- Crosby turns 39 on Friday and sits 11 points from passing Marcel Dionne for sixth all-time
- Ron Francis and the 1,800-point club are both 38 points away
- Read below for every Crosby milestone in play during the NHL’s first 84-game season
Sidney Crosby turns 39 on Friday, and he opens the season 11 points from sixth place on the NHL’s all-time scoring list.
The Penguins captain carries 1,761 points into 2026-27, built out of 654 goals and 1,107 assists in 1,420 regular-season games. Marcel Dionne finished his career with 1,771. That one should fall in the opening weeks.
Crosby spent last season climbing past names he grew up hearing about. He went by Steve Yzerman in April, and back in December he took the Penguins franchise scoring record from Mario Lemieux with a goal and an assist against Montreal.
Here’s how Pittsburgh marked the night:
Lemieux taped a message that played inside PPG Paints Arena that night. Watch it here:
Ron Francis is the next name up. Francis retired with 1,798 points, so 38 more moves Crosby into fifth and past the 1,800 mark at roughly the same time. Only Wayne Gretzky, Jaromir Jagr, Mark Messier and Gordie Howe live above that number.
Thirty-eight points is not a real hurdle for him. He has topped that figure in every season of his career except 2011-12, when concussion symptoms held him to 22 games.
The games number is the one that needs some luck. Crosby is 80 appearances short of 1,500, which the old 82-game format made impossible in a single year. The league’s new 84-game schedule leaves him four games of margin.
Health is the variable there. He missed 14 games last season, though he did dress 80 times in 2024-25. Puck drop on the new season is Sept. 29:
Then there is the streak nobody has come close to. Crosby has averaged a point per game in all 21 of his NHL seasons, and he locked up No. 21 last April against Florida. Gretzky’s old record was 19.
Season 22 costs him more this time. A full 84-game slate means 84 points, five more than the old bar.
He put up 74 in 68 games last year at age 38. The rate has not moved.
