Breaking: Evgeni Malkin tells Pens to take a hike, decides to head to the open market
Well, we knew that negotiations between Evgeni Malkin and Pittsburgh Penguins GM Ron Hextall were not going as smoothly as anticipated, but I'm not sure I actually saw this one coming. In a surprising turn of events, it appears as though Pens forward Evgeni Malkin will not re-sign with the Pittsburgh Penguins before Wednesday and instead will test the open market for the first time in his NHL career.
After extending defenseman Kris Letang for 6 years at over $6M per season, the Penguins reportedly tabled offers to Malkin for 2 and 3-year deals. Malkin was reportedly unhappy with the terms of the contract, both in terms of the money offered and the length of the contract and apparently came back looking for an extra year, which would have ensured that he had the opportunity to retire a Penguin. In light of this news, I'd imagine that means management would not budge.
Malkin was one name heading into this UFA class that I would have bet dollars to donuts would have re-signed with the Pens and not hit the open market. This is one very strange offseason so far. First we have consensus number 1 pick Shane Wright free falling to #4 at the draft. Next we have an unprecedented number of RFAs (including several noteworthy former 1st round picks) not tendered qualifying offers from their respective clubs, making them UFAs on Wednesday and now we have one of the greatest talents of this era set to walk over a simple contract negotiation gone very, very wrong.
Malkin will have his pick of the litter. I'd imagine that there will be 31 teams interested in talking about what the framework of a deal might look like for them, but I'll be about 10-15 teams will be interested in making something work.
