Sidney Crosby turns 39 and is about to break a special record that Ovechkin and McDavid may never reach

Sidney Crosby turns 39 today, and the record he takes over this season may outlive everyone currently chasing it.

Crosby was named Penguins captain on May 31, 2007, and first wore the C in 2007-08. The 2026-27 season will be his 20th in the role, passing Steve Yzerman, who captained the Detroit Red Wings for 19.

He arrives at 1,761 points in 1,420 games, seventh on the NHL's all-time scoring list. The Athletic marked the birthday by weighing where he sits in hockey history.

Yzerman's run covered 1986-87 through 2005-06, a stretch broken by the cancelled 2004-05 lockout year. Crosby's 19 have been consecutive since 2007-08.

The comparison gets stranger this year. The 2026-27 schedule expands to 84 games under the new collective bargaining agreement, the longest NHL regular season since 1993-94.

Crosby will set the mark across a longer season than Yzerman ever captained, opening September 29.

Alex Ovechkin has worn the C in Washington since January 2010, which makes 2026-27 his 18th season as Capitals captain. He signed a one-year contract on July 2 and turns 41 in September.

Matching Crosby would mean captaining Washington through his age-43 season.

Connor McDavid took the Edmonton Oilers captaincy in October 2016 and reaches 11 seasons this year. His extension runs out after 2027-28, which leaves him at 13.

The record therefore asks for a narrow sequence: the C before age 21, one franchise through free agency, and two decades good enough to keep it.

Pittsburgh gets one more guaranteed year of it. General manager Kyle Dubas kept the core together after a first-round exit against Philadelphia, and head coach Dan Muse enters year two.

Crosby's contract expires July 1, 2027, five weeks before his 40th birthday, and he has said he is not thinking about retiring.

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