The seeds for Sidney Crosby’s return to the IIHF World Hockey Championship were planted this winter at the 4 Nations Face-Off.
There was something restorative about the experience for the Pittsburgh Penguins’ captain. It wasn’t just that he was donning the Maple Leaf for the first time in nine years at that event. It was also playing alongside the next generation of top-tier Canadian players. What struck Crosby most was how deeply those players cared — how much the experience meant to them.
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“It’s just their passion and energy, which is contagious I think for me,” Crosby said after the 4 Nations championship game in February. “I’ve been on a lot of different teams, in a lot of different situations, but knowing these guys a little bit and seeing them day to day, that’s something that pushes me.
“If anything, I remind myself daily that I’d better get to work if I want to play with these guys because they’re special players and it’s incredible what they do out there.”
Viewed in that context, it’s little surprise that Crosby accepted an invitation to lead Team Canada in Stockholm.
Captain Canada has arrived. 🇨🇦
Capitaine Canada est là. 🇨🇦#MensWorlds | #MondialMasculin pic.twitter.com/JCtmXDD93y
— Hockey Canada (@HockeyCanada) May 5, 2025
Crosby hadn’t played at the worlds since 2015, but he’d also never missed the Stanley Cup playoffs in three successive years before now. At this point, Crosby needs to look elsewhere to keep his competitive spirit sharp with the Penguins mired in an extensive retool. He continued to skate daily after the Penguins regular season ended on April 17 and Hockey Canada announced May 5 that he’d committed to the event.
Crosby informed officials about his plans before Nathan MacKinnon’s Colorado Avalanche were eliminated from the playoffs, according to Hockey Canada executive Scott Salmond, so it was a pleasant surprise when MacKinnon quickly signed up to join his close friend at the worlds following the Avalanche’s Game 7 loss to the Dallas Stars in Round 1.
That was the beginning of a string of commitments from established NHL players to round out the roster once Crosby was already on board: Marc-André Fleury, Jordan Binnington, Brayden Schenn, Phillip Danault, Jared Spurgeon and Mike Matheson, among them.
“It’s so huge that he came,” Salmond said of Crosby.
Sidney Crosby and former Penguins teammate Marc-Andre Fleury have been reunited at Worlds. (Christine Olsson / Getty Images)
The tournament tends to be a tough draw for North Americans because of its relatively low profile back home and the extensive time commitment required. It will likely chew up more than three weeks of Crosby’s summer and include round-robin games against weaker nations like France and Austria after Canada opened the tournament with back-to-back wins over Slovenia and Latvia on the weekend.
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Basically, no one would have faulted Crosby for taking a pass to focus on his offseason.
He won world championship gold in 2015 to gain entrance to the exclusive “Triple Gold Club” and will get a chance to play for his third Olympic gold medal next February in Milan. But after the 4 Nations victory, the 37-year-old was eager to both keep the momentum going for the national team and keep pushing himself.
“Sidney Crosby is a unicorn,” Jon Cooper, Canada’s Olympic coach, told The Athletic. “Somebody that’s played as long as he has done and accomplished what he’s accomplished — like, he’s run out of trophy space — and yet he still, after two decades in the league, is giving up a big portion of his summer to play the game he loves for the country he adores. It’s mind-blowing.
“It’s just phenomenal leadership and a crazy passion for the game that few have ever matched.”
Crosby’s record with Team Canada speaks for itself: The country is 50-6 in games with him in the lineup dating back to the 2004 World Juniors.
Cooper was blown away by what he saw behind the scenes from his captain at the 4 Nations event. That roster was populated with players who grew up idolizing Crosby, and he helped bring everyone together with an understated leadership style.
Crosby made sure no detail was overlooked in preparation and quietly went out of his way to establish personal touchpoints with members of the staff and younger teammates. On a roster brimming with Stanley Cup champions and major NHL award winners, he was the man. And yet he remained humble — open to being highlighted for a missed play during team meetings while still signing sticks and jerseys for the guys he was playing with.
“He carried a weight with all of them,” Cooper said. “There’s just something different about Sid.”
Cooper believes the main driving force behind Crosby’s world championship appearance is putting himself in the best position to lead the Olympic team next year. He’ll head to Sweden this week and plans to debrief with Crosby, MacKinnon and the other 4 Nations players there: Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim and Binnington.
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Salmond, who has known Crosby for two decades, believes he was drawn in by the constant that’s helped push his career to heights few players have ever matched in history.
“I think he likes winning,” he said.
Canada certainly has a much better chance at claiming world championship gold with No. 87 in the lineup.
But his presence represents something even deeper and more important than that. Cooper, the Tampa Bay Lightning coach, said Lightning forwards Brayden Point, Anthony Cirelli and Brandon Hagel came away better from their experience at the 4 Nations simply because they were around Crosby, and each of those guys has already spent years in the NHL.
In Stockholm, the Hall of Famer is currently skating on a line with 18-year-old Macklin Celebrini, a fellow No. 1 draft pick. There’s also 21-year-old Adam Fantilli on the roster and recent World Juniors players Porter Martone and Carter George, both 18, part of the team’s taxi squad. Crosby’s decision to go to this world championship could echo through the years of future national teams with those players.
Macklin Celebrini (96) celebrates after scoring a goal with Ryker Evans (41) and Sidney Crosby (87). (Christine Olsson / Getty Images)
“Just imagine the effect it’s going to have on a 19- and 20-year-old; it’s unparalleled,” Cooper said. “I’m sure (Crosby) knows it, maybe, but I don’t think he realizes the magnitude because he’s such a humble guy. Those kids that are at that tournament, they don’t know what a gift they got when Sid said he’d play.”
(Top photo: Michael Campanella / Getty Images)
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