Do we like Sidney Crosby?
Our score: 8 out of 10. A clean harm record, visible LGBTQ+ allyship and quiet charity; the points off are for a thin, late record on race and a 2017 White House visit that drew heat.
Sid the Kid grew up in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, born 7 August 1987, and became the Pittsburgh Penguins' youngest-ever captain in 2007. He has three Stanley Cups (2009, 2016, 2017), two Olympic golds with Canada, and a spot among the NHL's 100 greatest players.
The Olympics are why people are asking now. He went down in the 2026 quarter-final against Czechia, sat out the gold-medal game that Canada lost to the US, and said he wouldn't put himself ahead of the team if he couldn't help. That's the captain move, and nobody serious is arguing otherwise.
Harm check first. Nothing turned up in his own words or acts against LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the planet, and he isn't tied up in conspiracy or culture-war grievance. When the NHL banned Pride tape he said that Pride nights were good chances to show support, and he later taped his stick for the Penguins' Pride game anyway.
It goes past tape. Before the 2025 Pride game he appeared in a video saying hockey is for everyone, and he hosted the Pittsburgh Tigers, the city's first LGBTQ+ hockey team, in his charity suite. In February 2026 a Czech player was reportedly caught shouting a homophobic slur at the Olympics; that was his, not Crosby's, and he later apologised.
The one real knock is politics, and it's about silence rather than harm. In 2017 he took the Penguins to the White House under Donald Trump and said it was a great honour to be invited. Critics said it ignored athletes protesting racism. In 2020, after a Black NHL player publicly urged white stars to speak, he released a statement that George Floyd's death could not be ignored. Some thought it came late.
On the good-person test he's solid. His Sidney Crosby Foundation, set up in 2009, funds children's causes, and he gave $50,000 to Special Olympics Canada in 2018. His Order of Canada citation calls him a discreet philanthropist who helps marginalised youth in Pittsburgh and Nova Scotia.