The Pittsburgh Penguins have been rebuilding on the fly. Will they bring back Evgeni Malkin next season?
Sportsnet 590 THE FAN: The Pittsburgh Penguins have surprised many this season. Their play delayed the rebuild as they headed for the playoffs. Pending UFA Evgeni Malkin wants to return, but what direction will they take going in?
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Matt Marchese: “You think what’s going on here, with, you know, (Kris) Letang and Evgeni Malkin. Like Malkin I think, big, because he’s the one without a contract.
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But do you think those conversations are starting quickly? Like, I know Kyle Dubas and Jason Spezza are going to the (World Championship). How long do you think there is a buffer here before us, hearing glimpses of maybe a contract extension for Malkin? Or has the team decided it’s time to go in a different direction?”
Friedman: “I just think that one thing I think Dubas has played this well, in the sense that he’s been kept in the public eye, right? And maybe another part of that is that it’s Pittsburgh instead of Toronto. It’s not, you know, there’s no people asking every day in Pittsburgh. It’s just that the sound isn’t kept out of the public eye.
So, but now you can’t avoid it, right? And I think whenever Dubas meets the media in the next few days, we’ll have a pretty clear idea of what they’re going to do here.
The thing is, like Malkin, Malkin doesn’t always talk at the end of the season, but, and sometimes, as I find whenever he talks to the media, I find it interesting because he is not transparent and very honest. Sometimes things go against each other, but he’s been adamant that he wants to be a Penguin, and he’s had a great year this year.
You know, like I think Dubas went into Pittsburgh saying, ‘we’re going to have to prepare to rebuild at some point.’ Under the previous ownership, they talked about that with Hextall, but they fired when it really had to happen. And when the moment of truth came down to it, they couldn’t get over it. They showed up, and that’s one thing that happened to Ron Hextall. When they said ‘we will rebuild’ they said ‘no, we don’t exist.’
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And I think, I think the Dubas, if you look at it, they’ve been rebuilding on the fly. You are still young. I mean, (Ben) Kindle didn’t have a good playoff, but I think we all know he’s going to be a good player. You know, going through it will help him in the long run. (Yegor) Chinakhov had a really bad playoff, but I think he realizes that there’s a player there, and hopefully he’ll learn his lessons from what happened here, and he’ll be a good player for a long time.
You know, my colleague Malkin, I don’t have a clear answer. I really don’t know, because Dubas worked hard to keep that a secret. But I just remember that the last time Pittsburgh was in a position where they initially showed they were willing to let Malkin go, at the time of truth, they couldn’t do it.
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