Crosby to join Team Canada for World Championships

“I don’t think I have that luxury (of taking long breaks) any more at my age,” Sidney Crosby said at the end of last season in April 2025. “It’s better to kind of keep going at this point.”

Unsurprisingly, that mindset hasn’t changed. Team Canada announced today that Crosby will join the team for the upcoming World Championships. He didn’t definitively answer the question this year about whether or not he would join, citing discussions about what the rehab plan for his leg would be over the summer. Apparently that plan now includes playing more hockey right away.

Crosby, who turns 39 this summer, is basically going into the late-stage Jaromir Jagr-ization phase of his career. Jagr is and was notorious about his fanatical workouts, always grinding to keep his skills as intact as possible as the inevitability of old age sets in. The shark dies when he stops swimming, as the old saying goes. So too might the aging hockey star.

It makes a lot of sense, if you want to fight the hands of time then you better be ready to put the effort in and not stop and sit around for weeks or months in the summer. Taking or extending long breaks without faithfully being dedicated to the grind is a sure way to let age catch up.

Constant training and honing the craft is part and parcel for Crosby’s entire makeup and that’s only increasing the more he ages. We’ll know Crosby has gone full Jagr when reports come out about him asking for the key to the practice rink for late-night solo sessions on the ice with a weighted vest. (And I think I’m only about half-kidding about putting this notion out there).

There’s no word on how Crosby, typically the captain of the Canadian team, will impact the announced decision to have 19-year old Macklin Celebrini as the captain of this event.

The World Championships run from May 15-31 in Switzerland, and it’s not like Zurich is a bad place to spend part of the spring. Crosby played in the 2025 World Championship, his first time at that event since 2015. He’ll be going back to find competition and help tick away days of the offseason before he gets to his individual training sessions over the summer. Based on the comments above, you know there won’t be many off days before training camp kicks back up in September.

Sidney Crosby is just going to keep going at this point. It’s the only way he knows how.