Sidney Crosby and the Penguins Prove Marc Bergevin Was Right About One Harsh NHL Truth

However, the future looks extremely bleak for the organization, and Marc Bergevin's most famous phrase is proving truer than ever.

In 2005-06, Sidney Crosby joined the Penguins while the team was going through tough times. Quickly, number 87 established himself, and the big return to play of Mario Lemieux brought joy to hockey fans around the world.

The following year, the legendary 66 retired again, and two new faces joined the club: a young forward named Evgeni Malkin and Kristopher Letang, a defenseman who joined the team at the end of the season after completing his QMJHL career with the Val-d'Or Foreurs.

Marc-André Fleury quickly proved he was the trusted man in goal and, by his second season, he finished with a 2.83 GAA and a .906 save percentage in 67 games.

You know the rest of the story - the Penguins became one of the NHL's powerhouse teams, winning the Stanley Cup three times: in 2009, 2016, and 2017.

Before his firing as GM of the Montreal Canadiens, Marc Bergevin once said the following phrase, and it became his most iconic:

Take the Washington Capitals, for example. The team retained Alex Ovechkin, but the faces around him have changed drastically from those he played with in the past. Nicklas Backstrom, Alexander Semin, Mike Green, Semyon Varlamov, Braden Holtby, T.J. Oshie, and Evgeny Kuznetsov have all departed over the years.

With the Penguins, management made a very questionable decision by giving away Marc-André Fleury for free during the Vegas Golden Knights expansion draft. Then, they chose loyalty by keeping Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang until the end - or almost.

Malkin is playing his final NHL season in 2025-26, Letang just had one of the worst seasons of his career last year and is now 38 years old, while Crosby will celebrate his 38th birthday in the next few hours. The captain still has some value, but it has significantly dropped.

If you look at the pipeline in Pittsburgh, it's hard to imagine the team making the playoffs before 2030 - or even 2035. Unless they win the lottery and land Gavin McKenna, which could speed up the rebuild by a few years.

Just imagine what they could have gotten in return if they had traded Crosby, Malkin, and Letang in recent years. Loyalty that will hurt badly.