- Josh Gold-Smith of theScore: Elliotte Freidman on Sportsnet 960 today.
“When you get knocked out of the playoffs and the day after your president (and CEO David Morehouse) comes out and says, ‘Look, we’re not firing Mike Johnston, we’re not firing Jim Rutherford, we’re not trading Evgeni Malkin, and we’re not trading Sidney Crosby,'” Friedman told Sportsnet 960 on Friday.
“Now I can understand you coming out and saying the first two, but why would you need to say the next two? Why do you have to tell everybody we’re not trading Malkin or Crosby? And that’s when the sale rumors went wild.”
It’s been reported this week Penguins co-owners Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle are exploring options to sell the team.
“Are the Pittsburgh Penguins a more valuable team to buy with Crosby and Malkin in the lineup or out of the lineup?” Friedman said. “And I think the answer is ‘b’. So that’s when everybody started to say, ‘Okay, something is going on here.’
“They’re not trading Crosby, but I will tell you this. There have been rumors about Malkin’s happiness,” Friedman said. “About whether or not he wants to stay, and I think (Morehouse’s comments were) directed exactly at them.
“I have no idea if the Penguins are going to trade Malkin. I would suspect no until a sale gets done. But I can tell you this – there are people around the league who have been saying they’ve been hearing rumors that Malkin is not happy and would welcome a change of scenery.”
Malkin has seven more years left on his contract, with a salary and cap hit of $9.5 million.
Who do you think should be interested and what do you think the cost to acquire him would be?