Editor’s Note: This story is included in The Athletic’s Best of 2023. View the full list.
Early last summer, at his spacious home in Montreal, Kris Letang finally saw the document that secured his future in Pittsburgh.
No stranger to the multi-page, standard player contract, this one was particularly special. It was his fourth, and probably his last. It contained specific elements Letang and his agent required. One line read “six years.” Another read “$36.6 million.” The line that Letang really loved?: “full no-movement clause.”
Together, those words recommitted Letang and the Penguins, the only NHL franchise he had ever known. With his wife, Catherine, nearby and his two young children, Victoria and Alexander, elsewhere inside their house, Letang signed his name. At 35, he would finish his career in Pittsburgh.
As word spread last July 7, Letang’s phone blew up. The flood of well-wishers included teammates past and present, various Penguins personnel he’d befriended over his previous 16 seasons, and family and friends. He took only a few calls. Among them: Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, his oldest and dearest teammates in Pittsburgh, who were thrilled for him.
Crosby, the Penguins captain and franchise icon, had made it clear to general manager Ron Hextall…
