injury on Feb. 18. At the time that Pittsburgh designated him to injured reserve on Feb. 25, it was said that the 38-year-old would miss "at least" four weeks of action. Predictably, Muse wouldn't confirm or deny that Thursday's developments indicate anything has changed regarding Crosby's recovery timeline. 

Without having Crosby available, the Penguins went 2-1-1 across their first four games following the Olympic break. 31-16-13 Pittsburgh hosts the Buffalo Sabres (36-19-6) on Thursday night. The Pens will enter that matchup in the second playoff spot in the Metropolitan Division standings.

Sidney Crosby "doing everything he can to get back"  

The NHL trade deadline arrives at 3 p.m. ET on Friday, and Dubas acknowledged that getting Crosby back would "be the best trade-deadline addition that we could make." It's possible, if not likely, that Crosby will miss at least Pittsburgh's final 15 games of March. That said, it's unknown if Dubas plans to make a big splash ahead of Friday evening. 

"He's extraordinarily diligent and is going to do everything he can," Dubas added about Crosby working to get back to action. "He always puts his team first. And his way of doing that is making decisions that are totally selfless over there in Milan, and then come back here and really doing everything he can to get back and help the Penguins."

ESPN stats show that Crosby began Thursday leading the Penguins with 59 points and 27 goals on the season.