Thursday, August 21, 2008

28 profiles in 28 days....The Chosen One


Welcome back to TST's 28 profiles in 28 days. Here's the backstories of players previously profiled:
Kris Beech
Matt Cooke


Basics
Player Name: Sidney Crosby
How Acquired: Drafted 1st overall 2005 NHL Entry Draft
Position: Center
Age: 21
Contact Situation: Signed thru 2012-13 season, $8.7 million cap hit per season

History
Last Season Stats: 53 games played, 24 goals, 48 assists for 72 points, [Playoffs: 20 gp, 6g, 21a = 27p]
Last Season Write-up: Obviously a tough go for Crosby with the ankle injury that held him out of 29 games from January to April, not the way he wanted to follow up his previous season of winning practically every major individual...Still bounced back and led the Pens (and tied for the league) in playoff scoring.
Career Year Stats: (2006-07) 79 gp 36g, 84a, 120p

Outlook
Player progressing, in prime or regressing: Still progressing, hey he's still 21 and has grown his game in the faceoff circle
Expected 2008-09 role: 1st line center, face of the team, league and sport
Potential line-mates: Miroslav Satan, Ruslan Fedotenko, Pascal Dupuis, Evgeni Malkin
"Best case scenario" stats: 82 games played 40 goals, 90 assists, 130 points
Notes: The short off-season may hit Crosby more than most, being as he had a rib injury and that ankle wasn't 100% during the playoffs....How he will bounce back with replacing Satan for Hossa isn't much a concern, Crosby's played with less skilled wingers (Armstrong, Old Man Recchi, etc) and put up points. We could go on with more news and notes, but we guess Bing gets enough press and pixels on his every movement.
Interesting fact: Every fact about Crosby is pretty much known...But here's something, in all our research, that surprised us. It's Crosby, not Mario Lemieux, that set the Penguins rookie mark for most assists (63 to 61) and points (102 to 100). That might be common knowledge, but it had slipped our minds.

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