Last week, NHL insider Elliotte Friedman told Plum native Pat McAfee on his show that the Penguins and both forward Evgeni Malkin and defenseman Kris Letang were far apart when it came to salary for an extension.
Friedman said that with Malkin, the length of the deal was good for both sides, three years to make the current contract that Sidney Crosby has, but the Penguins were reportedly offering less money than Malkin would’ve liked.
In Letang’s case, Friedman said someone told him they were around $1.25 million apart per year and did not mention the number of years of an extension.
So it doesn’t sound good that the Penguins big three will ever play again together, but the Post-Gazette’s Mike DeFebo says it could still happen.
“I think that Letang is looking for term based on the fact that he thinks he can play a little bit longer and I think that Malkin, I think that would make perfect sense, everything I’ve heard recently, in the years leading up to this was that he wanted to lined up [his contract] with Crosby,” said DeFebo.
But when all is said and done, DeFebo, at this time, thinks the Penguins will find a way to bring back both Malkin and Letang.
“I think that things are trending in that direction . . . and I think they’re going to find a way,” said DeFebo. “I do think what [the Penguins] will end up doing, if I had to guess, is they’re going to end up bringing back Malkin and Letang and I think they’re probably going to pay them a little more than they’d like and I think they’re probably going to give them a little more years than they’d like.”
But should they?
DeFebo says eventually there will be consequences for re-signing two older players.
“Maybe instead of signing Malkin in his late 30s, you sign a similar player who’s 10 years younger,” said DeFebo.
DeFebo doesn’t say that re-signing Malkin and Letang is a bad thing, but it is a chance to do a “soft rebuild” and sign some players for less money.