Conversations between Penguins, Evgeni Malkin on extension expected to begin soon
No NHL team has kept the band together longer than the Pittsburgh Penguins. Franchise cornerstones Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang have played with each other since the 2006-07 season, winning three Stanley Cups over their 20 years as teammates in Pittsburgh. Crosby and Letang each have contracts that will keep them on the Penguins at least through next season, but Malkin is set to become an unrestricted free agent this coming offseason.
There seems to be no desire from either Malkin of the Penguins to part ways after this season, but work still needs to be done on an extension for the legendary Russian to stay in Pittsburgh and play a 21st season with Crosby and Letang.
On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by The Fourth Period‘s David Pagnotta to discuss how close the Penguins are to reaching an agreement with Malkin.
David Pagnotta: Evgeni Malkin’s on an expiring deal. He’s having a good season, with 44 points in 41 games. He’s already expressed his desire to stay and play another season in Pittsburgh. He’s on an expiring deal, it’s the last year of a four-year contract. I think it’s $24.4 million, he’s making $6.1 a year.
The plan going into the Olympic break was to have a conversation during this break about an extension and what that could potentially look like. They haven’t had that talk yet, but they’re still planning to do that. Talking to people within that vicinity, they both said they want to have that conversation, they just haven’t had it yet but they’re planning to before the season gets going next week on the 25th. Over this next week there’s still a plan to have a conversation to see what does the money look like, what is your role going to be, how comfortable are you in this scenario or that scenario, and how comfortable are you financially.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Thursday’s episode here…