Pens clean out lockers after missing playoffs

19/04/2024 13:00

Sidney Crosby spoke about a potential contract extension during the availability.

The Penguins held their locker cleanouts yesterday at the UPMC Lemieux complex following the end of their regular season and several players spoke about things including contracts and injuries.

Sidney Crosby talked abut signing an extension to his contract that has one year left and said he'll be having a conversation with general manager Kyle Dubas.

"Obviously, I'm going to talk to Kyle and have a conversation with him," he said. "We'll see. I think it's just something that I'll have conversations with him about."

Mike Sullivan talked about injuries that Kris Letang was dealing with, describing it as a 'myriad' of issues.

Goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic was a mainstay in net for the Pens down the stretch and talked about wanting to come back if the situation calls for it.

"I think if you've got good chemistry, good relationships with everybody, it's really easy to want to play for the guy next to you and have fun and come to the rink and be excited about coming to the rink. So yeah, I'd love to come back," he said. "I'd love to be back in a Penguins' sweater and pick up where we left off this year. We left off on a high note, we've played some good hockey lately, and it's hard to not want to come back and play with the guys that you have in this room."

Erik Karlsson spoke at length about how he's looking forward to next season.

"I think everybody's already excited for that. I know I am," Karlsson said. "It's going to be nice to just step away for a bit and reflect and try and figure out what you can do to move forward and be better as a player and better as a team. One thing I know and that I've learned over the first year here is how dedicated this organization is to be at its best and how professional everybody is. I know that everybody's going to work tirelessly to make sure that we utilize our abilities, and we play up to the standards that we know that we know that we can come next year."

Reilly Smith called his season with the team 'frustrating.'

"Obviously, didn't live up to my own standard or expectation that I wanted to. So, those things are — they're hard to swallow. You have to just look into the summer and try to fix the things that didn't go your way. Thankfully, there's a long summer, and there's a lot of things that I can learn from."

To read more takeaways from the Penguins' locker cleanouts, click here.