Hextall on Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang‘s contract situation
Pens Inside Scoop: Pittsburgh Penguins Ron Hextall on pending UFAs Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang: “We have had discussions very recently, and will continue those. We would like to sign both players. We’d like to keep Geno as a Pittsburgh Penguin for the rest of his career; Tanger is the same.”
Pens Inside Scoop: Hextall when asked where the sides are with regards to term: “What I can tell you is they’re both great athletes who have been here a long time and are performing at a high level right now. We’d certainly like to have them in the mix in September.”
Pittsburgh Penguins: Hextall on Malkin and Letang: “We have had discussions recently and we will continue those discussions… In a perfect world, Geno retires as a Penguin – and Tanger is the same. These two are generational players. They don’t come around very often… I have no timeline.”
The Penguins have $24 million in cap space but possibly some big holes to fill
Dan Kingerski of Pittsburgh Hockey Now: The Pittsburgh Penguins will have just under $24 million in salary cap space to work with this offseason.
They have $33.4 million committed to seven forwards.
UFAs: Evgeni Malkin, Rickard Rakell, Evan Rodrigues, Brian Boyle.
RFAs: Kasperi Kapanen, Danton Heinen.
Kapanen is owed an $840,000 qualifying offer and Heinen is at $1.1 million. Rodrigues could sign a deal around $2 million. Kapanen and Heinen may not be back. Maybe Kapanen has some trade value.
Rickard Rakell could be looking at a raise into the $4.5 to $5 million range.
How much would it take to re-sign Evgeni Malkin?
The Penguins have six defensemen under contract at $18.975 million. It looks like Kris Letang won’t be back. Will they be able to find a replacement defenseman in the $7 to $8 million range? There aren’t many of those. They’ll need a right-handed defenseman that can play against the top lines.
Tristan Jarry has one year left on his deal at $3.5 million. They’ll need to find a backup goalie in the $1 to $2 million range. Marc-Andre Fleury‘s name has been linked to the Penguins again, but unless he wants to sign for $2 million, where are they going to get the money for him?