A Captain Calls

In all the excitement following a weekend that had the Penguins drafting yet another potential superstar as well as a pair of right handed defensemen AND snagging Gary Roberts for an entire season, I forgot to mention one more trade in my last post. The Pens traded Wilkes-Barre / Scranton staple Stephen Dixon for fellow center Tim Brent from Anaheim. Now you know.

Moving on to today's edition of news about our FAVORITE center, it seems the young captain is pleased with the Penguins' 2007 first round draft choice:

Shortly before he met the media after the Penguins made him their first-round pick, Esposito took a call from Crosby, the team's newly minted captain. The conversation was brief, but it might have explained why Esposito appeared generally pleased to land with Pittsburgh despite having slipped from the consensus top prospect at the start of this past season.

"(Esposito) was very happy to get that call," general manager Ray Shero said. "Sid did the same thing last year when we drafted Jordan (Staal). You know, Sidney is the captain of this team, so it is very nice for our top pick to hear from him."

the ultimate welcome wagon

It's also worth noting that, while in Columbus, Penguins officials toured the Nationwide Arena. Apparently, they have (smartly) been touring modern arenas ever since they got word the Pens would get a new home, and it is believed that the Xcel Energy Center in Minnesota is the building which the Penguins will use as a model for the new arena in Pittsburgh.

Next up on the agenda for the Penguins' brass: the free agency period, which begins on July 1. Incidentally, this will also be the day when the Pens can begin negotiations to renew Sir Sidney's contract:

"He's our franchise player and a guy we want to be here the rest of his career," Shero said. "Once we can start talking to him on July 1, hopefully we have some common ground here."

Crosby anticipates the negotiations going well."We want to make sure everything goes right and it's the way everyone wants it," Crosby said. "It's part of the business side of things, but I'm more than confident that everyone's going to be happy with it."

Sidney Crosby = Penguin for Life? I can hardly wait to see what happens...