Penguins need to be smart with money saved on Crosby, Malkin
Kyle Dubas and the Pittsburgh Penguins checked one big item off their off-season to-do list on Tuesday when they signed Evgeni Malkin to a one-year contract extension.
Malkin, who put up a resurgent season that saw him rack up 61 points in 56 regular season games, a reversal of the downward trend his offensive production had been on recent years.
Now, with Malkin and captain Sidney Crosby back in the fold for next season, Dubas has plenty of decisions to make on other pending free agents like Egor Chinakhov, Ryan Shea and Anthony Mantha.
On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed Malkin’s new contract and what it means as Dubas looks to go about piecing together a roster for next year that can both compete and set itself up for the world after Crosby and Malkin.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Evgeni Malkin has re-upped with the Pittsburgh Penguins. It’s a one-year deal, and I don’t think anybody’s stunned here. It kind of felt like something was gonna get done eventually. Malkin, hard to envision him ever wearing a logo that isn’t that black and gold Penguins logo, and for the Penguins you still have I think 37 million dollars in cap space, so you’re good for the cash you could give Geno whatever he wanted for the vibes, for the fan base, for his legacy. It makes sense that Malkin is staying. It’s a $5.5 million deal that could grow up to $9 with different bonuses… But Hutts, not surprising at all here. Geno had a really, really good season, kind of defied father time, and back to my original point. He was just never going to play anywhere other than Pittsburgh.
Carter Hutton: It adds to his legacy, right? Staying in one market, and then you looked at Sidney Crosby. I know he looked for two years, he talked about two years, and then when Sid’s coming out saying he would take one year deals moving forward that kind of set the tone of where it was at. Now they have some decisions to make, because this is a team that I think overachieved from what we expected. You look at Stuart Skinner being a UFA. Now you look at Silovs as well, they have Murashov who’s on a run right now. They’re gonna face the Toronto Marlies in the American Hockey League. He’s been absolutely awesome, so there’s so much stuff that can go into this team and roster.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Well where Dubas needs to be kind of careful here, and this isn’t me criticizing him at all, but like because they have $37 million. Anthony Mantha’s AFP projection is $6 million. Pittsburgh has the money, if they want to give Anthony Mantha, they can, but it’s a question of should they, right?There’s other teams contenders who are tight to the cap who have to make tough decisions where it’s, ‘Oh, we can’t afford to pay this guy.’ If Ryan Shea, who I think had a really, really good season and I think is a sneaky good pickup for someone who’s looking to bulk up their blue line, but if Pittsburgh wants to keep them, they can. How much are they willing to pay? [Egor] Chinakhov who came over had a great season, is that a guy who if he goes to the open market, is some rebuilding team going to believe in what he did in Pittsburgh and go, ‘He could be a shooter with a Connor Bedard. He can be a shooter with our young counterman.’ Is he a four or five million dollar guy? Pittsburgh just needs to be careful that they don’t just bring back Aabunch of guys because they can, then in two years from now they’re stuck with some shitty albatross contracts.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…
Daily Faceoff Live | May 27, 2026 - Golden Knights Sweep Avalanche - Malkin Extends in Pittsburgh (1YR - $5.5M) - Golden Knights and Canadiens Deep Dive w/ Steve Peters Subscribe➡️youtube.com/@daily_faceoff… @tyleryaremchuk | @CarterHutton4 | @spetershockey