Malkin is Penguin’s bargaining chip
Pittsburgh needs help and it needs it now
It’s politically correct for Pittsburgh Penguins president David Morehouse to say the hugely popular Evgeni Malkin isn’t going anywhere.
The message is ‘stop talking about trades’ — even in the wake of a 10-day playoff run for the team, even when Malkin finished the season with nary a goal in his last 15 games and no points in his last 10.
The former Hart Trophy winner does have a complete no-trade clause, so he can veto any move, but the Penguins should be listening to all pitches on Malkin.
They need help, and right now. He’s their best bargaining chip.
Evander Kane, a very good winger but no all-star, fetched the Winnipeg Jets top-three defender Tyler Myers, second-line winger Drew Stafford, and two strong prospects in Joel Armia and Brendan Lemieux. Surely, Malkin can get more than that.
Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford should call up St. Louis Blues counterpart Doug Armstrong, who may be looking to shake things up with his core, and ask about T.J. Oshie, David Backes and draft picks for Malkin.
Backes would be the Ryan Kesler-type second-line centre with Oshie on his wing and Patric Hornqvist could still play with Sidney Crosby on the first line. And the Penguins badly need draft picks after giving way too many away in their desire to keep current and play for the Stanley Cup now, acquiring the likes of Jarome Iginla and Marian Hossa in their failed recent runs.
Malkin, meanwhile, could play with Vladimir Tarasenko in St. Louis.
Or with a weakened, older blue-line and the uncertain health of one of the game’s best puck-movers Kris Letang, Rutherford should call up Nashville Predators GM David Poile and offer No. 1 centre Malkin straight up for No. 1 defenceman Shea Weber with the dollars just about the same.
Malkin has seven years left at $66.5 million and Weber eight years at $65 million. Malkin could play with his old Pittsburgh buddy James Neal in Nashville and Weber could mentor some of the young defencemen like Olli Maatta and Derrick Pouliot in Pittsburgh. The Preds would still have Roman Josi, Seth Jones, Mattias Ekholm and Ryan Ellis as their top four on the back-end.
The Leafs need a first-line centre, too. Would they go Malkin for Phil Kessel and his $8-million salary and Tyler Bozak? Kessel could play with Crosby.
The Penguins keep saying they have to build around Malkin and Crosby, but they can’t because they eat up $18.2 million, about 25 per cent of the payroll.
They have to get younger. They’re the third oldest team at 28.2 average age, with only the New Jersey Devils and the Philadelphia Flyers older.
They badly need draft picks.
They have one selection in the first 120 players over the first four rounds this June, their own second-rounder. No first-round pick in a deep draft pool, no third, no fourth. In the last five years, only four players they drafted played a single game this season.
They had the fourth highest salary cap number this season behind Philly, Tampa Bay and Washington this season, so up against the cap ceiling, they had to play with only five defencemen down the stretch, which included exOilers defenceman Taylor Chorney.
They have only one winger, Patric Hornqvist, they were completely happy with in their top six as David Perron’s play dropped off. Chris Kunitz is 36, had eight goals in his first 11 games and finished with 17 and is probably better suited to be a third-line winger now. Pascal Dupuis has long fit with Sidney Crosby but has to get medical clearance to play after blood clots in his leg and lungs, and he’s 36, too.
They have one good prospect forward, Kasperi Kapanen, and he’s only 19 years old.
It’s a flawed team with one Stanley Cup victory in the last 10 years, only four playoff series wins in the last 10 tries — three rounds in 2013, two rounds in 2012 and one this year — even with Malkin and Crosby, two of the best players on the planet.
In a lot of ways, the Penguins are San Jose Sharks East, except they have a Cup win, something the Sharks with Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau don’t.
They should be moving Malkin, in his prime at 28 (in July), but the Pens believe in their core (Malkin, Crosby, Letang and MarcAndre Fleury).
They aren’t moving their captain Crosby, unless he asks out, Letang wouldn’t fetch the requisite price because of his health. Fleury was the Penguins’ best player this season and in the playoffs.
They are top heavy in marquee value, with little money for a supporting cast.
They have one top-9 forward under 25, Brandon Sutter, and Beau Bennett, their first-round pick in 2010, who could be if he’d ever stay healthy.
For next season, the Penguins have 14 signed players at $58 million.
Malkin’s cap number is $9.5 million. Crosby’s is $8.7 million. Throw in the puckmover Letang at $7.25 million and Fleury at a very tidy $5 million and that’s four players eating up $30.5 million or what could be a $70 million tops payroll.