The Pittsburgh Penguins have earmarked the 2022 offseason for years as a potential turning point for the franchise. Two-thirds of the core that has led the team to its lengthiest run of playoff success in franchise history, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, were scheduled to hit unrestricted free agency. In recent years, Bryan Rust has thrown his name onto the list of important Penguins with expiring contracts this season as well.
The team dealt with Rust, signing him to a long extension last month. Malkin and Letang remain unsigned with now less than a month remaining until free agency begins on July 13. However, The Athletic’s Rob Rossi reports that the organization’s top priority is signing Letang to a multi-year extension, according to multiple sources.
While the wording of that headline could raise some eyebrows, it’s unlikely that the inference the team truly prioritizes Letang over Malkin is accurate. It’s impossible to go into such a pivotal offseason without a plan of attack, and management needs an order of operations in order to manage their salary cap situation. The goal here is likely to figure out an average annual value for Letang as soon as possible so that they can make the appropriate salary cap moves to accommodate Malkin.
The last reported offer the Penguins made to Letang was “a little less” than his current cap hit of $7.25MM for four years, but that was almost a month ago now. If Letang signs for his current cap hit, Pittsburgh would be left with about $15.6MM in cap space this offseason, per CapFriendly. With that number, the Penguins would need to not only re-sign Malkin but also find a goalie to pair with Tristan Jarry and fill multiple spots at forward. It’s extremely doubtful they’d be able to make that work.
Really, all the Penguins are looking for at this point is some cost certainty. General manager Ron Hextall will need some time to make some cap-clearing trades work if necessary, but the team remains fully committed to retaining their core.
Watch Hextall and Burke run the Penguins Into the ground.
It won’t be their decision. Fenway sports group won’t be signing any long time favs to long term big money deals. Just look at the recent dealings with the Red Sox. It’s how they do business in the last couple of years.
If both players are re-signed it’s not because of Burke and Hextall it’s because that’s what Mario wanted done. Remember JR resigned over the push back of trading Letang. Mario might be loyal to a fault
Never happened
Most local reporters say JR resigned because they wouldn’t extend him, expecting him to finish out the last year of his contract before making a decision, which is ironic since he’s now done the exact same thing to his coach in Vancouver.
Mario only has a 5%stake in the team now, Fenway group, the majority owners call the shots not Mario…
And that new group does NOT like to sign older players for big money contracts.
Absolutely no reason to sign Malkin. His best days are behind him. Better to try for Gaudreu.
Better off signing Andrew Copp than to resign Malkin or signing Gaudreu (looking at $9+mil per). Also Ryan Strome on 4 to 5 year deal (similar or less cap hit?) would also be a much more prudent avenue.
C’mon, Josh … look at the comments in recent weeks, look at the articles. Quite a few people out there think that Letang ought to be prioritized over Malkin. They’re both the same age, they both still provide elite production, they’re both critical pieces of the Pittsburgh core … and one of them can be pretty much assured of missing half the season. It isn’t an enormous stretch to figure that all other things being equal, you want to focus your efforts on keeping on board the guy who you’re counting on to play 70+ games over the guy from whom you don’t dare expect more than 50.
“Fenway Sports Group (FSG), which purchased a super majority share of the Penguins in November 2021, is keen on keeping Letang and Malkin in Pittsburgh through the remainder of their respective careers, multiple club sources said. Doing so was part of a written plan Hextall presented to FSG leadership toward the end of the NHL regular season, club sources said.
Also, the club sources said, FSG has identified retention of Letang and Malkin as a way to guarantee that captain Sidney Crosby will play his entire career with the Penguins. Crosby has three years remaining on his current contract, and management is keeping him in the loop “as much as he wants” regarding ongoing talks with Letang and Malkin, two of his closest friends on and off the ice, the club sources said.
Crosby, Malkin and Letang have spent 16 consecutive seasons together as teammates, the most by any three players in league history. They have won the Stanley Cup three times, but the Penguins have won only one postseason series since their last title in 2017 — a stretch that includes four consecutive one-and-done postseason appearances.
Still, and despite one of the deeper NHL free-agent classes of the salary-cap era, management has assessed the best use of resources is to continue building around a core of Crosby, Malkin and Letang, club and league sources said.”
Luckily, Fenway appears to understand the proper course for this team and where both the team and it’s top players are in their windows.
Let the Yinzers moan…
Signing Malkin and or Letang Is just backward old school thinking, Just really stupid, I’d sign both of them for one year at 4 million each, Some of these GMs just don’t get It.
You might make an offer of that sort but neither Letang or Malkin would sign.
They can each get 4 years at over 6.5M$ on the UFA market, and will probably get more …
You are clearly smarter than all these GMs, I would like to subscribe to your publication.
Yeah, well, *I’d* sign Malkin and/or Letang to less than league minimum, myself. $200,000 a season was good enough for Bobby Orr in 1972 and it’s good enough for players today.
Oh. Wait. You mean to tell me that players expect more money these days, and future Hall of Famers still producing at elite levels who happen to be UFAs can reasonably expect to be paid market rates?
Who knew?
Less than half of our fans, for one.